PREFACE TO THE PRESENT EDITION OF LEILA.
This Romance was originally published in an expensive form, with pictorial illustrations; and perhaps from the prejudice generally conceived against the literature of works that are supposed to rest some of their attractions on the skill of the engraver, as well as from any demerits of its own, it has been hitherto less popularly known than other prose fictions by the same Author. It is true, however, that in delineation of character and elaboration of plot, the "Siege of Granada" is inferior to the Author's other Historical Romances—but there are portions of the conception—as connected with the position of Almamen between Moor and Christian—and detached scenes and descriptions—which the writer's more matured experience would be unable to improve.
