英国文学笔记

A Concise History of British Literature

A Concise History of British Literature

Chapter 1 English Literature of Anglo-Saxon Period

I. Introduction

1. The historical background

(1) Before the Germanic invasion

(2) During the Germanic invasion

a. immigration;

b. Christianity;

c. heptarchy.

d. social classes structure: hide-hundred; eoldermen (lord) – thane - middle class (freemen) - lower class (slave or bondmen: theow);

e. social organization: clan or tribes.

f. military Organization;

g. Church function: spirit, civil service, education;

h. economy: coins, trade, slavery;

i. feasts and festival: Halloween, Easter; j. legal system.

2. The Overview of the culture

(1) The mixture of pagan and Christian spirit.

(2) Literature: a. poetry: two types; b. prose: two figures.

II. Beowulf.

1. A general introduction.

2. The content.

3. The literary features.

(1) the use of alliteration

(2) the use of metaphors and understatements

(3) the mixture of pagan and Christian elements

III. The Old English Prose

1. What is prose?

2. figures

(1) The Venerable Bede

(2) Alfred the Great

Chapter 2 English Literature of the Late Medieval Ages

I. Introduction

1. The Historical Background.

(1) The year 1066: Norman Conquest.

(2) The social situations soon after the conquest.

A. Norman nobles and serfs;

B. restoration of the church.

(3) The 11th century.

A. the crusade and knights.

B. dominance of French and Latin;

(4) The 12th century.

A. the centralized government;

B. kings and the church (Henry II and Thomas);

(5) The 13th century.

A. The legend of Robin Hood;

B. Magna Carta (1215);

C. the beginning of the Parliament

D. English and Latin: official languages (the end)

(6) The 14th century.

a. the House of Lords and the House of Commons—conflict between the Parliament and Kings;

b. the rise of towns.

c. the change of Church.

d. the role of women.

e. the Hundred Years’ War—starting.

f. the development of the trade: London.

g. the Black Death.

h. the Peasants’ Revolt—1381.

i. The translation of Bible by Wycliff.

(7) The 15th century.

a. The Peasants Revolt (1453)

b. The War of Roses between Lancasters and Yorks.

c. the printing-press—William Caxton.

d. the starting of Tudor Monarchy(1485)

2. The Overview of Literature.

(1) the stories from the Celtic lands of Wales and Brittany—great myths of the Middle Ages.

(2) Geoffrye of Monmouth—Historia Regum Britanniae—King Authur.

(3) Wace—Le Roman de Brut.

(4) The romance.

(5) the second half of the 14th century: Langland, Gawin poet, Chaucer.

II. Sir Gawin and Green Knight.

1. a general introduction.

2. the plot.

III. William Langland.

1. Life

2. Piers the Plowman

IV. Chaucer

1. Life

2. Literary Career: three periods

(1) French period

(2) Italian period

(3) master period

3. The Canterbury Tales

A. The Framework;

B. The General Prologue;

C. The Tale Proper.

4. His Contribution.

(1) He introduced from France the rhymed stanza of various types.

(2) He is the first great poet who wrote in the current English language.

(3) The spoken English of the time consisted of several dialects, and Chaucer did much in making the dialect of London the standard for the modern English speech.

V. Popular Ballads.

VI. Thomas Malory and English Prose

VII. The beginning of English Drama.

1. Miracle Plays.

Miracle play or mystery play is a form of medieval drama that came from dramatization of the liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church. It developed from the 10th to the 16th century, reaching its height in the 15th century. The simple lyric character of the early texts was enlarged by the addition of dialogue and dramatic action. Eventually the performance was moved to the churchyard and the marketplace.

2. Morality Plays.

A morality play is a play enforcing a moral truth or lesson by means of the speech and action of characters which are personified abstractions – figures representing vices and virtues, qualities of the human mind, or abstract conceptions in general.

3. Interlude.

The interlude, which grew out of the morality, was intended, as its name implies, to be used more as a filler than as the main part of an entertainment. As its best it was short, witty, simple in plot, suited for the diversion of guests at a banquet, or for the relaxation of the audience between the divisions of a serious play. It was essentially an indoors performance, and generally of an aristocratic nature.

Chapter 3 English Literature in the Renaissance

I. A Historical Background

II. The Overview of the Literature (1485-1660)

Printing press—readership—growth of middle class—trade-education for laypeople-centralization of power-intellectual life-exploration-new impetus and direction of literature.

Humanism-study of the literature of classical antiquity and reformed education.

Literary style-modeled on the ancients.

The effect of humanism-the disseminatiogogoible attitude of its classically educated adherents.

1. poetry

The first tendency by Sidney and Spenser: ornate, florid, highly figured style.

The second tendency by Donne: metaphysical style—complexity and ingenuity.

The third tendency by Johgogotyle.

The fourth tendency by Milton: central Christian and Biblical tradition.

2. Drama

a. the gogoical examples.

b. the drama stands highest in popular estimation: Marlowe – Shakespeare – Jonson.

3. Prose

a. translation of Bible;

b. More;

c. Bacon.

II. English poetry.

1. Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard (courtly makers)

(1) Wyatt: introducing sonnets.

(2) Howard: introducing sonnets and writing the first blank verse.

2. Sir Philip Sidney—poet, critic, prose writer

(1) Life:

a. English gentleman;

b. brilliant and fascinating personality;

c. courtier.

(2) works

a. Arcadia: pastoral romance;

b. Astrophel and Stella (108): sonnet sequence to Penelope Dvereux—platonic devotion.

Petrarchan conceits and original feelings-moving to creativeness—building of a narrative story;

theme-love originality-act of writing.

c. Defense of Poesy: an apology for imaginative literature—beginning of literary criticism.

3. Edmund Spenser

(1) life: Cambridge - Sidney’s friend - ―Areopagus‖ – Ireland - Westminster Abbey.

(2) works

a. The Shepherds Calendar: the budding of English poetry in Renaissance.

b. Amoretti and Epithalamion: sonnet sequence

c. Faerie Queene:

l The general end--A romantic and allegorical epic—steps to virtue.

l 12 books and 12 virtues: Holiness, temperance, justice and courtesy.

l Two-level function: part of the story and part of allegory (symbolic meaning)

l Many allusions to classical writers.

l Themes: puritanism, nationalism, humanism and Renaissance Neoclassicism—a Christian humanist.

(3) Spenserian Stanza.

III. English Prose

1. Thomas More

(1) Life: ―Renaissance man‖, scholar, statesman, theorist, prose writer, diplomat, patron of arts

a. learned Greek at Canterbury College, Oxford;

b. studies law at Lincoln Inn;

c. Lord Chancellor;

d. beheaded.

(2) Utopia: the first English science fiction.

Written in Latin, two parts, the second—place of nowhere.

A philosophical mariner (Raphael Hythloday) tells his voyages in which he discovers a land-Utopia.

a. The part one is organized as dialogue with mariner depicting his philosophy.

b. The part two is a description of the island kingdom where gold and silver are worn by criminal, religious freedom is total and no one owns anything.

c. the nature of the book: attackigogo time.

d. the book and the Republic: an attempt to describe the Republic in a new way, but it possesses an modern character and the resemblance is in externals.

e. it played a key role in the Humanist awakening of the 16th century which moved away from the Medieval otherworldliness towards Renaissance secularism.

f. the Utopia

(3) the significance.

a. it was the first champion of national ideas and national languages; it created a national prose, equally adapted to handling scientific and artistic material.

b. a elegant Latin scholar and the father of English prose: he composed works in English, translated from Latin into English biography, wrote History of Richard III.

2. Francis Bacon: writer, philosopher and statesman

(1) life: Cambridge - humanism in Paris – knighted - Lord Chancellor – bribery - focusing on philosophy and literature.

(2) philosophical ideas: advancement of science—people:servants and interpreters of nature—method:

a child before nature—facts and observations: experimental.

(3) ―Essays‖: 57.

a. he was a master of numerous and varied styles.

b. his method is to weigh and balance maters, indicating the ideal course of action and the practical one, pointing out the advantages and disadvantages of each, but leaving the reader to make the final decisions. (arguments)

IV. English Drama

1. A general survey.

(1) Everyman marks the beginning of modern drama.

(2) two influences.

a. the classics: classical in form and English in content;

b. native or popular drama.

(3) the University Wits.

2. Christopher Marlowe: greatest playwright before Shakespeare and most gifted of the Wits.

(1) Life: first igogoical poetry—then in drama.

(2) Major works

a. Tamburlaine;

b. The Jew of Malta;

c. The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus.

(3) The significance of his plays.

V. William Shakespeare

1. Life

(1) 1564, Stratford-on-Avon;

(2) Grammar School;

(3) Queen visit to Castle;

(4) marriage to Anne Hathaway;

(5) London, the Globe Theatre: small part and proprietor;

(6) the 1st Folio, Quarto;

(7) Retired, son—Hamnet; H. 1616.

2. Dramatic career

3. Major plays-men-centered.

(1) Romeo and Juliet--tragic love and fate

(2) The Merchant of Venice.

Good over evil.

Anti-Semitism.

(3) Henry IV.

National unity.

Falstaff.

(4) Julius Caesar

Republicanism vs. dictatorship.

(5) Hamlet

Revenge

Good/evil.

(6) Othello

Diabolic character

jealousy

gap between appearance and reality.

(7) King Lear

Filial ingratitude

(8) Macbeth

Ambition vs. fate.

(9) Antony and Cleopatra.

Passion vs. reason

(10) The Tempest

Reconciliation; reality and illusion.

3. Non-dramatic poetry

(1) Venus and Adonis; The Rape of Lucrece.

(2) Sonnets:

a. theme: fair, true, kind.

b. two major parts: a handsome young man of noble birth; a lady in dark complexion.

c. the form: three quatrains and a couplet.

d. the rhyme scheme: abab, cdcd, efef, gg.

VI. Ben Jonson

1. life: poet, dramatist, a Latin and Greek scholar, the ―literary king‖ (Sons of Ben)

2.contribution:

(1) the idea of ―humour‖.

(2) an advocate of classical drama and a forerunner of classicism in English literature.

3. Major plays

(1) Everyone in His Humour—‖humour‖; three unities.

(2) Volpone the Fox

Chapter 4 English Literature of the 17th Century

I. A Historical Background

II. The Overview of the Literature (1640-1688)

1. The revolution period

(1) The metaphysical poets;

(2) The Cavalier poets.

(3) Milton: the literary and philosophical heritage of the Renaissance merged with Protestant political and moral conviction

2. The restoration period.

(1) The restoration of Charles II ushered in a literature characterized by reason, moderation, good taste, deft management, and simplicity. (school of Ben Jonson)

(2) The ideals of impartial investigation and scientific experimentation promoted by the newly founded Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge (1662) were influential igogoe as an instrument of rational communication.

(3) The great philosophical and political treatises of the time emphasize rationalism.

(4) The restoration drama.

(5) The Age of Dryden.

III. John Milton

1. Life: educated at Cambridge—visiting the continent—involved into the revolution—persecuted—writing epics.

2. Literary career.

(1) The 1st period was up to 1641, during which time he is to be seen chiefly as a son of the humanists and Elizabethans, although his Puritanism is not absent. L'Allegre and IL Pens eroso (1632) are his early masterpieces, in which we find Milton a true offspring of the Renaissance, a scholar of exquisite taste and rare culture. Next came Comus, a masque. The greatest of early creations was Lycidas, a pastoral elegy on the death of a college mate, Edward King.

(2) The second period is from 1641 to 1654, when the Puritan was in such complete ascendancy that he wrote almost no poetry. In 1641, he began a long period of pamphleteering for the puritan cause. For some 15 years, the Puritan in him alone ruled his writing. He sacrificed his poetic ambition to the call of the liberty for which Puritans were fighting.

(3) The third period is from 1655 to 1671, when humanist and Puritan have been fused into an exalted entity. This period is the greatest in his literary life, epics and some famous sonnets. The three long poems are the fruit of the long contest within Milton of Renaissance tradition and his Puritan faith. They form the greatest accomplishments of any English poet except Shakespeare. In Milton alone, it would seem, Puritanism could not extinguish the lover of beauty. In these works we find humanism and Puritanism merged in magnificence.

3. Major Works

(1) Paradise Lost

a. the plot.

b. characters.

c. theme: justify the ways of God to man.

(2) Paradise Regained.

(3) Samson Agonistes.

4. Features of Milton’s works.

(1) Milton is one of the very few truly great English writers who is also a prominent figure in politics, and who is both a great poet and an important prose writer. The two most essential things to be remembered about him are his Puritanism and his republicanism.

(2) Milton wrote many different types of poetry. He is especially a great master of blank verse. He learned much from Shakespeare and first used blank verse in non-dramatic works.

(3) Milton is a great stylist. He is famous for his grand style noted for its dignity and polish, which is the result of his life-long classical and biblical study.

(4) Milton has always been admired for his sublimity of thought and majesty of expression.

IV. John Bunyan

1. life:

(1) puritan age;

(2) poor family;

(3) parliamentary army;

(4) Baptist society, preacher;

(5) prison, writing the book.

2. The Pilgrim Progress

(1) The allegory in dream form.

(2) the plot.

(3) the theme.

V. Metaphysical Poets and Cavalier Poets.

1. Metaphysical Poets

The term ―metaphysical poetry‖ is commonly used to designate the works of the 17th century writers who wrote under the influence of John Donne. Pressured by the harsh, uncomfortable and curious age, the

metaphysical poets sought to shatter myths and replace them with new philosophies, new sciences, new words and new poetry. They tried to break away from the conventional fashion of Elizabethan love poetry, and favoured in poetry for a more colloquial language and tone, a tightness of expression and the

single-minded working out of a theme or argument.

2. Cavalier Poets

The other group prevailing in this period was that of Cavalier poets. They were often courtiers who stood on the side of the king, and called themselves ―sons‖ of Ben Jonson. The Cavalier poets wrote light poetry, polished and elegant, amorous and gay, but often superficial. Most of their verses were short songs, pretty madrigals, love fancies characterized by lightness of heart and of morals. Cavalier poems have the limpidity of the Elizabethan lyric without its imaginative flights. They are lighter and neater but less fresh than the Elizabethan’s.

VI. John Dryden.

1. Life:

(1) the representative of classicism in the Restoration.

(2) poet, dramatist, critic, prose writer, satirist.

(3) changeable in attitude.

(4) Literary career—four decades.

(5) Poet Laureate

2. His influences.

(1) He established the heroic couplet as the fashion for satiric, didactic, and descriptive poetry.

(2) He developed a direct and concise prose style.

(3) He developed the art of literary criticism in his essays and in the numerous prefaces to his poems.

Chapter 5 English Literature of the 18th Century

I. Introduction

1. The Historical Background.

2. The literary overview.

(1) The Enlightenment.

(2) The rise of English novels.

When the literary historian seeks to assign to each age its favourite form of literature, he finds no difficulty in dealing with our own time. As the Middle Ages delighted in long romantic narrative poems, the Elizabethans in drama, the Englishman of the reigns of Anne and the early Georges in didactic and satirical verse, so the public of our day is enamored of the novel. Almost all types of literary production continue to appear, but whether we judge from the lists of publishers, the statistics of public libraries, or

general conversation, we find abundant evidence of the enormous preponderance of this kind of literary entertainment in popular favour.

(3) Neo-classicism: a revival in the seventeenth agogo of order, balance, and harmony in literature. John Dryden and Alexander Pope were major expogogochool.

(4) Satiric literature.

(5) Sentimentalism

II. Neo-classicism. (a general description)

1. Alexander Pope

(1) Life:

a. Catholic family;

b. ill health;

c. taught himself by reading and translating;

d. friend of Addison, Steele and Swift.

(2) three groups of poems:

e. An Essay on Criticism (magogom);

f. The Rape of Lock;

g. Translation of two epics.

(3) His contribution:

h. the heroic couplet—finish, elegance, wit, pointedness;

i. satire.

(4) weakness: lack of imagination.

2. Addison and Steele

(1) Richard Steele: poet, playwright, essayist, publisher of newspaper.

(2) Joseph Addison: studies at Oxford, secretary of state, created a literary periodical ―Spectator‖ (with Steele, 1711)

(3) Spectator Club.

(4) The significance of their essays.

a. Their writings in ―The Tatler‖, and ―The Spectator‖ provide a new code of social morality for the rising bourgeoisie.

b. They give a true picture of the social life of England in the 18th century.

c. In their hands, the English essay completely established itself as a literary genre. Using it as a form of character sketching and story telling, they ushered in the dawn of the modern novel.

3. Samuel Johnson—poet, critic, essayist, lexicographer, editor.

(1) Life:

a. studies at Oxford;

b. made a living by writing and translating;

c. the great cham of literature.

(2) works: poem (The Vanity of Human Wishes, London); criticism (The Lives of great Poets); preface.

(3) The champion of neoclassical ideas.

III. Literature of Satire: Jonathan Swift.

1. Life:

(1) born in Ireland;

(2) studies at Trinity College;

(3) worked as a secretary;

(4) the chief editor of The Examiner;

(5) the Dean of St. Patrick’s in Dublin.

2. Wo rks: The Battle of Books, A Tale of a Tub, A Modest Proposal, Gulliver’s Travels.

3. Gulliver’s Travels.

Part I. Satire—the Whig and the Tories, Anglican Church and Catholic Church.

Part II. Satire—the legal system; condemnation of war.

Part III. Satire—ridiculous scientific experiment.

Part IV. Satire—mankind.

IV. English Novels of Realistic tradition.

1. The Rise of novels.

(1) Early forms: folk tale – fables – myths – epic – poetry – romances – fabliaux – novelle - imaginative nature of their material. (imaginative narrative)

(2) The rise of the novel

a. picaresque novel in Spain and England (16th century): Of or relating to a genre of prose fiction that originated in Spain and depicts in realistic detail the adventures of a roguish hero, often with satiric or humorous effects.

b. Sidney: Arcadia.

c. Addison and Steele: The Spectator.

(plot and characterization and realism)

(3) novel and drama (17the century)

2. Daniel Defoe—novelist, poet, pamphleteer, publisher, merchant, journalist.)

(1) Life:

a. business career;

b. writing career;

c. interested in politics.

(2) Robinson Cusoe.

a. the story.

b. the significance of the character.

c. the features of his novels.

d. the style of languag

e.

3. Henry Fielding—novelist.

(1) Life:

a. unsuccessful dramatic career;

b. legal career; writing career.

(2) works.

(3) Tom Jones.

a. the plot;

b. characters: Tom, Blifil, Sophia;

c. significance.

(4) the theory of realism.

(5) the style of language.

V. Writers of Sentimentalism.

1. Introduction

2. Samuel Richardson—novelist, moralist (One who is unduly concerned with the morals of others.)

(1) Life:

a. printer book seller;

b. letter writer.

(2) Pamela, Virtue Rewarded.

a. the story

b. the significance

Pamela was a new thing in these ways:

a) It discarded the ―improbable and marvelous‖ accomplishments of the former heroic romances, and pictured the life and love of ordinary people.

b) Its intension was to afford not merely entertainment but also moral instruction.

c) It described not only the sayings and doings of characters but their also their secret thoughts and feelings. It was, in fact, the first English psycho-analytical novel.

3. Oliver Goldsmith—poet and novelist.

A. Life:

a. born in Ireland;

b. a singer and tale-teller, a life of vagabondage;

c. bookseller;

d. the Literary Club;

e. a miserable life;

f. the most lovable character in English literature.

B. The Vicar of Wakefield.

a. story;

b. the signicance.

VI. English Drama of the 18th century

1. The decline of the drama

2. Richard Brinsley Sheriden

A. life.

B. works: Rivals, The School for Scandals.

C. significance of his plays.

a. The Rivals and The School for Scandal are generally regarded as important links between the masterpieces of Shakespeare and those of Bernard Shaw, and as true classics in English comedy.

b. In his plays, morality is the constant theme. He is much concerned with the current moral issues and lashes harshly at the social vices of the day.

c. Sheridan’s greatness also lies igogo to have inherited from his paren ts a natural ability and inborn knowledge about the theatre. His plays are the product of a dramatic genius as well as of a

well-versed theatrical man.

d. His plots are well-organized, his characters, either major or minor, are all sharply drawn, and his manipulation of such devices as disguise, mistaken identity and dramatic irony is masterly. Witty dialogues and neat and decent language also make a characteristic of his plays.

Chapter 6 English Literature of the Romantic Age

I. Introduction

1. Historical Background

2. Literary Overview: Romanticism

Characteristics of Romanticism:

(1) The spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings

(2) The creation of a world of imagination

(3) The return to nature for material

(4) Sympathy with the humble and glorification of the commonplace

(5) Emphasis upon the expression of individual genius

(6) The return to Milton and the Elizabethans for literary models

(7) The interest in old stories and medieval romances

(8) A sense of melancholy and loneliness

(9) The rebellious spirit

II. Pre-Romantics

1. Robert Burns

(1) Life: French Revolution

(2) Features of poetry

a. Burns is chiefly remembered for his songs written in the Scottish dialect.

b. His poems are usually devoid of artificial ornament and have a great charm of simplicity.

c. His poems are especially appreciated for their musical effect.

d. His political and satirical poems are noted for his passionate love for freedom and fiery sentiments of hatred against tyranny.

(3) Significance of his poetry

His poetry marks an epoch in the history of English literature. They suggested that the spirit of the Romantic revival was embodied in this obscure ploughman. Love, humour, pathos, the response to nature – all the poetic qualities that touch the human heart are in his poems, which marked the sunrise of another day – the day of Romanticism.

2. William Blake

(1) life: French Revolution

(2) works.

l Songs of Innocence

l Songs of Experience

(3) features

a. sympathy with the French Revolution

b. hatred for 18th century conformity and social institution

c. attitude of revolt against authority

d. strong protest against restrictive codes

(4) his influence

Blake is often regarded as a symbolist and mystic, and he has exerted a great influence on twentieth century writers. His peculiarities of thought and imaginative vision have in many ways proved far more congenial to the 20th century than they were to the 19th.

III. Romantic Poets of the first generation

1. Introduction

2. William Wordsworth: representative poet, chief spokesman of Romantic poetry

(1) Life:

a. love nature;

b. Cambridge;

c. tour to France;

d. French revolution;

e. Dorathy;

f. The Lake District;

g. friend of Coleridge;

h. conservative after revolution.

(2) works:

a. the Lyrical Ballads (preface): significance

b. The Prelude: a biographical poem.

c. the other poems

(3) Features of his poems.

a. Theme

A constant theme of his poetry was the growth of the human spirit through the natural description with expressions of inward states of mind.

b. characteristics of style.

His poems are characterized by a sympathy with the poor, simple peasants, and a passionate love of nature.

3. Samuel Taylor Coleridge: poet and critic

(1) Life:

a. Cambridge;

b. friend with Southey and Wordsworth;

c. taking opium.

(2) works.

l The fall of Robespierre

l The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

l Kubla Khan

l Biographia Literaria

(3) Biographia Literaria.

(4) His criticism

He was one of the first critics to give close critical attention to language. In both poetry and criticism, his work is outstanding, but it is typical of him that his critical work is very scattered and disorganized.

IV. Romantic Poets of the Second Generation.

1. Introduction

2. George Gordon Byron

(1) Life:

a. Cambridge, published poems and reviews;

b. a tour of Europe and the East;

c. left England;

d. friend with Shelley;

e. worked in Greece: national hero;

f. radical and sympathetic with French Revolution.

(2) Works.

l Don Juan

l When We Two Parted

l She Walks in Beauty

(3) Byronic Hero.

Byron introduced into English poetry a new style of character, which as often been referred to as ―Byronic Hero‖ of ―satanic spirit‖. People imagined that they saw something of Byron himself in these strange figures of rebels, pirates, and desperate adventurers.

(4) Poetic style: loose, fluent and vivid

3. Percy Bysshe Shelley: poet and critic

(1) Life:

a. aristocratic family;

b. rebellious heart;

c. Oxford;

d. Irish national liberation Movement;

e. disciple of William Godwin;

f. marriage with Harriet, and Marry;

g. left England and wandered in EUrope, died in Italy;

h. radical and sympathetic with the French revolution;

i. Friend with Byron

(2) works: two types – violent reformer and wanderer

(3) Characteristics of poems.

a. pursuit of a better society;

b. radian beauty;

c. superb artistry: imagination.

(4) Defense of Poetry.

4. John Keats.

(1) Life:

a. from a poor family;

b. Cockney School;

c. friend with Byron and Shelley;

d. attacked by the conservatives and died in Italy.

(2) works.

(3) Characteristics of poems

a. loved beauty;

b. seeking refuge in an idealistic world of illusions and dreams.

V. Novelists of the Romantic Age.

1. Water Scott. Novelist and poet

(1) Life:

a. Scotland;

b. university of Edindurgh;

c. poem to novel;

d. unsuccessful publishing firm;

e. great contribution: historical novel.

(2) three groups of novels

(3) Features of his novels.

(4) his influence.

2. Jane Austen

(1) Life:

a. country clergyman;

b. uneventful life, domestic duties;

(2) works.

(3) features of her writings.

Austen’s novels are britened by their witty conversation and omnipresent humour. Her stories are skillfully woven together; her plots never leave the path of realism, and have always been sensible. Her language shines with agogo, elegant and refined, but never showy. She herself compared her work to a fine engraving made up on a little piece of ivory only two inches square. The comparison is true. The ivory surface is small enough, but the lady who made the drawings of human life on it was a real artist.

(4) rationalism, neoclassicism, romanticism and realism.

VI. Familiar Essays.

1. Introduction

2. Charles Lamb: essayist and critic

(1) life:

a. poor family;

b. friend of Coleridge;

c. sister Mary;

d. worked in the East India House;

e. a miserable life;

f. a man of mild character.

g. a Romanticist of the city.

(2) works: Essays of Elia. Three groups.

(3) Features.

a. The most striking feature of his essays is his humour.

b. Lamb was especially fond of old writers.

c. His essays are intensely personal.

d. He was a romanticist.

Chapter 7 English Literature of the Victorian Age

I. Introduction

1. Historical Background

(1) An age of expansion

(2) The conditions of the workers and the chartist movement

(3) Reforms

(4) Darwin’s theory of evolution and its influence

(5) The women question

2. Literary Overview: critical realism.

In Victorian period appeared a gogoh critical realism of the 19th century flourished in the 40s and in the early 50s. It found its expression in the form of gogot of whom were novelists, described with much vividness and artistic skill the chief traits of the English society and criticized the capitalist system from a democratic viewpoint.

II. gogo.

1. Charles Dickens.

(1) Life:

a. clerk family;

b. a miserable childhood;

c. a clerk, a reporter, a writer;

d. a man of hard work.

(2) works of three periods.

a. optimize

b. frustration

c. pessimism

(3) Features of his works.

a. character sketches and exaggeration

b. broad humour and penetrating satire

c. complicated and fascinating plot

d. the power of exposure

2. William Makepeace Thackeray

(1) Life:

a. born in India;

b. studied in Cambridge;

c. worked as artist and illustrator and writer.

(2) work: The Vanity Fair

(3) Thackeray and Dickens – features

a. Just like Dickens, Thackeray is ogogo of the 19th century Europe. He paints life as he has seen it. With his precise and thorough observation, rich knowledge of social life and of the human heart, the pictures in his novels are accurate and true to life.

b. Thackeray is a satirist. His satire is caustic and his humour subtle.

c. Besides being a realist and satirist, Thackeray is a moralist. His aim is to produce a moral impression in all his novels.

3. The Bronte Sisters

(1) Charlotte Bronte and Jane Eyre

(2) Emily Bronte and The Wuthering Heights.

4. George Eliot.

(1) Life:

a. Mary Ann Evans;

b. the rural midland;

c. abandoned religion;

d. interested in social philosophical problems;

e. editor of the Westminster Review;

f. George Henry Lewis.

(2) works

l Adam Bede

l Silas Marner

l Middlemarch

(3) Features of works.

As a moralist, she shows in each of her characters the action and reaction of universal forces and believes that every evil act must bring inevitable punishment to the man who does it. Moral law was to her as inevitable and automatic as gravitation.

5. Thomas Hardy: novelist and poet

(1) Life:

a. Dorchester—‖Wexssex;

b. close to peasantry;

c. belief in evolution.

(2) Works:

a. Romances and fantasies

b. novels of ingenuity

c. novels of characters and environment

(3) Ideas of Fate.

Unlike Dickens, most of Hardy’s novels are tragic. The cause of tragedy is man’s own behaviour or his own fault but the supernatural forces that rule his fate. According to Hardy, man is not the master of his destiny; he is at the mercy of indifferent forces which manipulate his behaviour and his relations with others.