British Literature II.docx

1、British Literature IIThe Victorian PeriodFirst half of RealismCommentThe critical realism of the 19th century flourished in the forties and in the beginning of fifties. The realists and foremost set themselves the task of criticizing capitalist society from a democratic realityTypical writersCharles

2、 DickensThe greatest English realist of the timeWith a striking force and truthfulness, he creates pictures of bourgeois civilization, describing the misery and suffers of common people.William Makepeace Thackeraycritical realistThackeray s novels mainly contain a satirical portray of the upper stra

3、ta of societyElizabeth GaskellMary Bartondescribed the inhuman conditions of the life of English workers and birth of Chartist movement as the inevitable result of the monstrous exploitationCharlotte BronteFurther adherents of the method of critical realismHumanismProfound humanism which is revealed

4、 in their sympathy for the laboring people. These writers create positive character who are quite alien to the vices of the rich and who are chiefly common peopleHumor & satireThe world of greed and cruelty is contrasted to a world where the unwritten laws of humanism rule in defiance of all sorrow

5、and inflictions that befall the heroes. This juxtaposition determines the character and function of humor and satire in the realistic novel of the 19th century.Humorous scenes may attend the actions of the positive characters, but this humor is tinged with lyricism and serves to stress the human qua

6、lity, the sincerity and kindness of such character. At the same time, bitter satire and ever grotesque is used to expose and criticize the seamy side of reality.Second half of RealismCommentIn the fifties and sixties the realistic novel enters a stage of declineThey do not rise to the realization of

7、 the necessity of changing the contemporary social system radically. They strive for no more than improving it by means of reforms, which brings them to a futile attempt to reconciling the antagonistic class forces-the bourgeois and proletariat.Typical writerGeorge EliotDescribed the life of the lab

8、oring people and criticized the privileged classes, expository tendencies are much weaker in her work. She raises the problem of class contradiction more seldom and less forcibly.The significance of G. Eliots work lies in the portrayal of the patties and stagnancy of English provincial life.Chartist

9、 writersCommentChartist literature, for it developed among the participants of the Chartist movements before and after the revolutionary events of 1848.ThemeThe Chartist writers introduced a new them into English literature-the struggle of the proletariat for its rightsPoet- Robert BrowningCommentAd

10、hering in his best work to the ideas of humanism, Brown aerated in his poems a gallery of inspired painters, musician and scientist.FeatureMany of his poems are devoted to the glorification of Italy, of its people, nature and art.An Italian in EnglandBrowning portrayed an Italian revolutionary fight

11、ing for the freedom of the country.Charles DickensPositionThe three greatest Victorian novelists are Dickens, Thackeray and George Eliot. The first of these to achieve fame was Dickens, who became a great portrayer of child life.CommentsAfter success of A Tale of Two Cites, his reputation was great.

12、 His concern for the oppressed poor, his sentiment (which sometime slipped into sentimentality), his flair for narrative, often melodramatic, and above all, his invention of comic character, combined to make him more popular than any other English novelist has ever been.All Dickens major novels were

13、 published either in numbers, like Nicholas Nickleby, or in installments in magazine, which frequently accounts for the episodic quality of his work.PickwickAt the time of his marriage he was writing series of humorous stories to accompany illustrations of Cockney sporting life, the richly comic adv

14、entures of the Pickwick Club in the English countryside. The sales of the Pickwick papers jumped with the introduction into the story of the engaging Cockney servant, Sam Weller, and by 1837, when its publication in numbers was completedDickens at twenty five had risen in a year from obscurity to a

15、poison of popularity unequaled in England before or since.Oliver TwistOliver Twist, his first true novel, had a carefully worked out plot, in contrast to the picaresque of incidents in Pickwick. Its picture of the workhouses created under the New Poor Law and the description of the criminal slum of

16、London in which young Oliver lived brought Dickens a new class of serious reader interested in social reform.Master Humphreys ClockIn 1840 Dickens began a weekly paper, Master Humphreys Clock, patterned on Spectator and Tatler. The readers interests were less in the familiar essays than in the stori

17、es which Dickens was providing; gradually the paper became only the framework for the publication of two novels: the Old Curiosity Shop and Barnaby Rudge. Barnaby Rudge is his first historical novel.America tripsHis first trip to America began with an enthusiastic and uncritical reception which slow

18、ly soured as Dickens began to speak out against slavery and the American publishers piracy of English books. He, in turn, was disgusted by the crudeness of life and manners in America, and in particular by his own lack of privacy there. His American Notes, published on his return to England provoked

19、 great resentment in the United State. In his next novel Martin Chuzzlewit, he once more used his observation on the trip to draw the ludicrous characters of the American episodes of the book, and again there was trans-Atlantic protest. This novel is concerned with the evils of the love of money, bu

20、t Dickens embroidered the tale with the humor of some of his most comic character, such as the old nurse Sara Gamp and the hypocritical Pecksniff.A Christmas CarolHis first and best Christmas book, A Christmas Carol, failed to sell as well as he expectedDavid CopperfieldDavid Copperfield, please eve

21、ryone. Many of the events of its heros childhood and his romance with Dora are clearly reminiscences of Dickens youth. The mellow vein of memory provided a range of characterization he never surpassed, and such creations as the marvelous Micawber and the cringing Uriah Heep have made it the most per

22、ennially popular of his novels.Bleak HouseBleak House, a satire on the abuses of the Court of Chancery, show Dickens at his best in handling complex narratives and interlocking plots, but the prevailing mood of somberness was new to his readers.Hard TimesHard Times is an earnest attack on the vulgar

23、ity and materialism of the rising middle class industrialists.A Tale of Two CitiesThe story of redemption through devotion shows his ability at handling pure narrative, and it has always been on of his most popular novels, although it lacks his characteristic humor.Great ExpectationGreat Expectation

24、 is told in the first person by Pip, a young man who learns through adversity to discard his won superficial snobbishness. Because of the unity of interest centered on the chief character, and the credible quality of its romantic story, many critics have called it the best of his novels. William Mak

25、epeace ThackerayCommentsBy this time his popularity rivaled that of Dickens, with whom he was friendly if not intimate; their only quarrel was healed just before Thackerays death. The sentimentality which he shared with Dickens over scenes of suffering, and the occasionally maudlin quality of his “g

26、ood” women are tempered in his work with a satirical some times cynical, view of society which perhaps has more appeal today than in his won time. Thackeray was always, gregarious, and he loved the easy life of the upper class, with whom he was friendly but who were frequently the butts of his satir

27、e.Yellowplush CorrespondenceTo the new Frasers Magazine he contributed his first important success, the Yellowplush Correspondence, the fictional memoirs of pushing and self-important footman, of which the theme as one he later used frequently: the ridiculousness of pretension. Reviews, sketches, an

28、d novels follow in Frasers, notably Catherine, written to satirize such “Newgate Calendar” novels of crime Oliver Twist and Harrison Ainsworths Jack Sheppard, The Great Hoggarty Diamond, and Barry Lyndon. The Book of SnobsThe Book of Snobs made his reputation as a social satirist.Vanity FairHis firs

29、t masterpiece of long novels, Vanity Fair appeared in monthly installments. Its setting is England during and after the Napoleonic Wars, but its panoramic view of folly and vanity is universal. Becky Sharp, the unscrupulous governess of whose adventures dominate the book, is generally recognized as

30、one of the most vividly draws characters in the English novel. Henry EsmondHenry Esmond, a historical novel for which his studies of the humorists had provided the background. It is set in the period in history he loved best, the reign of Queen Anne, but the love story of Esmond and Lady Castlewood

31、is in part a reflection of his won feeling for Mrs. Brookfield. Perhaps it was the only one of his novels not publishes serially, Esmond has a finish and structural organization greater than any of his other works.The NewcomesHis delightful fairy-tale,The central character of The Newcomes is another

32、 view of Thackeray himself as a young man of good instincts which are thwarted by his own shortcomings; Clives struggles to establish himself as an artist and the trials of his first marriage are reminiscent of Thackerays curly manhood. The real interest of the book, however, is in the characterization of Clives capriciously charming sweetheart, Ethel, and of the honorable and guileless old Colonel Newcomes.The VirginiansThe last of his great