Course: M.A
English
Sem: 2
Batch:
2016-2018
Enrolment
No: 2069108420170027
Submitted
to: Smt. S.B Gardi Dept. of English MKBU
Email ID: komaltara1311@gmail.com
Paper No: 6
The Victorian Literature
Topic: The Victorian Novelists
Victorian Era
The Victorian era was the period of
Queen Victoria’s reign, from 1837 to 1901. It was a long period of peace,
prosperity, “refine sensibilities” and national self-confidence for the United
Kingdom. The era followed the Georgian period and Edwardian Period. Victoria’s
reign lasted over 63 years, longer than any other British monarch. English
Literature seemed to have entered upon a period of lean year, in marked contrast
with the poetic fruitfulness of the romantic age. All romantic poets had passed
away and it seemed as if there were no writers in England to fill their place.
Wordsworth had written, in 1835
Like clouds that rake, the
mountain summits,
Or waves that own no curbing hand,
How fast has brother followed
brother,
From sunshine to the sunless
land !
In
this lines is reflected the sorrowful spirit of a literary man of the early 19thCentury
who remembered the glory of that had passed away from the earth. The literature
of this age entered a new period after the romantic revival. The literature of
this era was preceded by Romanticism and was followed by Modernism OR Realism. It can also be called a fusion of romantic and realist
style of writing.
Victorian Novels
The Novel as
genre rose to entertain the rising middle class and to depict the contemporary
life in a changing society. Although the novel had been in development since
the 18th century with the works of Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding,
Laurence Sterne, Samuel Richardson and the others, it was in this period that
the novel got mass acceptance and readership. There was a growth of reading
class which increase publishing and printing houses facilitated the growth of
the novellas a form. In the year 1870, an Education Act was passed which made
education an easy access to the masses furthermore increasing literacy rates
among the population. Certain jobs required a certain level of reading ability
and simple novel catered to this by becoming a device to practice reading. Also
the time of the daily commute of men for work and at home women could be free
for reading which now became a leisure activity.
The novels of the age mostly had a
moral stain in them with the belief in the innate goodness of human nature. The
characters were well rounded and the protagonist usually belonged to a middle
class society who struggled to create a niche for himself in the industrial and
mercantile world. The tress was on realism and an attempt to describe the daily
struggles of ordinary men that the middle class reader could associate with.
These moral angles allowed for like the ones surrounding “the women question”, marriage, progress, education, the industrial
revolution. Novel reflects the larger questions surrounding women like those of
their roles and duties. Novel as a form became the medium where such concerns
were raised.
Male writers
Charles Dickens(1812-1870)
William Makepeace
Thackeray(1811-1863)
George Meredith (1828-1909)
William Wilkie Collins(1840-1880)
Thomas Hardy(1840-1928)
Women Novelists
1. Bronte Sisters (Charlotte, Emily
and Anne)
2. George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans)
Charles Dickens
At the age of twenty- six, he was a popular Victorian author.
In the same year that Queen Victoria ascended the throne, Charles Dickens
published his First parts of his novel Oliver
Twist, a story of an orphan and the struggles that he faced with
poverty in his life. As the Industrial
revolution took place ,there was class difference between the traditional
aristocracy and the middle class was gradually gone and middle class got right
to vote and being politically engaged in
the affairs of the nation. The Factories and Industries of bourgeoisie class
privileged on middle class, the result of this led to marginalization of those
people by poverty and were pert of neither groups. The condition of the
workhouses were made to unbearable to
avoid poor from becoming totally independent from outside. Families were split,
food was inedible, and circumstances were made inhospitable to urge the poor to
work and fight through poverty. Dickens was aware of these concerns as a journalist
and his own life and autobiographical experiences entered into the novel by
Oliver Twist. His novel enters the world of the workhouse, the dens of thieves
and streets which highlights economical prosperity on the one side and poverty
on the other, while hypocrisy was a part
of society. Before Oliver Twist in 1836, his serials of Pickwick Papers were published which led him to instant recognition
and popularity. It started the famous Victorian mode of serial novels which
dominated the age till the end of the
century. His works continuous popularity and acceptance and Dickens as a writer became famous for his
wit, satire, social commentary and his depth characters. Bleak House, A Christmas Carroll, David Copperfield, Great Expectations,
The Old Curiosity shop, Dombey & Son Nicholas Nickleby are some of his other great works. His
features of the Novel are Popularity, Social Reform, Imagination, Humor &
Pathos , Mannerism, Melodrama etc..
William Makepeace Thackeray
Thackeray was
born at Calcutta, and was descended from ancient Yorkshire family. He was sent
to England for his education and on the voyage to home , he had glimpse of
Napoleon. Both at school and collage, he struck his contemporaries as an idle.
For the time he had some intention of becoming an artist and studied art in
Paris , but soon he turned to journalism. He contributed both prose and light
verse to several periodicals, including Punch and Fraser’s Magazine. It was
not till nearly the middle of the century that Vanity Fair brought him some credit, though at first the
book was grudgingly received. Before his death , he had enjoyed his execution
not to publish any biography . His novels are The Yellowish Correspondence, The
Book of Snobs, The Fitzboodle Papers , The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon, Pendennis
Henry Esmond. His features of his work are Reputation , Method, Humor and Pathos and
style. He was appointed first
editor of The Cornhill Magazine and for this he wrote Lovel the Widower(1860), The
Adventures of Philip(1860-61), and a series of essays, charming and
witty trifles, The Roundabout Papers. Both in size and merit these last novels
are inferior to their predecessors. At his death he left unfinished novel Denis
Duval. All his life he delighted in writing burlesque , the best
of which are Rebecca and Rowena, comic
continuation of Ivanhoe, The Legend of Rhine, a burlesque
tale of medieval chivalry and The
Rose and the Ring, an excellent example of his love of Parody.
George Meredith
Of the later Victorian novelists Meredith takes rank the most
noteworthy. The details of his early life still rather scanty, and he himself
gives us the little enlightenment. He was born at Portsmouth and for two years
he educated in Germany. At first he studied law but rebelling against his legal
studies, took to literature as a profession, contributing to magazine and
newspapers. Like so many eager spirit of
his day , he was deeply interested in struggles of Italy and Germany to be free. For a time in 1867 he
was temporary editor of The Fortnightly Review. He died at his home at Box
Hill, Surrey.
Throughout his long life Meredith produced
much poetry which in style and subject matter, can be regarded as the
complement to his novels. His first novel of importance is The Ordeal of Richard Feverel
(1859). It deals with a young aristocrat
educated on a system laboriously virtuous, but youthful nature breaks the bonds
and complications follow. The general style of the language is mannered in the extreme , it is kind of
elaborate literary confectionary. The
next novel was Evan Harington (1861), which
contains some details of his
own family life. H e tried to deal with plebeian folk, but indifferent success.
The heroines of his later novels , Meredith was careful to make his female
characters at least as important as male ones. His other novels are The
Egoist, Diana of the Crossways, The Shaving of Shagpat , The Adventures of
Harry Richmond , Sandra Belloni , One of Our Conquerors and many more.
William Wilkie Collins
He is considered to be the most successful of the followers
of Dickens. He was specialized in the
mystery novels, to which he sometimes added a spice of the supernatural. In
many of his books the story which is often complicated is unfolded by letters
or the narratives of persons actually engaged in the events. His characters are
often described in the Dickensian manner of emphasizing some humor or
peculiarity. He wrote more than Twenty five novels the most popular being The
Dead Secret(1857), The Women in White(1860), the most successful of them all No
Name(1862) and The
Moonstone(1868). The Moonstone is the earliest and the best of great
multitude of the detective stories that
now crowd the popular press. Collins in addition one of the first authors to
devote himself to the short magazine story; After Dark is a collection of some
of his best pieces , link together by a slight thread of connecting narrative.
Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy seems like Meredith, to be the belong to the present
rather than to a past age and an interesting comparison may be drawn between
these two novelists. In style, Meredith is obscure and difficult while Hardy is
direct and simple, aiming at realism in all things. Hardy makes man an
insignificant part of the world, struggling against power greater than himself,
sometimes against systems which he can’t reach or influence. His Novels are Far
From Madding Crowd, The Trumpet Major, Under the Greenwood Tree, A Pair of Blue
Eyes and others.
Women novelists
George Eliot
Mary Ann Evans, who wrote under the male pen name of
George Eliot ,she said to ensure that her works would be taken seriously.
Female authors were published under their own names during Eliot’s time but
Eliot wanted to escape the stereotypes of women writing only lightened
romances. An additional factor in her use of pen name may have been a desire to
shield her private life from public scrutiny
and to prevent scandals attending her relationship with the married
George Henry Lewes, with whom she lived for 20 years. Her mind was well above
the ordinary in its bent for religious and philosophical speculation. In 1846,
she translated Strauss’s Life of Jesus and on the death of her father in1849
she took entirely to literary work.
George Eliot only discovered her bent for
fiction when well into the middle years of her life. Her first work consisted
of three short stories, published in Blackwood’s Magazine during 1857. Like her
later novels they deal with the tragedy of ordinary lives, unfolded with an
intense sympathy and deep insight into the truth of the character. Adam Bede(1859) was a full length
novel. Her neat work , by many her best ,was the Mill on the Floss(1860). Her Middlemarch:
A study of Provincial Life(1871-72) has been described by Amis and Barnes
as the greatest novel in the English
Language in which she deeply studied
characters , complex picture of their life of a small town. Others
novels are Silas Marner, Romola ,Daniel
Deronda and many others. Features of
her novels are her choice of subject, her characters are drown from lower
class, tone is of moral earnestness and her style is lucid. Her place in the
History of English novel is very important. Her serious concerns with problems
of human personality and its relationship with outside forces. Her reputation which
suffered during temporary time , has recovered after her death.
Bronte Sisters
Charlotte, Emily and Anne were the daughters of an Irish clergyman, Patrick Bronte who
held a living In Yorkshire. Charlotte’s
first novel The Professor failed to find a publisher and only appeared in1857
after her death. Following the experiences of her own life in an uninspired
manner, the story lacks interest and characters are not created with passionate
insight. Jane Eyre is her greatest
novel, a love story. Shirley and Villette are her other novels. Emily , though she wrote less than Charlotte, Emily is in some ways the
greatest of the three sisters. Her one novel Wuthering Heights(1847) , is
unique in English Literature. It breaths the very spirit of the wild desolate
moors. Anne , is by far the least
important figure of the three. Her two novels , Agnes Grey and The Tenant of
Wildfell Hall are much inferior to those of her sisters, for she lacks nearly
all their power and intensity.
Other Novelists
Benjamin
Disraeli, Edward Bulwer – Lytton, Charles Reade, Anthony Trollope, Wilkie
Collins, Charles Kingsley, Walter Besant, George Borrow Nathaniel Hawthorne ,Richard
D Blakemore , Robert Louis Stevenson, Francis Bret Harte and
Mrs. Elizabeth Gaskell.
So, in
Victorian period number of the novelists we find because there was more development of novels in Victorian age.
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