 By the 1930s , though his public success remained considerable , many literary critics saw Walpole as outdated . His reputation in literary circles took a blow from a malicious caricature in Somerset Maugham 's 1930 novel <unk> and <unk> : the character <unk> <unk> , a superficial novelist of more <unk> ambition than literary talent , was widely taken to be based on Walpole . In the same year Walpole wrote possibly his best @-@ known work , Rogue Herries , a historical novel set in the Lake District . It was well @-@ received : The Daily Mail considered it " not only a profound study of human character , but a subtle and intimate biography of a place . " He followed it with three sequels ; all four novels were published in a single volume as The Herries Chronicle . 
