The Cloister and the Hearth Volume One Author:Charles Reade Cloister and the Hearth, Volume I "The Cloister and the Hearth" is Charles Reade's greatest work--and, I believe, the greatest historical novel in the language. . . . "One can only say that this great writer--there is no greater praise--paints women as they are, men as they are, things as they are. What we call genius is first the power of se... more »eing men, women, and things as they are--most of us, being without genius, are purblind--and then the power of showing them by means of "invention"--by the grafting of "invention" upon fact. No man has shown greater power of grasping fact and of weaving invention upon it than Charles Reade." -- from Walter Besant's introduction« less