Introduction

Although 'Basil' is a story of today, although all its accidental environments are of the most ordinary character, although the scene is laid in a scarce-finished suburban square (say in Brompton or Camden Town), although some of the personages are nothing more romantic than London linen-drapers, although the whole action of the drama rises out of an every-day omnibus adventure, it is a story remarkable for nothing so much as its intensity — for the powerful excitement which it must produce in every breast, not absolutely containing a mass of stone in place of a human heart.

A romance that is admirable in its very own way.