VICTORIAN PERIOD

Characteristics

The Victorian Age, like the earlier Elizabethan erawas an age of great glory. Queen Victoria ruled Englandfrom 1837 to 1901. There was no great war in Europeduring this period. It was an age of political peace andeconomic prosperity. Queen Victoria, one of the ablestof British monarchs, well assisted by her husband,Prince Albert, set high standards of political behaviour,keeping aloof from party politics.

All sections of the people were benefitted by theall-round material progress in the country. Transport,and communication, medicine, science and electricity,considerable advancement was seen in every field. Sci-ence helped the people in many ways. But owing to theprogress of science and industry, the Victorian periodbecame an age of intellectual unrest and restless ques-tioning. People lost faith in religion. The spread of Edu-cation accelerated the intellectual growth of the people.New scientific theories like those of Darwin revolution-ised the altitude of the people. People began to ques-tion the authenticity of the stories recorded in the Bible.Victorian Age dwindled into an age of doubts and dis-putes, restlessness, scepticism and psychological com-plexity. Science could not be accepted as a substitutefor religion. The age was half way between realism andromanticism, materialism and spiritualism, peace and theunrest, science and religion, conservation and liberal-ism, and mechanism and humanism. 'We are betweentwo worlds' said Arnold "one dead, the other powerlessto be born'.

Politically, Victorian Age was an age of reforms.The victorians generally adopted an attitude of compla-cency. They desired to maintain the status quo, becauseeverything was quite satisfactory. They could not giveup the conventional morality or religious practices. Theytried to reconcile religious dogma and scientific truth.Thus it was an age of compromise.

On the whole, the victorian Age was a period ofpeace and prosperity, scientific progress and imperialexpansion. On the occasion of the Golden Jubilee ofVictoria's reign, Tennyson eulogised the period as "Fif-

ty years of ever - broadening commerce, ever brighten-ing science and ever widening Empire."

Poetry of the Victorian periodThere is an element of Romanticism in all the Vic-

torian poets. This remains their strongest and mostobvious characteristic. The two central figures of vic-torian poetry are Tennyson and Browning.

r Victorian Age was an age of

- Political peace and economicprosperity

r Because of ––– and –––– the Victorian Age becamean age of intellectual unrest and restlessquestioning

- Progress of science andindustry

r –––– accelerated the intellectual growth of thepeople

- The spread of education

r 'We are between two worlds, one dead the otherpowerless to be born' is the opinion of –––summing up the Victorian age

- Mathew Arnold

r The Victorian Age was also an age of

- Compromise

Alfred Tennyson (1809-92)Tennyson was un-

doubtedly one of thegreatest poets of the Vic-torian age. He dominatedthe Victorian scene for anumber of years in his lifeand was honoured withthe high office of the poetLaureate. He began hispoetic career at quite anearly age. During the longspan of his career as apoet he essayed everykind of poetry - the song,the idyll, the dramatic monologue, the dialect, poem,

Alfred Tennyson

the descriptive, the ballad, the war - ode, the threnody,the epic narrative and the drama. The extra ordinarydiversity of his work is itself typical of the stronglyecclecticism of his age.

The earliest collection of Tennyson's poems camein 1827, 'Poems by two Brothers'. The poems of thisperiod are immature. His volume of poems published in1833, shows a steady advance in poetic form e.g. "TheLady of Shallot, The Lotos Eaters.

'The palace of Art' are really masterpiece of poeticart and metric skill. "Ulysses and Locksley Hall are someof the poems in his poetry collection of 1842, They placedhim as the greatest of English poets. In 1850 Tennysonbrought out the famous elegy 'In Memoriam' written tomourn the death of Arthur Hallam. With this publica-tion, his status as the poet of the age was assured. Hewas appointed poet Laureate. He brought out a seriesof Idylls of the King', Enoch Arden was another popu-lar work.

Tennyson was primarily a poet and an artist, and itis a poet and skilled craftsman in verse that he will beremembered in future years to come. In 'Maud' he pro-duced a lyrical monologue, representing the story oflove, death and madness. He employed blank verse in'The Princess', English Idyll and Idylls of the king. Hismastery in vowel - music is unparalleled in victorianpoetry. He was one of the most skilful metricists amongEnglish poets. He was a great pictorial artist. He wasgifted with unrivalled powers of picturing a scene, alandscape, a person in words marked with clarity andvividness. He remained throughout his career as a poetthe superb master of imaginative descriptions. His 'Ea-gle' is a poem of six lines, but it is a fine piece of pictorialpainting. During the long span of his poetic career heproduced many fine pieces of lyricism. They are melo-dious, simple with musical harmony.

r In Memoriam was a poem written by Tennyson onthe death of his bosom friend

- Arthur Hallam

r The first independent work of Tennyson was

- Poems chiefly Lyrical

r Tennyson was appointed Poet Laureate insuccession to

- Words Worth

r The poem which reflects the increasing materialismof Tennyson's time is

- Maud

r What was Tennyson's stand on science andreligion ?

- He realised the influence ofscience on religion and as atrue victorian he wanted thetwo to co exist

r Some of Tennyson's poems are called 'pure lyrics'because of

- their musical quality

r ––– is the poem in which Tennyson visualises hisown death

- Crossing the Bar

r The poem –––– is written in the spenserian stanza

- The Lotos Eaters

r The term ' Victorian compromise' is coined by

- G. B. Shaw

r 'To strive, to seek, to find and not to yield' is theconcluding line of Tennyson's

- Ulysses

r The period between '1832 - 1900' is called

- Victorian age

r 'Maud' is a –––– monologue

- Lyrical

r 'The Princess' of Tennyson is written in

- Blank Verse

r The theme of the Lotos Eaters was suggested by

- Homer's Odyssey

Robert Browning (1812-89)Robert Browning was born in 1812, as the son of

a clerk. He began his poetic career under the inspiringexample of P.B. shelley. His earlier works are Pauline,paracelsus, Sordello, Dramatic Lyrics, Dramatic Ro-mances and Lyrics etc. In 'Dramatic Personae' he car-ried forward his study of human beings and produceda number of dramatic monologues. Abt Vogler, RabbiBen Ezra, Caliban upon Setebos etc.

In 1869 he produced The Ring and the Book. Thereis also a few dramas which failed. He is one of the great-

est love poets of English poetry. He was onlyconcerned with the love of man and woman.This love poetry is both complex and compre-hensive dealing with cases of successful aswell as unsuccessful love. All his love poemsend on a note of optimism and triumph. Helays emphasis on married love.

Dramatic monologue :- Browning was adramatic poet. He could not succeed in pre-senting actable plays on the stage, his dra-matic skill is well represented in the dramaticmonologue of which he became the suprememaster. The dramatic monologue is an instrument forpresenting the incidents in the development of the soul.It was the fitting instrument for the expression of theinner thoughts and motives of his characters.

Browning's end was the revelation of character,thoughts, motives and the spiritual life of man and hethought this could be presented directly in the dramaticpoem by catching and representing the character in asort of confessional monologue indulged at some highcritical moment of life. A dramatic monologue is a kind ofcomprehensive soliloquy in which the speaker givesexpression to his thoughts in the presence of a secondperson with the object of convincing him of his beliefsand convictions. The difference between a soliloquy anda monologue is that whereas in a soliloquy the speakerdelivers his own thought without being interrupted anddisturbed by any other person, in the dramatic mono-logue there is always the presence of a second person towhom the thoughts of the speaker are presented, thoughthe second person cannot interrupt the main speaker.Often the remarks of the listeners are indirectly intro-duced or indicated by the speaker's answers.

The real beginning of this form was made in the"Dramatic Lyrics' some outstanding dramatic mono-logues are 'My last Duchess', Andrea del Sarto, FraLippo Lippi, The Last Ride together etc.

In his dramatic monologues, he portrays a widevariety of characters drawn from all classes of life, rang-ing from rooks, cowards, scholars, musicians, painters,Dukes murderers, cheats etc. The soul's of these char-acters are brought out in their fullness in these mono-logues. These characters reveal themselves in theirmonologues.Cazamian calls the monologues "Studiesin practical psychology."

The real poetic interest of the mono-logues lies in the violence and vividness withwhich he renders the impression of a per-sonality caught unaware. The characters inthese monologues believe in God and justi-fy their deeds and actions by attributingthem of God's will. These monologues aremixtures of half truths and falsehoods. Theyhalf reveal and half conceal truths the soulwithin and present their thoughts in a tricksyand subtle style.

Browning's philosophy of life is nice-ly brought out in these monologues. They are also highlysuggestive in character and provide enough scope forspeculative thinking. These collection of monologuesform together one of the most precious and profoundlyoriginal contributions to the poetic literature of the 19thcentury. He takes just what interests him, and conse-quently he is nearly always inspired, nearly, always athis best. His poems are obscure and formless becauseof his habit of presenting too much in too little a space.

r Pauline, one of Browning's remarkable early poemwas a tribute to

- Shelley

r ––– is a poem whose theme was Browning'sambition as a poet

- Paracelsus

r Sordello is concerned with

- The problem of artists relationto society

r The ultimate fact of existence for Browning was

- thought

r The first literary influence on Browning was

- Byron

r 'Andrea del Sarto' belongs to the volume

- Men and women

r According to Browning a man's actions shouldnot be judged by the results but by his

- Intentions

r –––– is a poem which reveals Browning's interestin Italian Renaissance and art

- Andrea del Sarto

Robert Browning

r Dramatic monologue is a type of lyric poemperfected by

- Robert Browning

r Andrea Del Sarto was otherwise known as

- The Faultless painter

r Who is the interlocutor and listener in Andrea delSarto

- Lucretia

r Browning as a poet, is an

- optimist

r The characteristics of dramatic monologue are

- A single person utters theentire poem in a specificsituation at a critical moment

- The speaker addresses andinteracts with someone, onlytheir presence is felt and noreplies

- It is a form of Psychoanalysis

r ––– is one of the greatest love poets of Englishpoetry

- Browning

r A dramatic monologue is a kind of

- Comprehensive Soliloquy

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-61)Elizabeth Barret Browning was a gifted poet-

ess. By the early 1840's her articles and poems had wonthe admiration of many readers, among themRobert Browning, whom she married in 1846.Her eager humanitarianism, courage and in-tellectual energy was great.

The Cry of the children, Poem be-fore congress were remarkable. Her long ro-mantic novel in verse. 'Aurora Leigh' was agreat success. In her early works 'Seraphim,poems', there is the presence of emotion andromance. Her best work is to be found in her'sonnets from the portuguese' a collection oflove sonnets. These sonnets bring out herlove for Browning who found her ill and lone-ly and cured her with his tender care.

Her next important work is 'Aurora Leigh'. It isa fragment of spiritual autobiography. She is the poet-

ess of humanitarianism and deep pity. Her poems evokethe chords of sympathy in our hearts and bring tears toour eyes. Her 'Cowper's Grave and The Cry of the chil-dren are marked with a note of deep pathos. Her lovepoems are rich in emotion and exhibit the intensity ofher passion and love for Browning. Her religious po-ems are not successful in their efforts to fuse devotion-al and aesthetic impulses. With all her faults she is sin-cere in her utterance and genuine in her fellings.

r The best work of Elizabeth Barret Browning is

- Sonnets from the Portuguese

r 'Aurora Leigh' is Mrs. Browning's

- Spiritual autobiography

r –––– was a romantic novel in verse

- Aurora Leigh

r –––– bring out Mrs. Browning's love for Browning

- Sonnets

r The Cry of the children is a remarkable work of

- Mrs. Browning

Matthew Arnold (1822-88)Matthew Arnold belonged to the group of the re-

flective, thoughtful and intellectual poets of the victori-an age. His literary work divides itself into three peri-ods, the poetical, critical and the practical. He had writ-ten poetry since his school days, this first volume 'Thestrayed Reveller' and other poems' came in 1849. Threeyears later he published 'Empedocles on Etna' and oth-

er poems' and then a collection of poems in1853. This volume contained famous poemsof Arnold such as Sohrab and Rustum,Scholar Gypsy. In 1855 was issued 'poemsby Matthew Arnold' second series, In 1858,was brought out Merope, a Greek tragedy.In 1867 'New poems' was published. Thisvolume contained Thyrsis, Ring by chapel,Dover Beach, A southern Night, and others.

The chief works of his critical periodare the lectures On Translating Homer' andthe two volumes of 'Essays in criticism,which made Arnold one of the best knownliterary men in England. In practical period,

'Friendship's Garland, culture and Anarchy'. St. Paul andprotestantism, Literature and Dogma, God and the Bi-

Matthew Arnold

ble, and Last Essays on Church and Religion. The Dis-courses in America (1855) completes the list of his im-portant works.

r Matthew Arnold published his first collection ofverse in 1849 under the title

- Strayed Revellers and otherpoems

r The Scholar Gypsy centres round

- Oxford

r The theme of the Scholar Gypsy is

- Search after immortal ScholarGypsy

r It has been suggested that the poet's shepherdfriend in The Scholar Gypsy is

- Clough

r It is an essential feature of the pastoralconventions that

- the sophisticated life of thecities should be criticised

r The lesson that Arnold wants to learn from natureis

- Toil unserved from tranquility

r We hear a bitter note of discontent in most ofMathew Arnold's poems because

- he failed to resolve the conflictbetween the actual and theideal

r Arnold experimented with many kinds of poetry,but he achieved signal triumph only in

- Elegy

r Pastoralism in European literature originated in

- Greece

r What is 'the long unhappy dream' in The ScholarGypsy

- Life

r Arnold's poetical work is divided into

- Poetical, critical and thepractical

r 'Dover Beach' belongs to the poetic collection

- 'New Poems'

r ––– made Arnold one of the best known literarymen in England

- Essays in Criticism

4 What are the main characteristics of MatthewArnold's poetry? Do you agree with the view ofMary Coleridge that “Arnold is not a poet but aman who wrote poetry?”

In the heyday of his glory Arnold was consideredmore a critic than a poet. “In his verse he is a critic of life- in the abstract: in his prose a critic of life - in theconcrete; but a critic always”. A poet who is at heartcritic and whose poetry is ‘a criticism of life under theconditions for such criticism by the laws of poetic truthand poetic beauty’cannot certainly be placed in thegroup of poets for whom poetry is a creation, a soul-animating strain, and a spontaneous overflow of pow-erful thoughts. “Naturally, one who regards poetry as acriticism will write differently from one who regardspoetry as the natural language of the soul. He will writefor the head rather than for the heart, and will be coldcritical rather than enthusiastic''.

Arnold is a poet who appeals more to the headthan to the heart. He was not a born poet like Shelleywhom he criticised as an “ineffectual, angel”, but a manwho wrote poetry for it served as a good and helpfulmedium of expressing his views about life and its prob-lems. Arnold’s poetry lacks spontaneity, passion, rap-ture, qualities by which great poetry is judged. Hispoetry is rich in reflective vein, stoicism, serve austeri-ty workmanship qualities which do not entitle a poet tobe placed in the rank of poets like Keats, Shelley andByron. Naturally opinions do not favour Arnold’s in-clusion in the galaxy of first rate poets. “Favour Broughtup under the puritanic influence of the Bible and thehardening influence of the classics and possessing atemperament that was stoic and sedate, calm and re-served - Arnold lacked those finer sensibilities whichalone are responsible for quickening to birth the rap-ture of great poetry.”

Edith Sitwell dismisses Arnold as “an educatedversifier.” T. S. Eliot calls him “academic.” LafcadioHearn speaks of Arnold’s poetry as “colourless.” Saints-bury is not prepared to accord him a rank higher thanGray. Arthur Quiller Couch says that “he had not thebardic, and architectonic gift.” All that is said for Ar-

nold appears to be true, for as a poet, pure and simple,without the lyrical force and fire, and without the rap-ture and exhilaration that poetry brings, he is to be rankedin the group of reflective and intellectual poets ratherthan poets for the masses and for the lovers of imagi-nation, music, lyricism and abandon in poetry. Truly ithas been said by H.W Paul, ‘'Arrnold was never popu-lar and will never be.” He will have his readers and ad-mirers but they will belong to the classes rather thanthe masses. Arnold, in fact, is the poet of the intellectu-als and thoughtful persons. He has a place of honour inthe eyes of reflective and cultured scholars. His empha-sis on lucidity, suavity, serenity, resignation, stoicism,wisdom, introspection, wistful melancholy, classicism,subdued passion, love of nature are appreciated bythose, who like him, consider poetry not as a voice ofthe soul and a cry of the heart, but as an instrument toeducate the mind in a right pattern of thought, “With anintellectual integrity that tolerates no shams and silli-ness with a calm-confidence that quails not before theforces of fate and caprice of chance, with divided opin-ions that known vacillation in the face of trial and temp-tations, with an analytical and introspective tempera-ment that weighs and considers rather than subjectsitself to the sway of emotions, with a chastened andchastening philosophy that is born of pain and bred upin trouble. Arnold invests his poetry with virtues andsignificances that appeal to the elemental and universalin man.” With these remarks let us examine the main fea-tures and characteristics of Matthew Arnold’s poetry.-

r ––– is a poet who appeals more to the head thanto the heart

- Arnold

r Edith Sitwell calls Arnold

- an Educated Versifier

r ––– called Arnold 'academic'

- T.S.Eliot

r ––– is the poet of the intellectuals and thoughtfulpersons

- Arnold

r The qualities of Arnold's works are

- Stoicism, wisdom, luciditywistful melancholy, classicism.

Arnold’s Poetry as a Criticism of Life Arnold believed that poetry is “a criticism of life

under the condition fixed for such criticism by the lawsof poetic truth and poetic beauty.” His poetry holdstrue to this ideal. The prevailing mood of Arnold in allhis poems is reflective and critical, and his poetry is “aseries of variations on the many sided contemporaryconflict between spontaneity and discipline, emotionand reason, faith and scepticism, the rich youth and thedry age of individual and the race.” As he believed thatwhat Europe in his generation principally needed wascriticism; he gave this criticism in verse as well as inprose. His poetry provides a rich criticism of the poets,the people, and the conditions of his times. In all hisdeepest poems, in Thyrsis and The Scholar Gipsy, inResignation, in Obermann poems, in A Southern Night,we hear the poet passing judgment on “the life of hisage, the life of his country, the lives of individual men.,,

Goethe, Byron, Wordsworth, Shelley are all examinedwith keen insight and penetrating vision. In the Memo-rial Verses Arnold speaks of Goethe, as “the Physicianof the Iron age.” Byron is hailed as “the thunder’s roll”and as “the found of fiery life.” Wordsworth’s ‘healingpower’ is eulogised. In The Youth of Nature Word-sworth is praised ‘’as a priest to us all of the wonderand bloom of the world.” In Stanzas from Grande Char-treuse, Shelley is represented as a poet of pain anddistress, and how, ‘the breeze carried thy lovely wailaway, musical through Italian trees that fringe thy softblue Spezzian bay.’ In Obermann Once More, rich trib-ute is paid to Senancour, the master of Arnold’s wan-dering youth.

Arnold’s poetry critically presents the growingcraze of the age for material pelf and power, for richesand wealth. Arnold’s best poetry is conceived ‘’as abattle with worldliness, the worldliness in ourselves,and worldliness in the world.,, The growing conflict be-tween sin and religion, doubt and faith is revealed inThe Scholar Gipsy :

Thou waitest for the spark from Heaven! and we

Light half-believers of our casual creeds.

Who never deeply felt, nor clearly will’d.

The same poem criticises the growing restlessness,and worldliness among the people of the age:

Before this strange disease of modern life,

With its sick hurry, its divided aims,

Its heads o’ertax’d its palsied, hearts, was rife-

The lust for wealth and disdain for truth prevalentin the age is presented in the 21st stanza of Thyrsis :

A fugitive and gracious light he seeks,

Shy to illumine,’ and I seek it too

...............................................................

’Tis not in the world’s market bought and sold.

The Scholar Gipsy is advised to run away from thehectic life of the worldly minded people of his age:

But fly our paths, our feverish contact fly !

For strong the infection of our mental strife,

Which, though it gives no bliss, yet spoils for rest,’

“The Scholar Gipsy” says Trilling, “is a passion-ate indictment of the new dictatorship of the never-resting intellect over the soul of modern man. It is athrenody for the lives of men switched by modernity, ofmen who have become in the words of Empedocles,living men no more nothing but “naked, eternally rest-less mind.”

Being tired of the ugliness, worldliness and thesick hurry and divided air, the poet seeks to retire to amonastery where he may find peace. In the Stanzasfrom Grande Chaltreuse, the poet feels attracted bythe peace of the monastery:

Oh, hide me in your gloom profound

Ye solemn seats of holy pain!

Take me, cowl’d fonns, and fence me round

Till I possess my soul again,

He is dissatisfied with the growth of Science. Sci-ence has conceived a soulless universe and has beenthe mother of doubt, distraction and scepticism:

Most men in a brazen prison live

Their lives to some unmeaning task-work give

Dreaming of nought beyond their prison wall.

Democracy leaves him cold. He is critical of thegrowing tide of democracy and the power coming tothe masses. The degrading and baneful effect of de-mocracy is painfully presented in Empedocles :

Great qualities are tordden down

And littleness united

Is becoming invincible.

In the domain of trade and industry Arnold againfinds the same sad tale, for they have brought in wealth,but allowed happiness and health to pass off, and henceseeks the remedy for “this strange disease of modernlife” in the happy past, “when wits were fresh and clear,and life ran gaily as the sparkling Thames.” Just as theThames symbolizes the untroubled life of the past, Lon-don “with its ungainly spread and sprawl, its lack oforganisation, political or architectural, its undirectedexpansion, its noise; ‘its mud salad’ streets, its terriblecontrasts of wealth and poverty,” epitomises the uglylife of Victorian England. Between the two worlds - onedead, the other powerless to be born - Arnold finds awasteland of Nature, which is undivine, blind dying,phantom empty, no longer capable of giving laws ordirection. This land is full of man’s senseless uproarwhich drowns his pain and confusion. Arnold feels thatin such a world, which is without God, fundamentally isseparated from Nature, there is nothing to bind him tolife, and strangely enough, little even to bind him to hisfellowmen.”

In short, “Blind strivings, wounded feet, confusedalarms, ignorant armies clashing by night, howling sens-es ebb and flow, fatigue and fever, vexed hearts, sickhurry and divided aims, casual creeds, the city’s jar,blind uncertainty, unspeakable desires; namelss feel-ings are criticised, judged, condemned.” Arnold’s letterto his mother in 1869 is the best commentary on what hesought to do in poetry by way of criticism and judg-ment - “My poems represent, on the whole, the mainmovement of mind of the last quarter of a century.”

r In the 'Memorial Verses', Arnold speaks of ––– asthe physician of the Iron age

- Goethe

r In 'Obermann Once more' rich tribute is paid to ––– the master of Arnold's wandering youth

- Senancour

r Arnold's best poetry is conceived as

- a battle with worldliness inourselves and worldliness inthe world.

r –––– symbolises the untroubled life of the past

- Thames

r ––– epitomises the ugly life of Victorian England

- London

Arnold’s place in English literatureArnold has certain drawbacks, but they need not

detract his worth. He has certain merits and excellencesof his own which give him his place of honour amongEnglish poets. His suavity, wistfulness and serenity;his intellectualism and philosophical reflections; hissober and serious pre-occupation with the problem oflife his chastened stoicism; his calm and accurate de-scriptions of Nature and sufficient recompense for hisdraw backs. We can safely give him a pretty high andpermanent place in the poetic Pantheon.

r Stoicism is cultivated by- Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius

r Stoicism laid emphasis on- Selfcontrol, fortitude, resig-

nation and austerityr Arnold's poetry was considerably influenced by

- the ideals of stoicismr Arnold's style

- Lucidity, restraint with simplegrandeur

r ––– is the master of condensed expression- Arnold

r The drawback of Arnold- Lacks spontaneity, rapture

and emotional flights ofimagination

Matthew Arnold's canons of criticismThe first great principle of criticism enunciated by

Arnold is that of disinterestedness or detachment whichcan be practised by 'keeping aloof from what is calledthe practical view of things". Disinterestedness on thepart of the critic implies freedom from all prejudices.personal or historical. A critic should be impersonal,detached and disinterested. He should be above preju-dice, bias and favouritism. He should not favour this orthat opinion, this or that form of art, but should judgeall works of art and authors from the standard of 'disin-terested objectivity.' A critic should not be swayed bypersonal views and opinions about art, religion, poli-tics and philosophy. He should keep his 'aloofness', forcriticism is a 'disinterested endavour to learn and prop-agate the best that is known and thought in the world.'

Disinterestedness then is the first great principleof criticism. The disinterested should acquire a store-

house of knowledge, and "equip himself with the knowl-edge of the best that has been thought and said in theworld." A critic's functions, in Arnold's view, are three-fold : "First, there is the critic's duty to learn and under-stand; he must see things as they really are. Thusequipped, his second task is to hand on his ideas toothers to convert the world to make the best ideas pre-vail His work in this respect is that of a missionary. He isalso preparing an atmosphere favourable for the cre-ative genius of the future promoting a current of ideasin the highest degree animating and nourishing to thecreative power."

Arnold wanted criticism to be lifted from provin-cialism and limitation of time and space. The critic was auniversal figure like a creative artist, and he was as gooda mouthpiece of humanity as the literary artist. Criticismshould rise above considerations of time, space, poli-tics, and narrow insular feelings. It should be cosmo-politan rather than parochial. "I wish to decide nothingof my own authority," said Arnold, "the great art ofcriticism is to get oneself out of the way and to let hu-manity decide." This provinciality can be avoided byadopting the comparative method of treatment in criti-cal evaluation of a work of art. "The critic must knowthe best that has been thought and said, both in an-cient and in modern times, not only in his own lan-guage, but in the languages from which his native liter-ature is derived and in those which are producing liter-ature concurrently. It is thus, by the comparative meth-od, by seeing how others do, what we also are impelledto attempt that provinciality is avoided."

Arnold advocated the comparative method ratherthan historical method for the critic. Criticising the his-torical method Arnold says, "The method of historicalcriticism is the great and famous power in the presentday. The advice to study the character of an author andthe circumstances in which he has lived, in order toaccount to oneself for his work, is excellent. But it is aperilous doctrine that from such a study the right un-derstanding of his work will spontaneously issue." Ar-nold discarded the grandiose theories of Taine concer-ing 'race milieu, moment', and concentrated on the com-parative study of great masters of criticism in all agesand climes.

Coming to actual literary composition, Arnold laid

emphasis on the principle of suitable Action for the dra-ma or poetry. "All depends upon the subject. Choose afitting action, penetrate yourself with the feeling of itssituation : this done, everything else will follow." In thisrespect Arnold followed Aristotle rather than Dryden,for it was the Greek critic who had laid greater emphasison plot or the fable. Like Aristotle, Arnold also believedthat the action should command gravity, seriousness,and sublimity. A work of art wanting in serious actingwas not a great work, and it was the duty of an artist tochoose suitable action for his composition."

Matthew Arnold believed that good actionought to be presented in a good style, the grand style.He had his own views about the grand style. He statedthat grand style, "arises in poetry when a noble naturepoetically gifted, treats with simplicity or severity a se-rious subject."

Matthew Arnold allied literature to society andstated that "poetry is a criticism of life under the condi-tion fixed for such a criticism by the laws of poetic truthand poetic beauty." Poetry in Arnold's views had thenoble function of shedding light on the conditions oflife and ennoble them by keeping aloft the higher prin-ciples of morality and ethical life.

The above stated critical principles of MatthewArnold have been subjected to a searching examina-tion by Saintsbury in History of English Criticism. Hehas not accepted all the critical canons of Arnold, andhas taken exception to his remarks on the Grand Styleand its application of Milton and Shakespeare. Arnold'sinsistence that poetry is a criticism of life has been con-sidered a commonplace remark because "all literature isthe application of ideas to life : and to say that poetryis the application of ideas to life under the conditionsfixed for poetry, is simply a vain repetition."

r ––– is the great principle of criticism

- Disinterestedness

r According to Arnold a critic's function are

- (1) to learn and understand,he must see things as theyreally are

- (2) handon his ideas to othersto convert the world to makethe best ideas prevail

- (3) Prepares an atmospherefor the creative genius of thefuture promoting a current ofideas.

r Arnold advocated –––– method for the critic

- Comparative

r Arnold discarded the grandiose theories of –––'srace, milieu, moment

- Taine

Matthew Arnold's chief critical worksArnold's main critical works are The Preface to the

Poems of 1853, On Translating Homer, The Study ofCeltic Literature and Essays in Criticism, We will dis-cuss the contents and value of each of them one byone.

The Preface to the Poems of 1853Arnold made his first appearance as a critic in the

Preface to the Poems of 1853. It was in this preface thatArnold laid stress on the importance of the subject -"the great action" and the study of the ancients. Healso elaborated his view of the grand style and its prop-er handling by the creative artist.

On Translating Homer (1861)In this work Arnold, "applies himself to the appreci-

ation of actual literature and to the giving of reasons forhis appreciation, in a way new, delightful and invalu-able." He defines criticism as, "The endeavour, in allbranches of knowledge, theology, philosophy, historyart, science to see the object as in itself it really is." Thedefinition of criticism, outlined in his work forms the ba-sis of Arnold's later work and gives a pip to his compre-hensive view of criticism. Arnold also presents his viewsabout the grand style in a more emphatic way than hehad done earlier in the Preface. He says, "The grand stylearises in poetry when a noble nature, poetically gifted ,treats with simplicity or severity a serious subject." Thegrand style in Arnold's view is applicable only to Homer,Dante, and Milton, and cannot be applied to Shakes-peare, Spenser or Shelley. Saintsbury does not agreewith Arnold's limitation of the grand style to a few limitedpoets, and says, "For my part, I will not loose the fragileboat or incur the danger of the roof speaking in Pickwick-ian Horatian manner - with any one who denies the grandstyle to Donne or to Dryden to Spenser or to Shelley.

The grand is the transcendent and it is blasphemyagainst the spirit of poetry to limit the fashions and theconditions of transcendency."

On the Study of Celtic Literature (1867)In this book Arnold makes a study of Celtic litera-

ture. He finds in this literature, the dominant character-istics of 'melancholy', natural magic', and 'vagueness',and he comes to the conclusion that the presence ofthese qualities in the poetry of the Romantic poetic isdue to the influence of Celtic literature on them. Ar-nold's assumptions are not based on facts, for neitherShakespeare nor Keats had the faintest evidence ofCeltic blood or Celtic influence. Saintsbury takes Ar-nold to task for offering remarks which cannot be provedby actual facts. His criticism of this book is worth quot-ing, "where melancholy, and natural magic and thevague do strongly and especially, if not exclusivelyappear in Celtic poetry, I do not deny, because I do notknow; that Mr. Arnold's evidence is not sufficient toestablish their special if not exclusive prevalence, I deny,because I do know. That there is melancholy, naturalmagic, the vogue in Shakespeare and Keats I admit,because I know; that Mr. Arnold has any valid argu-ment showing that their presence is due to Celtic influ-ence, I do not admit, because I know that he has pro-duced none. With bricks of ignorance and mortar ofassumption you can build no critical house."

Essays in Criticism (Two volumes)The two volumes of Essays in Criticism (1865-1888)

have an important place in Arnold's prose works. Thefirst and second series of essays, are in outlook, all of apiece : they are contrasted only in subject. In this firstseries Arnold deals with minor authors like Juliet, Mau-rice and his sister Eugenie de Guerin, or remote authorslike Spinoza, Marcus Arelius and Heine. "The list ofnames looks like an appeal to intellectual snobbery, andso it is these are not authors any English Critic and hadtackled before, and they are offered to us now as a curefor intellectual isolationism. With Arnold, indeed, snob-bery enters English criticism with a vengeance, and ithas never been quite eradicated since." In the secondand third series he deals with The Study of Poetry,Wordsworth, Byron, Thomas Gray, Keats, Milton andEmerson. Arnold's observations on Wordsworth, KeatsEmerson and Byron have met with general approval,but his denunciation of Shelley as 'an ineffectual angel'

has not been accepted by any critic; for the angel isvery effectual and provides a tougher criticism of lifethan Arnold's intellectual feats, and not to have readthem, is not to be in the swim of active intellectual life ofthe day. "No body after reading Essays in Criticism, hasany excuse for not being a critic." Arnold's Essays inCriticism was a landmark in the history of English criti-cism and prose writing. The book created a stir in theliterary world by virtue of its style, the novelty andconfidence of its opinions and the wide and curiousrange of its subject. It silenced the heresies of popularcritics of the day and pierced through the armoury ofself - sufficiency and provinciality in criticism.

Pessimistic poets of the Victorian ageA careful study of Victorian poetry brings out sev-

eral strains, the chief of them being a pre-occupationwith the sombre and pessimistic view of life. Arnold stoodat the head of this group was followed by Arthur HughClough, James Thomson, and Edward Fitzgerald. Theylaid greater emphasis on the poetry of reason and pavedthe way for the intellectualisation of emotional life.

Spasmodic school of poetryThe spasmodic school started by Philip James

Bailey in his 'Festus' 1839, and lifted to its highest pom-posity and rage in the 'Balder of Sydney Dobell, Philos-ophies in verse, chaotic in form and luxuriant in lan-guage prevailed in the 1850s till W.E. Aytoun, the Scot-tish lawyer branded them as the spasmodic school. Hefound confusion, inequality, and extravagance in theirwork. These poets made constant straining after notesabove their compass. In their poetry passion is piledon passion and the thought is disjointed from thought.Alexander smith, Sydney Dobell, Philip Bailey, GeraldMassey belong to this group.

r Arnold was a propagandist for

- Culture

r The Pessimistic poets are

- Arnold, Arthur Hugh Clough,James Thomson, EdwardFitzgerald

r The pessimistic poets voted for

- The poetry for reason andpaved the way for the intellec-tualization of emotional life

r The spasmodic school was started by

- Philip James Bailey in 1839

r The prominent spasmodics are

- Alexander Smith, SydneyDobell, Philip Bailey, GeraldMassey

Pre - Raphaelite poetryThe Raphaelite movement during the Victorian era

was an idealistic reaction against didacticism, moral fer-vour and pre-occupation of poets and novelists withcontemporary society. In the reign of Queen Victoria therewas a growing tendency to make literature a hand maid-en of social reform and an instrument for the propaga-tion of moral and spiritual ideas. Literature became thevehicle of social, political and moral problems of the age.It was against this pre-occupation of writers that a set ofhigh - souled artists formed a group in 1848 called ThePre-Raphelite group. The original members of this groupwere D.G. Rossetti, Homan Hunt, J.E. Millais, WilliamMorris, A.C. Swinburne. They were repelled by the sor-didness, ugliness, materialism of the period and soughtrefuge in the romance and mysticism of the Middle Ages.

The poetry of the Pre-Raphaelite poets - was arevolt and reaction against the conventionality of poet-ry represented by Tennyson. They revolted againstthe idea of harnessing the use of poetry to the serviceof social and political problems of the age. They werethe votaries of art for art's sake. Rossetti was the heroof this return to medievalism for poetic inspiration.

The Pre-Raphaelites were pictorial artistes, andtheir paintings as well as poems were symphonies incolour. They gave special care to the presentation ofelaborate and precise details. Their poetry is rich inmelody. Swinburne is the supreme melodist among them.Their poetry is marked by sensousness. The Pre-Rapha-elite poets were considerably influenced in their art byKeats and Tennyson. The movement was a direct andlegitimate development of the Romantic Revival. ThePre-Raphaelite movement supported by Oxford menbecame the child and heir of the Oxford Movement. Thedebt which the Pre-Raphaelites owed to their predeces-sors was amply repaid by leaving behind a rich harvestof poetry for the delight and pleasure of posterity.

r Pre-Raphaelites group formed in

- 1848

r The popular Pre-Raphaelites are

- D.G. Rosseti, William Morris,A.C. Swinburne, ChristinaRosseti

r The Pre-Raphaelites were so called because

- They insisted on freedom fromthe rules and requirementslaid down by Raphael forpainting ideal figures

r Pre-Raphelite Brotherhood

- Was an organization ofpainters

r Pre-Raphelites insisted that

- It is not the business of theartist to instruct or to solvesocial problems

r Pre-Raphaelite poetry was

- A revolt and reaction againstthe conventionality of poetrypresented by Tennyson.

D.G. Rossetti (1828-82)The leading spirit of the Pre-Raphaelite poetry was

Dante Gabriel Rossetti. His cult of love and beauty, hisappreciation of colourful pictures rich in sensuous ap-peal, his artistic portraiture of life in its lovely aspectsmake him the supreme exponent of art during the 19thcentury. This poems are rich in pictorial suggestiveness.The medieval note was prominent in his works ie, mysti-cism, the romance and the supernaturality. 'A Last Con-fession, My sister's sleep, Rose Mary, Sister Helen, TroyTown, The House of Life are some of his best poems.

William Morris : (1834-96)Morris was at heart an artist and remained an artist

throughout his life. As a poet and an artist his interestlay in the past rather than in the sordidness of his owntimes. 'Guinevere and other poems', Jason and EarthlyParadise, The Havestock in the flood reveal his love forthe middle ages. In the 'Life and Death of Jason' wehave the finest pictures of the Middle Ages in theirheroism, super naturalism, witchery and magic.

A.C. Swinburne (1837-1909)Swinburne carried forward the tradition of Pre-

Raphaelite poetry. His subjects were derived from ro-

manticism, medievalism, and his hatred against conven-tional morality. He gave a touch, of sensuousness topoetry. 'Poems and Ballads', The Garden of proser-pine were examples. His poems broke in upon victorianreserve and his sensuous picture shook the genera-tion. He made poetry musical rather than pictorial andbrought to it the gift of lyricism and melody. "Songsbefore sunrise" is his central book.

Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)Christina, younger sister of D.G. Rossetti was the

truest Pre-Raphaelite of the group, and remained sothroughout her life. Her major single works are GoblinMarket and other poems (1862), A pageant and otherpoems, Time Flies, Verses, Singsong, New poems etc.She is at heart a religious poetess and her title to im-mortality lies in her devotional and religious verse. Shewas an ascetic in her attitude towards life. The worldcould not hold her in its grip, and she chose to be anascetic, rather than epicurean in her life. Her poetry ismarked with melancholy and sadness and the shadowof death constantly haunts her verses. She had the giftof singing and the lyricism of her verse is delightful.Her style in poetry is simple and direct.

r The leading spirit of the Pre-Raphelite poetry was

- Dante Gabriel Rossetti

r 'Sister Helen' is one of the best work of

- D.G. Rossetti

r 'Life and Death of Jason' of William Morris gives atrue picture of

- Middle Ages

r 'Songs before Sunrise' was written by

- A.C. Swinburne

r Christina Rossetti was a –––– poet

- religious

4 What are the Major trends and features of theVictorian poetry ?

The poetry of the victorian age presents a widevariety. Some of the victorian poets were interested inthe presentation of victorian life in their poetryeg : Tennyson. Others kept away from the cross cur-rents of social political and economic life of the ageeg : Browning. The Pre-Raphaelites strike another

note in the age. They kept themselves away from thematerialistic problems of the age. eg : Rossetti, Morris,Swinburne. In a way victorian poetry is an extension ofromantic poetry.

In Victorian poetry we hear notes of pessimism aswell as inspiring words of optimism spoken by Brown-ing. The moral note is sounded by Victorian poets andmost of them have a message to impart through theirpoetry. Browning gives the message of struggle againstheavy odds in human life. Arnold has the message ofstoricism and endurance of all pains and inflictions,Tennyson gives the message of lawful living. ChristinaRossetti of renunciation and resignation.

We find several poetic forms cultivated by the vic-torian poets. The lyric output was very large. In de-scriptive and narrative poetry, there was great advance.Browning perfected dramatic monologue. Differentstyles of poetry was cultivated by the victorian poets.The ornate style was represented in Tennyson with hisvowel music, and alliteration Pre-Raphaelites were sim-pler indiction but their vocabulary was more archaicBrowning contributed his mature obscurity, Arnoldwrote with a studied simplicity. On the whole the poeticstyle of the period was ornate rather than simple. Thevictorian age produced no supreme poet.

r –––– is a victorian poet interested in thepresentation of victorian life in his poetry

- Tennyson

r –––– kept away from the materialistic problems ofthe age

- Pre-Raphaelites

r Victorian poetry is an extension of –––– poetry

- Romantic

r The poet Browning gave the message of

- Struggle against heavy oddsin human life

r Arnold gave the message ––– through his writings

- of stoicism and endurance ofall pains and inflictions

r Lawful living was the message of

- Tennyson

THE VICTORIAN PROSEThomas Carlyle (1795 -1881)

Thomas carlyle, the many sided genius, is well re-flected in his works. He is a literary artist, critic of liter-ature, as a seer, as a prophet, political thinker andfinally as a historian . He was in his own way one of thegreatest literary artists of the age. Hestands very high in the portrayal ofgraphic, vivid and clear pictures. His artin pictorial painting of landscape and hill-side is as well marked out as his portray-al of human character.

His prose had much of the splen-dour and music which makes Englishimaginative prose a magnificent organ ofexpression. The enormous wealth of vo-cabulary employed by him is unique inprose literature. He cultivated differentkinds of style suiting his subject. In "TheFrench Revolution", he cultivated ahighly picturesque and poetic style, marked with vivid-ness and flashing light of colour. In 'Sarter Resartus'there is the philosophical style. His style is picturesqueand he rightly considered the Rembrandt of EnglishProse.

His main works are Sartor Resartus. The FrenchRevolution, Heroes and Hero worship, Past andPresent, Letters and Speeches of Oliver Crownwell,Life of John Sterling, The history of Frederick, the Greatand Letters and Reminiscenes.

John Ruskin (1819-1900)Ruskin was an English art and social critic. He was

one of the greatest thinkers and writers of VictorianAge. He was a man of high moral principles, of splendidluxuriant imagination. His works are voluminous andhis works on art, social and political economy, literatureand education are worthy of great consideration. Hisprincipal works are 'Modern painters, Seven Lamps ofArchitecture, The stones of venice, Unto this last, Mu-nera pulveris, Time and Tide, The Crown of wild olive,Sesame and Lilies and Practerita, is his unfinishedautobiography.

Ruskin began his career as critic of art embracing

in his sweep the study of painting and architecture in aspecial way. He introduced the 'Principle of Natural-ism' in judging works of Art. Ruskin was a superb mas-ter of the English language. In his prose works wecome across super -abundance of figures of speech,excessiveness of imagery, ornateness, melody, grandeurand loftiness of expression.

Cardinal Newman (1801-90)John Henry Newman, best known as

Cardinal Newman, is an important figure in thehistory of Religion in England. His importantworks are 'Apologia Pro Vita Sua, Via Medi-acallista, Grammar of Assent, The idea of auniversity. Newman employed a classical wayof writing in the expression of his thoughts.His prose style is characterised by lucidity,transparency, restraint and balance. His dic-tion has strength, elegance and suppleness.No English writer of the period surpasses hisexquisite prose. His 'Idea of all university pro-vides to the modern university leaders the

basic principles concerning the concept of a university.The primary aim of the university in Newman's view isto impart liberal education and make them gentlemenand ladies in life and not to prepare them only for pro-fessional courses.

r ––– is considered as the Rembrandt of EnglishProse

- Thomas Carlyle

r 'Heroes and Hero worship' is a majestic creation of

- Carlyle

r ––– introduced the 'Principle of Naturalism' injudging works of art

- John Ruskin

r Sesame and Lilies' is written by

- Ruskin

r Cardinal Newman's idea of a university is seen inhis

- The idea of a university

r John Henry Newman is popularly known as

- Cardinal Newman

Oxford movementThe Oxford movement which is also known as the

Thomas Carlyle

Tractarian movement was fundamentally religious innature and had nothing to do with politics. Among thevarious aims of the movement was to rehabilitate thedignity of the church, to defend the church against theinterference of the state to fight against liberalism, toresort reverence for the sacraments, rituals, dogmas ofthe Roman Catholic faith. They fought vigorouslyagainst liberalism of men like Thomas Arnold who fas-tened on the ethical significance of christianity and min-imised the importance of ritual of theological Articlesof opinion. The idea of the visible church a Divine soci-ety instituted by christ, with its sacraments, its rites, itspriesthood, and its hierarchial appointments was repug-nant to Dr. Arnold and one of the aims of the Oxfordleaders was to oppose liberalism of Dr. Arnold. TheMovement was against the nationalism in matters con-cerned with the church. The Oxford men turned theirgaze to the Middle Ages in order to escape from thedrab monotony of life and the materialistic advance-ment striking at the faith of the people. Cardinal New-man, John Keble, Edward Pusey, Cardinal Wiseman,Cardinal Manning were some of the prominent lead-ers of the movement.

One of the results of the Movement was that it pro-duced a surprising bulk of ecclesiastical journalism."Tracts for the Times', Keble's sermon on National Apos-tasy, 'Remains' of Richard Hurrell Froude, British critic,Dublin Review are examples. The Oxford movement hada profound effect on the intellectual life of the time. Thoughit could not effect a change in the fundamental characterof the English Church, it showed to English men the his-toric continuity of their national church. The novels ofcharlotte Mary Yonge and mystical fiction, of J.H. Shorthouse were examples of the influence in fiction.

r The Oxford movement is also known as

- Tractarian Movement

r Oxford movement was fundamentally ––– in nature

- Religious

r The aims of Oxford movement are

- to rehabilitate the dignity ofthe church, to defend thechurch against the interfer-ance of the state, to fightagainst liberalism, to resort

reverence for the sacraments,rituals, dogmas of the Romancatholic church

r Prominent leaders of the Oxford movement are

- Cardinal Newman, JohnKeble, Edward Pusey,Cardinal Wiseman, CardinalManning.

r Oxford Movement gave rise to –––– journalism

- ecclesiastical

Walter Pater (1839-1894)Walter Pater was one of the greatest critics and

prose writers of the victorian Age. He was at heart alover of art, beauty and melody, and belonged to theaesthetic movement sponsored and spearheaded bythe Pre-Raphaelite poets. Art for Art's sake was Pater'sideal and all his prose works, and works of criticism aresaturated with the spirit of aestheticism. He broughtthe subjective and the impressionistic method into fullplay in his works, and gave an artistic touch to everythought he expressed in his poetic style.

Studies in the history of Renaissance, Marins theEpicurean, Imaginary portraits, Plato and Platonism,Greek studies, Goston de Labour are his talented worksof art. His masterpiece was 'Appreciations' a volumecontaining his views about Charles Lamb, Wordsworth,Coleridge, Sir Thomas Browne and D.G. Rossetti, withthe opening essay on style. He was a major Englishcritic of the last generation of the 19th century. He wasgifted with a penetrating insight and he could discoverthe romantic qualities and aspects of classicial life andart and the classical elements in romantic periods. Pateradopted the subjective or the impressionistic method.This interest as a critic was not limited merely to theevaluation of author but also to their styles.

Samuel Butler (1835-1902)Butler was one of the most original and belligerent

thinkers of the 19th century. He was a prolific writersome of his works are 'Life and Habit, Unconsciousmemory, Shakespeare's sonnets considered, Essays onlife, Erewhon, Erewhon revisited, The way of all Flesh.

'Erewhon' the title of which is an anagram for 'no-where' is a satirical utopia on modern civilization, its

treatment of crime, poverty and sickness. It fulminatesagainst machinery and the dependence of man on ma-chinery. Butler became the leader of younger novelistswho were bent upon flouting victorian taboos and ritu-als.

r –––––– is considered as the novelist's novelist- Henry James

r 'The Art of Fiction' is a critical work of

- Henry James

r Henry James belonged to the –––– school ofnovelists

- Intellectual

r 'The Little Minister' was the famous novel of

- J.M. Barrie

r The aim of the writers belong to Kailyard School is

- To represent the folk - scenesof Scotland and transmutedthe rural sides with the colourof their romantic imagination.

r 'Erewhon' is the satirical Utopia on moderncivilization. It is the famous work of

- Samuel Butler

r 'Erewhon' is an anagram for

- nowhere

r Erewhon is against

- Machinery and the depen-dence of man on machinery

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)Wilde upheld the theory of Art for

Art's sake and carried forward the aesthet-ic movement to its culminating point,throwing morality out of view altogetherfor him, Art had no other aim save to grati-fy the taste of the artist, and had no bear-ing on social problems.

He tried in hand at several kinds ofwriting characterised by wit and display ofcleverness. He wrote poems having no orig-inality about them. He wrote a number ofcomedies in the manner of the artificial com-edy of manner of Resotration Age. Lady

Winder mere's Fan, A woman of no importance and Theimportance of being Ernest are monuments of almost ofexhaustless ingenuity and resource. This comedies havea rapid and brilliant animation 'The picture of DorianGray' is a beautiful novel in which Wilde puts the bestof his aestheticism. His critical works is to be found in"Intentions". It is a monument of same and subtle crit-icism, expressed with admirable case and pungency.'The Ballad of Reading Gaol, De Profundis, are works ofa different character. It is marked not with prose or af-fection but with perfect sincerity.

r Walter Pater belonged to –––– movement

- Aesthetic

r ––––– was the slogan of aesthetic movement

- Art for Art's sake

r ––––– is a beautiful novel in which Wilde puts thebest of his aestheticism

- The Picture of Dorian Gray

r The contribution of wilde to English drama

- Restored the spirit of comedyand brought wit reminiscentof the Restoration comedy ofmannars and a genuine senseof the dramatic

r –––– is undoubtedly the best of Wilde's play

- The Importance of beingErnest

r 'Lady Windermere's Fan' tells the story of –––

- a woman 'with a past'

R.L. Stevenson (1850 - 1894)Stevenson was consciously and delib-

erately an artist who cared passionately forthe quality of what he wrote and spent hiswhole life trying to write better. His essaysare intensely subjective. In them, he embod-ied the outer and the inner autobiography.He was a moralist. The three volumes ofstevenson's essays - Virginibus Puerisque,Familiar studies, memories and portraits -cover a wide range of subjects, literature,nature, science, child life, religion, philoso-phy morality, psychology etc.

Oscar Wilde

Historians of the Victorian ageThomas Macaulay was a great essayist and His-

torian. 'The History of England' is his major work. Otherhistorian are James Froude, Alexander kinglake, JohnGreen, Edward Freeman, William Prescott etc. The his-tory of Ferdinand and Isabella, The history of the con-quest of Mexico, are Prescott's best works.

Victorian DramaThe early 19th century is one of the most unre-

warding periods in the English theature. It was a greatera in poetry and fiction. The theatre became isolatedfrom the life and the letters of England. Under the pres-sure of Evangelical opinion most sober and godly peo-ple avoided the theatres. The enlargement of the the-atres, the prevailing show and spectacle demandedand supplied, and the class of spectators who frequentedthem naturally led many men who might have devotedtheir genius to the drama to turn to other forms ofliterature. There were no popular dramatists, and thosebecame popular were the works of poets eg: Tenny-son's 'Becket', Queen Marry : Browning's King Victor,A blot in scutcheon, A soul's tragedy, Colombe's birth-day. Mathew Arnold's Merope etc.

Victorian novelThe victorian age is essentially the age of the nov-

el. The main reasons are the rise of the middle class inpower and importance, steady increase of the readingpublic, growth of lending libraries, the development ofpublishing, and above all novel was the vehicle bestequipped to present a picture of life lived in a given soci-ety against a stable background, of social and moral val-ues by people who were recognizably like the peopleencountered by readers, and this was the kind of pictureof life the middle class reader wanted to read about.

The early victorian novel was cultivated byDisraeli, Trollope, Dickens, Thackeracy, Kingslake, etc.They concentrated on the social, political, economicaspects of victorian society. Realism became thecharacteristic feature of the novels. The early victoriannovelists were in accord with the public, identifiedthemselves with their age and were its spokesmen. Theydid not very much bother about coherent plots. Theyhad a love for history and some of them worked in theline of historical fiction left by Walter Scott.

Benjamin Disraeli (1804-81)Disraeli, the Prime Minister of England, was an

important figure in the early victorian fiction. He wasprimarily a politician and it is very natural, that his nov-els are political novels. Vivien Grey, Conings by, Sybilor The two nations, and Tancred : the last three wereconstituting "Young England" are discussion novels.

As a novelist, he is at his best in the great setscenes. Another quality is his attitude to women. Hisladies are ravishing and highly intelligent. The secret ofhis superiority as a political novelist is that he introduc-es imagination into politics, he introduces questions oflaw, faith and vision. His heroes are always larger thanlife, possess array of talent. There is an artificiality inthe atmosphere and texture of his work. This prosestyle sweeping, rhetorical, with seeking the immediateeffect, gives his great passage so much of their effect.

r 'The History of England' is the major work of

- Thomas Macaulay

r The early 19th century was the declining period of

- Drama

r 'Merope' is a play written by

- Mathew Arnold

r The Victorian age is the age of

- novel

r 'Vivien Grey' was the novel of

- Benjamin Disraeli

Charles Dickens (1812-1870)Life and main novels of Charles Dickens

Life - Charles Dickens was born on February7, 1812 at 357 Mile End Terrace, Commerical Road Land-port, Portsea in Hampshire. His father, John Dickens,was a clerk in the navy pay office. It was difficult for hisfather to make both ends meet. He incurred debts andafter struggling with them in his native town for manyyears, he shifted to London and later on to Chathamwhen Dickens was nine years of age. It was in the atmo-sphere of Chatham that Dickens had his early school-ing. He was fond of books and devoted himself to hisstudies with heart and soul. He preferred to gruel him-self up in a corner with a book than take part in themildest of games. He lived with his parents happily for

some years but soon the happy days at Chatham cameto an end. His father was arrested for non-payment ofdebts and sentenced for short term of Marshalsea pris-on. Then Dicken's mother set up the famous Boardingestablishment for young ladies, but no young lady everattended the institution.

It was under the stress of pecuniary difficultiesthat Dickens had to leave the school at the age of elev-en. He had to take employment in the blacking factoryand it was really a painful sight to see young Charlesworking from dawn to dusk for a few pennies. He was,however, relieved from this drudgery whenhe received a small legacy from one of hisrelatives. His father was also set free andDickens joined the Willington House Acad-emy at the age of fifteen. It was worthlessand brutal school and its Head Master wasa most ignorant fellow and a tyrant. Helearned little at the place, but the experi-ence he gained proved a fruitful source forhim in writing Nicholas Nickleby. He leftthe school in sheer disgust and again wentto work, this time as a clerk in a lawyer'soffice. At night he studied short hand inorder to achieve success in his career as areporter. He picked up shorthand quitespeedily and in 1830 became a Parliamentary reporter. Itwas largely during this period that he gained his ex-traordinary knowledge of inns and stables, which heused effectively in his sketches of London life.

Dickens undertook foreign travels and at the invita-tion of Washington Irving he left for America in 1841. Hewas warmly received by the Americans, but soon theirenthusiasm was damped for their guest when it wasknown to them that Dickens had strongly opposed sla-very system in America in his American Notes and Mar-tin Chuzzslewit. But this storm of rage against the authordied out when he made his second visit of America in1867-1868. After his return from the continent, Dickensbrought out his novels as such as David Copperfield,Dombey and Sons and Great Expectations. He died in1870, over his unfinished Edwin Drood and was laid torest in Westminster Abbey. "No death since 1866," wroteCarlyle to his wife, "has fallen on me with such a stroke.The good, the gentle high gifted, over friendly and nobleDickens - every inch of him an honest man."

Charles Dickens was undoubtedly the greatest ofthe Victorian novelists. He was a great genius and bothas a novelist and a popular entertainer, he ranked veryhigh. "He is the one novelist of his school," says DavidCecil in Early Victorian Novelists, "whose popularityhas suffered no sensible decline. He is not only themost famous of the Victorian novelists, he is the mosttypical. If we are to see the distinguishing virtues anddefects of his school at their clearest, we must examineDickens."

The great success which Dickens achieved as anovelist was the outcome of a certain train-ing that he had undergone in the school oflife and experience, and the result of hiscareer as a reporter and an actor. As a child,poor and lonely, longing for love for soci-ety, he laid the foundation for those heart-rending pictures of children which havemoved so many readers to unaccustomedtears. Second, as clerk in lawyer's office andin the courts he gained his knowledge ofan entirely different side of human life. Herehe learned to understand both the enemiesand the victims between whom the harshlaws of that day frequently made no dis-tinction. Third, as a reporter, and afterwards

as manager of various newspapers, he learned the trickof racy writing and of knowing to a nicety what wouldsuit the popular taste. Fourth, as an actor, always anactor in spirit, he seized upon every dramatic possibili-ty, every tense situation, every peculiarity of voice andgesture in the people whom he met and reproducedthese things in his novels exaggerating them in theway that most pleased his audience.

When we turn from his outward training to hisinner disposition we find two strongly marked elements.The first is his excessive imagination which made goodstories out of incidents that ordinarily pass unnoticed,and which described the commonest things - a street, ashop, a fog, a lamp-post, a stage-coach with a wealth ofdetail and romantic suggestion that makes many of hisdescriptions like lyric poems. The second element is hisextreme sensibility, which finds relief only in laughterand tears. Like shadow and sunshine these follow oneanother closely throughout all his books.

Charles Dickens

r –––– is the greatest of the victorian novelists

- Charles Dickens

r 'No Death since 1866 has fallen on me with such astroke' Carlyle ; Carlyle was mentioning the deathof

- Charles Dickens

r The great success of Dickens as novelist was theoutcome of

- the training he had undergone in the school of life andexperience and the result ofhis career as a reporter andan actor

r Charles Dickens died in

- 1870

r As a boy, Dicken's worked in a

- Blacking factory

Novels of Dickens

Pickwick PapersDickens began his career as a creative artist with

Sketches by Boz (1836), a series dealing with Londonlife in the style and manner of Leigh Hunt. "One whoreads these sketches now, with their intimate knowl-edge of the hidden life of London, can understand Dick-ens' first newspaper success perfectly." The earliest ofDickens' work that caught the public eye and apprecia-tion was Pickwick Papers, published serially in 1836-1837. Pickwick was written at the suggestion of an edi-tor, for serial publication. Each chapter was to be ac-companied by a cartoon by Seymour (a comic artistof the day) and the underlying idea was to amuse thepublic, and thereby command a good sale of the paper.The first seven chapters appeared with the signatureof Seymour. Before the eighth picture appeared, Sey-mour had blown his brains out. After the death of Sey-mour, Dickens was left free to extend the canvas of hiswork according to the play. Of his fecund imagination,and produced a novel, which proved to be the mosthilarious and jolly book of picaresque adventures dis-pelling the blues and cares of those who happened topass through its sunny atmosphere of mirth, jollity andhumour. The novel is in the style of Smollett, whomDickens adored with a heroic fervour, and recounts the

adventures of Pickwick, Winkle, Snodgrass, Tupman,Samweller and a host of characters through the vicissi-tudes and daring and yet funny adventures of theirlives. "The book contains some sixty distinct situa-tions and more than three hundred and fifty characters,some of them making their appearance only once to winfor them a lasting place in our hearts. The incidentsloosely connected and the chronology will not bearclose inspection, but in abundance of detail of a highquality, in vivacity of humour, in acute and accurateobservation, the book is of the first rank. It is doubtfulif Dickens ever improved upon it."

Oliver TwistWhile Pickwick Papers was still in racy progress,

Dickens became editor of Bentley's Miscellany, a mag-azine, for which he began Oliver Twist in serial form. Tothe humours of Pickwick Papers, he added two impor-tant characteristic features, which became the domi-nating factors of his creative art. In Oliver Twist hepresented the pathos of innocent childhood, and theprotest against the abuses of power, especially on thepart of governmental institutions.

Oliver Twist is the name given to a child of un-known parentage born in a workhouse and brought upunder the cruel conditions to which pauper childrenwere formerly exposed. He was subjected to great hard-ship by Bumble, the parish beadle. Being disgusted ofthe life under Bumble, Oliver Twist ran away to Londonwhere he fell into the hands of gang of thieves andpickpockets, headed by Fagin, the old Jew, and his oth-er associates namely the burglar Bill Sikes, his compan-ion Nancy, and the Artful Dodger, an impudent youngpickpocket. Oliver Twist was reared in Fagin's academyand every effort was made to convert him into a thief.He was temporarily rescued by the benevolentMr. Bronlow, but again he fell into the hands of the oldvillains. Oliver was made to accompany Bill Sikes on aburgling expedition, in the course of which he receiveda gunshot wound. He was again reclaimed from thisgang by Mrs. Maylie and her protegee Rose, by whomhe was kindly treated and brought up. Later on startlingrevelations are made. Nancy is killed by Bill Sikes. Sikestrying to escape, accidently hangs himself, and the restof the gang are secured and Fagin is executed. Roseturns out to be the sister of Oliver's unfortunate mother.

Oliver is adopted by Mr. Brownlow. Bumble ended hiscarrer in the workhouse over which he formerly ruled.

Oliver Twist is a study in crime and villainy andthe punishment which encircle wrong - doers. The mor-al sense of Dickens triumphs at the end. Dickens showsthat vice systematically pursued does not yield the de-lights gaily asserted by the romances. Social reform issuggested in the working by poor houses. A spiritedappeal is made for the better treatment of children.

Nicholas NicklebyBefore the completion of Oliver Twist in 1838, Dick-

ens began the publication of Nicholas Nickleby in twen-ty numbers. This novel exposes the weaknesses of York-shire schools and the horrible teaching and teacherswho were in charge of young boys. The themes of suf-fering childhood and oppressive institutions are unitedin Dotheboys Hall, a composite picture of the Yorkshireschools which Dickens had personally visited. Mr.Squeers is a hard-hearted and cruel head master andSmike, his victim, is a poor creature evoking our sym-pathy. Mrs.Nickleby is the caricature of a lady fully insympathy with the views of her husband.

r –––– is the early work of Dickens

- Sketches by Boz

r –––– was the first work of Dickens that caught thepublic Eye

- Pickwick Papers

r 'Pickwick Papers' was a –––– novel

- Picaresque

r 'Oliver Twist' tells the story of

- Oliver, a child of unknownparentage born in a workhouse

r In 'Oliver Twist' Dickens presents

- the pathos of innocentchildhood

r –––– was a protest against the abuses of power,especially on the part of governmental institutions

- 'Oliver Twist'

r –––– exposes the weaknesses of Yorkshire schoolsand horrible teaching

- Nicholas Nickleby

Old Curiosity ShopIn 1840 Dickens started a miscellany to be called

Master Humphrey Clock, which was to be a frame forhis next serial Old curiosity Shop. "This novel has great-er originality of design. One does not smell the foot-lights, but has, instead, delicious wafts of freshnessfrom the fields and lanes of England. The story hasmore of symmetry; it moves more regularly to its close,and that close is much more satisfying. It remains inone's mind as a whole with no part that one feels ob-structive or incongruous or wearily feeble. In writingthe last portion, Dickens was so engrossed by his themethat he worked at unusual hours, prolonging the day'slabour into the night. The book gained thereby its unityof effect. It is a story in the true sense, and one of themost delightful in our language.

The story of this novel centres round Little Nelland her grandfather who borrows money from DanielQuilp, a hideous dwarf and a monster of iniquity, inorder to retrieve his lost Old Curiosity Shop. The oldman spends money in gambling in the vain hope ofrecovering his old position for Little Nell's sake. Quilp,who believes him a rich miser, at last discovers wherethe borrowed money has gone and seized the shop.The old man and Nell fly away and undergo numeroussufferings and harships. They find refuge in a cottageby a country church. They are appointed to look afterit. In the meantime the grandfather's brother returnsfrom abroad and traces them out. He seeks to renderthem financial aid and bring them back to normal life.But before anything is done, Nell dies, worn out withher troubles, and the grandfather soon follows her. Thenovel ends on a note of deep pathos. The death sceneof Nell is pathetic and recalls the death of Cordelia andKing Lear. Critics have found the pathos in Little Nell'sdeath sentimental and not truly pathetic. David Cecil inThe Early Victorian Novelists comments on the pathosin the novel, "Pathos can be the most powerful of all theweapons in the novelist arsenal. But it is for the mostdangerous to handle. Dickens had a natural gift forhomely pathos. But almost always he sins flagrantlyagainst both the canons which govern its use. He over-states. He protests too much. He tries to wring an extratear from the situation, he never lets it speak for itself.One would have thought the death of an innocent andvirtuous child should be allowed to carry its own emo-

tion; but Dickens cannot trust us to be moved by LittleNell's departure from the world unassisted by Churchbells, falling snow at the window, and every other ready-made device for extracting our tears that a cheap rheto-ric can provide."

Barnaby RudgeHis next historical novel Barnaby Rudge is a fail-

ure. It is in part a romance of private life, in part a histor-ical novel. "The two parts are not well-knit together,the interest with which we began is lost in far widerinterests before we end, nevertheless, Barnaby is freefrom Dicken's worst vices of construction. Granting theimperfection of scheme, it is closely wrought and itsdetails not ill-conceived. The novel deals with Gordonanti-popery riots of 1788 and the principal interest liesin the vivid description of the riot which held Londonterrorized for several days, and in the character acces-sory to the above plot, chiefly the pathetic figure ofBarnaby, the sturdy locksmith Gabriel, warden and hispeevish wife and coquettish daughter Dolly.

Martin ChuzzlewitMartin Chuzzlewit is considered by Gissing as

one of the finest work of Dickens, though in fact it is aformless work, without any systematic development ofthe plot. Repeated readings avail not to fix it one's mindas a sequence of events ; we know the persons, weremember many a scene, cut beyond that all is a vaguereminiscene. He involves himself, in complications whichnecessitate leaps and bounds perverse ingenuity. Andlast his story frankly hopeless, he cuts through knots,throws difficulties into oblivion, and plays up his char-acters to a final rally ; so sure of his touch upon thereader's emotions that he can disregard their bewilder-ment. In this novel there is a tone of theatricality. It is amagnificent, "the brilliant triumph of stage tradition."The entire novel centres round Martin's adventuresboth in England and America. This novel is a hugemedley of all his own brands of comedy, from farces topurest humour, interspersed with melodrama that all butreaches the level of tragedy; in which American chap-ters form such a contrast to those dealing with Martin'slife in England that is no comparing them in the lack ofcommon standards of measurement. In Martin Chuzzle-witt Dickens gives us some of his finished portraits. Wehave in this novel the figure of Pecksniff, an architect

and arch-hypocrite, Mrs. Gamp, the disreputable oldnurse, Tom Pinch, Pecksniff's gentle, loyal assistant,and Mark Tapley, the optimistic and cheerful servant ofMartin who follows him to America.

Dombey and SonDombey and Son is the last of early novels of Dick-

ens. It is a study in pride represented through the char-acter of Mr. Dombey. The benevolent humour is pro-vided by Susan Nipper and Captain Cuttle; and pathosis furnished by Florence and Paul Dombey. The plot iswell woven. The clumsiness and carelessness whichmarred Martin Chuzzlewit do not disfigure this novel.We feel that the book is built up with great pains, withinfinite endeavour to make a unity.

The story of the novel is quite interesting. Whenthe story open Mr. Dombey, the rich, proud, frigid headof the shopping house of Dombey and Son, has justbeen presented with a son and heir, Paul, and his wifedies. Paul is brought up delicately and is sent to Dr.Blimber's school, under whose strenuous discipline theboy sickens and dies. Dombey, after the death of hisson, neglects his daughter Florence who starts lovingWalter Gay, a frank, good - hearted youth in Dombey'semployment. Dombey, the proud merchant, does notlike this love-making and sends him to the West Indiesso that love affair may end in Fiasco. Walter Gay's shipwrecked on the way and believed to be drowned.Dombey marries again, this time a proud and pennilessyoung widow, Edith Ganger. Dombey's arrogance andhaughtiness bring about a rapture between the newlymarried couple. Edith Granger starts loving Carker, themanager of Mr. Dombey and flies with him to France.Dombey pursues Carker and overtakes him at railwaystation. Carker falls in front of the train and is killed.Events humble Dombey. He sustains heavy loss in busi-ness. He finds himself completely broken at the end.Thoroughly humbled, he lives in solitude till his mar-ried daughter Florence returns to him and brings solaceto his cheerless life.

David CopperfieldAmong the later novels Dickens' David Copper-

field (1849-50) is the best. It is Dickens' veiled autobi-ography. "The pen which wrote David copperfield",says Hugh Walker, "was often dipped in his own blood."Dickens once said, "I like David Copperfield the best."

David Copperfield and his experiences are the experi-ences of Dickens himself through all the trials and trib-ulations of his chequered life. The figure of Micawber,properly termed immortal , was drawn from Dicken's fa-ther. Some of the characters of this novel are memorablefigures-Betsey Trotwood, the eccentric aunt of David.Uriah Heep, the villain feigning humility, and Murd-stone, the cruel father, and Agnes, the gentle -heartedlady. Cruelty is represented by Murdstone and Benev-olence by Betsey Trotwood.

The novel provides a scathing criticism of the sys-tem of teaching in schools run by masters like Creakleand his companions. Canning, which formed an inte-gral part of school discipline, is condemned. Reformsare suggested by Dickens in the education of children.The academy, run by Dr. Smarts provides a model for alleducational institutions. Commenting on the greatnessof this novel Baker observes, "Both critical and popu-lar opinions are at one in voting David Copperfieldtheir favourite among the novels of Dickens. First of all,it happens to be in large part his autobiography. Thereis a plot in David Copperfield, and some of the largestepisodes are as theatrical as any he ever devised. It isa tale of ups and downs, joys and sorrows ; but theprevailing tone is one of cheerfulness and confidencein the essential goodness of life. And though it is notentirely free from the ensnaring device of poetic justice,this is not one of his didactic stories. On the contrary,except for exposure of Uriah Heep, a few reformationsof sinners, and the lurid tragedy of Steerforth, all ofwhich are extraneous to the history of David this istolerably free from both moralism and melodrama.

Bleak HouseDickens' next novel Bleak House was published

in 1853. It is a vigorous satire on the abuses of the oldcourt of Chancery, the delays and costs of whichbrought misery and ruin on its suitors. The tale centresin the fortunes of an uniteresting couple, Richard Car-stone, a futile youth, and his amiable cousin Ada Clare.There are numerous comic touches in the novel. Nobetter exposure of the delays and iniquities of the lawcourts is found in Victorian novels than in this work.

r 'Old curiosity Shop' was the story of

- Little Nell and her grandfather

r –––– is the veiled autobiography of Dickens

- David Copperfield

r The figures of Micawber was a caricature of

- Dickens' Father

r David copperfield is a scathing criticism of

- the system of teaching inschools run by masters likeCreakle

r –––– was a satire on the abuses of the old court ofChancery

- Bleak House

Hard TimesHard Times was published in 1854. It is a satirical

exposure of the evils of industrialism and the great mis-ery that follows in the wake of rapid industrialisation.The novelist attacks the squalor and misery of a textiletown and brings to view the wretched conditions ofworkers crushed by the iron heels of greedy capitalists.Gradgrind and Bounderby represent the worst evils ofcapitalistic life. "By sheer force of scorn and indigna-tion Dickens galvanizes his two personifications ofblind slave driving energy and greed. Gradgrind andBounderby, into a semblance of life, like of his moreauthentic creations, the pair having entered as perma-nent myths or synonyms into current of Coketown. Heis an 'eminently practical man' who believes in facts andstatistics and nothing else. He is money-minded man.He represses the spiritual side of his daughter Louisaand marries her to Josiah Bounderby, manufacturer anda rich merchant, thirty years older than his daughter.Louisa leads an unhappy life and is seduced by JamesHarthouse, a young politician, to run away from theunhappy condition of her life. The girl being goodnatured at heart brings the matter to the notice of herfather, who bring about a separation from her husbandBounderby, Gradgrind is free from the trouble from hisdaughter's side, when he finds that his son young Tomhas robbed the bank of his employer. The practicalmoney-lover, Gradgrind does not enjoy peace of mindthroughout his life and leads a life restless agony. Thatis after all the curse of Mammonworship. The novelattacks gross materialism and upholds imaginative andspiritual values in human life.

Little DorritLittle Dorrit, published in 1857, exposes the delay

in Government institutions particularly the Circumlocu-tion Office and Marshalsea Prison. William Dorrit hadto spend many years of his life in Marshalsea prison tillhe came to be known as the 'father of Marshalsea'. Therigours of Prison life are attacked by Dickens in thisnovel. The experience of prison life were gathered byDickens from the account of his father, who had beenimprisoned in Marshalsea prison house.

A Tale of Two CitiesA Tale of Two Cities is a historical novel repre-

senting the shuddering event of the French Revolu-tion. It was published in 1859. The two cities are Lon-don and Paris. The characters of this novel are masterlyportrayed Dr. Mannet, who had to spend many years ofhis life in the Bastile, is a moving figure. Sidney Carton,the lawyer, who sacrificed himself to save the life ofCharles Darnay, the husband of Lucy Mannet, whomhe (Carton) secretly loved, is a noble creation of Dick-ens inspiring lovers to be self-sacrificing in their love.Lucy Mannet is a tender, delicate gentle souled ladystanding in contrast to Madame Defarge, a hard-heart-ed cruel French revolutionary bent upon destroyingthe last vestige of the old aristocracy of the ancientregime in France.

It is not a tragedy ; it is not shapely profound andaustere. But it is a powerful story; and the culminatingscene, when Sydney Carton atones for a mis-spent lifeby his act of self-immolation is nobly conceived and hasmade many a heart beat. Subordinate figures, the youngaristocrate Charles Darnay who owes his life to Carton'sdevotion, the heroine, the blood-thirsty revolutionaries,Madame Defarge and the rest of the women of the Terror,are creatures of the melodrama which he did his best toauthenticate from such books as he had time to read andfrom other sources. It is a literary work rich in character-isation and sound in plot -construction.

Great ExpectationsGreat Expectations deals with the adventures of

a young boy Pip and is one of the gripping novels ofDickens. It is a novel of adventure, the sort of adven-ture that might well happen to a person who got himselfmixed up with questionable characters, in such a sortas this, close to the convict-ships or in what really were

in those days the wilds of London, Pip has narrow es-capes, and goes through many recking experiences; hehas to be prepared for acts of violence, and before theend his manhood is put to the proof in a way unusual ina novel by Dickens. The characters of this novel areremarkably drawn, and Joe Gargery, the simple heartedindustrious worker, and the dear relative of 'Pip' is amongthe finest characters of Dickens. Abel Magwich, theconvict, who secretly supports Pip for he had helpedhim once, is another study in criminology. The heart ofa criminal moved to feelings of gratefulness by the kindlyact of Pip in providing him food is presented with atouching fineness. Miss Havisham is an interestingthough not a realistic picture of an aristocratic lady.These characters have won a lasting place for Dickensamong masters of character portrayal.

Edwin DroodEdwin Drood would probably have been his best

constructed book; as far as it goes, the story hangswell together, showing a care in the contrivance of de-tail which is more than commonly justified by the result.One cannot help wishing that Dickens had chosen an-other subject - one in which there was neither mysterynor murder, both so irresistibly attractive to him, yet sofar from being the true material of his art. Surely it isunfortunate that the last work of a greater writer shouldhave for its theme nothing more human than a trivialmystery woven about a vulgar deed of blood.

r Dickens's ––– is a satirical exposure of the evils ofindustrialism

- Hard Times

r The characters ––– and –––– represent the worstevils of capitalistic life

- Gradgrind, Bounderby

r 'Hardtimes' is an attack on

- Gross materialism and up-holds imaginative and spiri-tual values in human life

r The rigours of prison life are attacked by Dickensin

- 'Little Dorrit'

r –––– is an historical novel of Dickens

- A Tale of Two Cities

r The two cities mentioned in the novel 'A Tale ofTwo Cities'

- London, Paris

r –––– is the background of Dickens' 'A Tale of twocities'

- French Revolution

r –––– is the story of Young Pip, one of the movingnovels of Dickens

- Great Expectations

r –––– the dear relative of 'Pip' is among the finestcharacters of Dickens

- Joe Gargery

r ___ an escaped convict in the novel 'GreatExpectations', is a study in criminology

- Abel Magwitch

r –––– is the last work of Dickens

- Edwin Drood

4 Dickens as a representative Victorian novelist.

Or

Features of the Victorian novel present in thenovels of Dickens ?

Dickens is a novelist of the Victorian London - theLondon 1820's, and 1830's. He presents the VictorianLondon in all its colours ; with its squares and shopsand offices and murky slums and prisons and clamor-ous thorough - fares, its churches stripped with soot,its suburbs, with their trim cottage and tidy gentle spac-es of open country. In depicting the horrors of prisonlife or the abomination of Private schools, his heart ismoved and he presents them to his readers, surely forthe better. He knew his people best and gave them whatthey wanted. Dickens never wrote down to his public.He was a part of his public. His books were not made;they were born. They were begotten by him of his pub-lic. He is like the primitive folk-bard in this.

The difficulty with Dickens was that he himselfwas too much of the age. Like the Victorian public hewas himself a sentimentalist. He failed to bring aboutany substantial social changes since he more or lessagreed to the contemporary social institutions. He wasnot a revolutionary like Shelley or Shaw. This may leadthe Marxists of claim that he disfigures reality and is abourgeois artist. But this is the thing that makes him sothoroughly a Victorian. His novels are pen-portraits ofthe Victorian scene. They are coloured in the sentimen-talism because the Victorians living in an age of doubts

and disputes saw everything through a coloured glass.To present the coloured, vague and hazy Victorian at-mosphere , Dickens discoloured his own vision. He didin Rome as the Romans do.

Dickens is not only a representative novelist ofthe Victorian age, but he is also a typical Victorian nov-elist. Lord David Cecil points out some general charac-teristics of the Victorian novels. He says that the Victo-rian novels are an extraordinary mixtures of strengthand weakness. He illustrates this point with special ref-erence to Dickens-all the more to our advantage, "Thereis," he says, "hardly a book of Dickens which is notdeformed by false sentiment, flashy melodrama, wood-en characters; as often as not the hero is one of them."

Speaking of the Victorian novels in general, DavidCecil says, "The stories consist of a large variety ofcharacters and incidents clustering round the figure ofhero, bound together loosely or less loosely by an in-trigue and ending with wedding bells." Nothing bettercan be called in evidence than Oliver Twist, David Cop-perfield and Great Expectations. Most often Victoriannovels are novels of character and their plots are weak.This is what we find in Dickens also. The end of GreatExpectations is a remarkable instance at hand. It is diffi-cult to imagine any aesthetic justification of marryingPip to Estella. "Dickens Chooses," says Lord DavidCecil, "a conventional plot, generally a highly unlikelyone, and then charms it as by physical violence on to asetting and character with which it has no organic con-nection."

Further, the Victorian novels are also remarkablefor their heavy moralisings and preposterously rhetor-ical style. The middle Class morality is always a domi-nating feature of the Victorian novels. Probably only inVanity Fair we seem to go off the tract. Dickens is thor-oughly traditional in this respect. Thomas Hardy wasgreeted with abuses when he set out to break thesetaboos. But Dickens preferred to adhere to the publictaste. Sex is carefully ruled, put away from the novels ofDickens as sex was a taboo in the Victorian age. It wasthe age of readers that did not tolerate. Clare takingyoung girls across the stream and Dickens knew hispublic.

Then we have the heavy sentimental style. A mod-ern novelist requires very few words to describe the

external features of his characters. But the Victoriansdevoted pages to the description of their characters.Evern Thomas Hardy failed to shake off the influenceof this what Mr. Bateson call heavy Gothic - style. Dick-ens exhibits this peculiarity in almost all his novels.Here is a characteristic description :

"He was a busy man of an exceedingly dark com-plexion, with an exceedingly large head, and a corre-sponding large hand. He was prematurely bald on thetop of his head....."

Deeper problems of human life are also ruled outfrom the scheme of the Victorian novels. This limitationis a characteristic feature of all the Victorian novelistsand of Dicken's novels. The most successful creationof the Victorian novelists are characters' pains and suf-ferings of child life. Dickens is primarily interested inpresenting the sorrows, sufferings and privations suf-fered by his child characters. The hardships borne byDavid Copperfield, under the tyrannical domination ofMr. Murdstone and Miss Murdstone are brought outin a touchingly tender manner. We are inclined to shedtears for the lot of little David as he washed bottles andsuffered the pangs of penury. A similar fate falls onOliver Twist, who again wins our sympathy for the cru-el treatment meted out to him by parish administratorsand mentors of workhouses. When Oliver Twist asksfor more food and is reprimanded by the dispenser, wefeel sympathy for the poor boy. The lot of Pip in GreatExpectations in the earlier chapters is equally touchingand moves us to sympathy for him. The wanderings oflittle Nell with her grand-father are heart-rending andpathetic. Her death moves us to tears. Dickens, thus,focuses attention, primarily in presenting the afflictions,woes and sorrows of children in his novels.

But the question is - Why did he choose children?The reason seems to be that by showing those poorlittle chaps exploited by the bourgeoisi and capitalists,he could perform his duties of a social reformer prettysatisfactorily. This might have been one of the impor-tant reasons since this was the easiest way of awaken-ing the public conscience and consciousness againstthe exploitation of the poor by the rich. Moreover, Dick-ens chose the field that he knew. He did not step out ofhis chosen field. He knew the life of poor little childrenvery well since he had seen it. That is why his charac-

ters of this sphere are convincingly interesting. Weforgot the element of exaggeration that sometimes creepsin their delineation. We know that the author is talkingon behalf of little children that love to see everything isunique proportions.

r Dickens' novels are pen - portraits of

- Victorian Scene

r Victorian novels are novels of

- Character

r –––– is a dominating feature of the victorian novels- Middleclass Morality

r Victorian novelists gave prominence to- Characters' pains and

sufferings of child life

r Dickens choose children as his heroes because- It was the easiest way of

awakening the publicconscience and consciousnessagainst the exploitation of thepoor by the rich

r Dickens turned for guidance and model to ––––and –––––

- Fielding and Smollett

r Dickens was a painter of –––– life- London

r Dickens always dealt with the –––– side of familiarthings

- Romantic

William Thackeray (1811-1863)Thackeray belonged to the early Victorians.

Though a Victorian, he had his sympathies with thepast, with the 18th century writers. He took Fielding ashis model. Barry Lyndon, Vanity fair, Henry Esmond,the History of Pendennis, The New comes, The Virgin-ians were his major works. This novels are loosely con-structed, His method of telling his story is an extensionof Fielding. It is irony that plays a significant part inThackeray's narration and handling of plot. He restoredto English fiction a sober actuality and solid realism.His Vanity Fair created a stir in the Victorian world, asit was without a hero. "Henry Esmond' was his greatestwork. It is a historical novel dealing with the reign ofWilliam III and Queen Anne. 'Newcomes' is his mostpathetic novel.

Charles Kingsley (1819-75)Kingsley was a good spirited writer of the second

rank. He wanted in the novel stirring episodes, variedexcitment, and a past that seemed richer in colour thanthe drab facilities of contemporary Victorian Cathedraltowns. He is a keen observer 'Yeast, a problem' was thefirst of his novels, followed by 'Alton Locke, Tailor andpoet, Hypatia, Westward Ho ! was the most successfulnovel, and 'Hereward the wake'. His zeal for social re-form in evident in 'Yeast and Altonlocke.

Humanitarian novels of the Victorian ageThe Victorian Age was an age of intense activities

in commerce industry and finance. There was a revolu-tion in commercial enterprise, due to the great increaseof available markets, and as a result of this, an immenseadvance in the use of mechanical devices. On the oth-erside of this picture of commercial expansion was theappalling social conditions of the new industrial cities,the squalid and insanitary slums inhabited by discon-tented operatives, the exploitation of cheap labour, of-ten of women and children. The evils of Industrial Rev-olution were vividly painted by such writers as Disraeli,Dickens, Mrs. Gaskell and they called forth the mis-sionary efforts of men like kingsley.

The social novel was most assiduously cultivatedby Benjamin Disraeli. His 'Sybil is a powerful exposureof abuses connected with the relations of capital andlabour. The social problems of England found a pas-sionate exponent in Mrs. Elizabeth Gaskell Her 'MaryBarton' and 'North and South', gives a realistie view ofthe hardships caused by the Industrial Revolution asseen from the worker's point of view.

Dickens was a great social reformer and his novelsbelong to the humanitarian movement of the Victorianera. He constituted himself the champion of the weak,the outcast and the oppressed. In nearly all novels thereis an attack upon some legal or social evil. He satirisedboarding schools in 'Nicholas 'Nickleby' the court ofchancery in 'Bleak house', the new manufacturing sys-tem in 'Hard Times' the work house in 'Oliver Twist', thepettifogging lawyers in 'Great Expectation'.

Thackeray was essentially a social satirist and arealist. His persistant and telling effects upon snob-bery affectation and humbug had its effects on society.George Eliot's role was to be that of recorder and reflec-

tive observer of man in society. In many of his novelsshe depicts the old fashioned provincial life. In 'FelixHolt', She has tried to depict the turmoil and dislocation, in the days following the passing of the first ReformBill. The society of 'Adam Bede', is paternalist and feu-dalistic.

Charles kingsley was an ardent social reformer, andthe most vigorous of the humanitarian novelists of themid-Victorian, age, His 'Alton Locke,' Yeast and Two yearsago are full of the unrest of their time and of the writer'spassionate earnestness in the cause of the masses.

r 'Henry Esmond' is the famous novel of

- William Thackeray

r ––––plays a significant part in Thackeray'snarration and handling of plot

- Irony

r Thackeray's 'Vanity Fair' was a novel, famous for

- its absence of a hero

r 'Westward Ho ! the most successful novel of

- Charles Kingsley

r Evils of Industrial Revolution were painted bywriters like

- Disraeli, Dickens, Mrs.Gaskell

r The social novel was most assiduously cultivatedby

- Benjamin Disraeli

Anthony TrollopeTrollope is regarded as 'garrulous male Jane Aus-

ten unaware of the stress and storm of the world. Hesurpassed his contemporaries in literary output Hisnotion of a novel was the same as that of his contempo-raries. 'The cathedral stories, The warden, BarchesterTower, Phineas, Children, The Prime Minister , TheDuke's children are form a series and the novels of par-liamentary life. Trollope was a realist, He does not de-pend on his imaginative skill for his success. His vigi-lant sense of reality prevents him from dividing his char-acters into comic and serious as his contemporariesdid. His characters are probable and not dummies. Hisplots are conventional and his humour is of the veryhighest quality He was a novelist of the middle andupper class.

r –––– is regarded as' garrulous male Jane Austen'unaware of the stress and storm of the world

- Anthony Trollope

r Name Socio - political essay in which Arnold'sviews on education are presented

- Culture and Anarchy

r 'The Scholar Gypsy' owes its title and theme to abook entitled

- Vanity of Dogmatising byJoseph Glanvil

r An essential feature of the pastoral conventionsis that

- the poet should resort toconventional mode ofnarration

r Arnold excelled in writing ––– kind of poetry.

- Elegiac

r Pastoralism in European literature originated in

- Greece

Charlotte Bronte (1816-55)Charlotte, Emile, Anne - Bronte sisters occupy a

distinctive place in the history of English fiction. Theybrought about the imaginative revival of fiction andgave it the colour of poetry and passion.

Charlotte began as a poetess and then drifted tonovel writing. She wrote four novels insuccession. Jane Eyre, Shirley, Vilette andThe professor. 'Jane Eyre' was publishedunder the Pseudonym 'Curror Bell'. It wasa veiled autobiography and reveals thelove story of charlotte. 'Shirley' is extremelyrealistic factual in character 'Villete' is alove story and 'The Professor' is franklyautobiographical.

Charlotte Bronte broke a new groundin the history of the English novel. Shelooked into her heart and wrote of thing.She had initimately known. She was pri-marily concerned with the bearing of thehuman soul in its nakedness. This methodwas carried forward by George Eliot, when she dealtwith states of conscience and feeling psychologically,arranging and defining them with an attempt at scientif-ic precision. Her novels are not rich in presenting a

wide view of life such as Henry Fielding. Her novels areautobiographical in character. She lacked humour andwit. She wrote with a skill of an artist in prose. She isfertile in incident, vigorous in narration, vivid in scene.

r Jane Eyre, Shirley, Vilette, The professor are thenovels of

- Charlotte Bronte

r –––– is hailed as the 'Sphinx of modern literature'

- Emily Bronte

r The single, masterly production of Emily Brontewas

- Wuthering Heights

r by Emily Bronte presents, for the first time the herohimself as the anti hero

- Wuthering Heights

r 'Jane Eyre' was published by Charlotte Bronteunder the psuedonym

- Curror Bell

r 'Jane Eyre' was a veiled autobiography and revealsthe love story of

- Charlotte Bronte

4 Write a note on Emily Bronte as a novelist withspecial reference of her 'Wuthering Heights ?

Emily Bronte (1818-48)Emily Bronte was a unique personal-

ity in the history of Victorian literature.Clement shorter calls her "the Sphinx ofmodern literature". She was a poet andnovelist. Her poems are the musings of aspace-sweeping soul.

She is known by her one single, mas-terly production 'wuthering Heights,'. Itis a masterpiece work of art extremelystrange, wild and 'elemental in character.It is a novel of extra - ordinary power,intense passion, fiery emotion, deep love,strong hate and stormy feelings. It is anovel of terror and revenge and it thrills

us at several place by its lyrical intensity of passionand its emotional exuberance.

PlotMr and Mrs. Earnshaw lived in a farm house '

Emily Bronte

Wuthering Heights' They had two children Hindley,Catherine. Another family, equally reputable, the familyof the Lintons lived in Thrush cross Grange. They hadtwo children Edgar and Isabella. Oneday Mr. Earnshawcame back from a business trip, with a homeless boywhom he had picked up from the street. He wanted theboy to live with them in the house. He gave him thename of 'Heathcliff', the name of one of his sons whohad died earlier. But the name of Earnshaw was notadded to the name of the boy. Hindley hated him, Cathe-rine and her father liked him. A few days later Mr.Earnshaw died and Hindley became the master of thehouse. He degraded the boy to a servant's level andtreated him badly. Catherine loved Heath intensivelyand Hindley wanted her to marry Edgar Linton, Morti-fied with the incidents and fed up with the cruelty, Heathcliff quietly slipped away from the house.

Three years later he comes back, rich, polishedgentleman but with fire in heart Hindley now welcomeshim and Heathcliff stays again at Wuthering heights.Catherine, already married to Edgar Linton, was torn inconflict between the love for her husband and her lov-er. She could not bear the strain of this conflict and diesgiving birth to daughter, Cathy. Catherine s death deep-ly affects Heathcliff and he decides to take revenge, oneverything that stood against his happiness. He ruinsHindley and becomes master of the Wuthering Heights.He ill treats Hindley and his son and reduces them asservants. He elopes with Isabella Linton and rejoicedthat their son Linton Healthcliff was also the heir ofThrush cross Grange. Young Healthcliff was forced washis father to entrap young Cathy in marriage, WhileEdgar Linton dies. Thus Heathcliff possesses of all theLinton and Earnshaw property. This plan of revenge isnow accomplished but fails in making all the Linton'sand Earnshaws wretched. The remaining young gener-ation lives in harmony. Heathcliff haunted by the visionof Catherine, dies in joy when the vision becomes com-plete. He joins Catherine in her grave in a state of ago-nized madness.

The novel marks the triumph of goodness and pre-sents the slow wearing out of evil from the earth in thedefeated intentions of Healthcliff. This novel is uniquefor its dark and thunderous atmosphere and its power-ful fusion of inordinately passionate love and hate. Thestory is narrated by Mr. Lockwood, the tenant to Thrush-cross range and Nelly Dean, the house keeper.

Anne Bronte : She was the youngest of the Bron-te sisters. Her works are Agnes Grey and The Tenant ofwild fell Hall'. These two works are inferior in quality incomparison to the work of her sisters. The two novelsare simple in structure, with keen observation, franklanguage and unsparing honesty.

r The Pen-name adopted by Dickens- Boz

r The age to which Dickens belong- Victorian

r Dicken's 'Hard Times' is a _____ type of novel- Realistic

r The primary narrator of the story of the novel 'Wuthering Heights'.

- Mrs. Nelly Dean

r Hardy's Tess of the D' Urbervilles can be regardedas an explication of the theory of

- Fatalism

r ____ provides the background for Hardy's novels

- Wessex

r Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw are charactersin

- Wuthering Heights

r What was the aim of Pre-Raphaelites ?

- To encourage simplicity andnaturalness in art andliterature.

r Oxford movement was also known as

- Tractarian Movement

r What was the movement in the 1880's, whose Credowas 'Art for Art's sake and was propounded byWalter Pater, Oscar wilde, and Dawson ?

- Aesthetic Movement

r The subtitle of Andrea Del Sarto is

- The faultless painter

r D.G.Rossetti, William Morris and A.C. Swinburnebelong to the school of poetry known as

- Pre-Raphaelites

George Eliot (1819-80)George Eliot alias Mary Ann Evans, was one of the

most distinguished writers of fiction during the Victorianage. Her major works are scenes of clerical life- AdamBede, The Mill on the Floss, Silas Marner: The Weaver

of Reveloe, Romola, Middle March, and Daniel Deron-da. The Mill on the Floss is an autobiographical novel.Silas Marner is artistically the most perfect of her novels.

She intellectualised the novel and gave in a moralfervour and ethical bias. She did not care for plot con-struction, but for her idea. Hers are the first novels whichset out to give a picture of the wholly unmodified bythose formulas of a good plot. Her story is conditionedsolely by the logical demands of situation of character.Realism and faithful portraiture of life known to her arethe hall marks of her early novels. She was psychologicalnovelist. Her great contribution to the novel was seri-ousness, gravity, solemnity and loftiness that she im-parted to the novel. As a moralist, she believed in theprinciple of free will. In her view everyman's characterwas in his own hand to mould into the right shape orwrong and she desired that man's full strength should bedevoted to the formation of right conduct and rightthought. Her style is lucid, simple, and is over weightedwith abstrations.

r The Oxford movement is against- Rationalism, Reason, Logic

r The liberty which poets take is- Poetic license

r 'Heroes and Hero Worship' was a major work of- Thomas Carlyle

r "The Mill on the Floss' is an autobiographicalwork of

- George Eliotr Thackeray's first great novel is

- Vanity Fairr Dickens began his career with

- the sketches by Boz.r 'David Coppeifield' was a scathing criticism against

- Contemporary education andschools run by private firms.

r Thackeray was a contemporary of- Charles Dickens

r 'The picture of Dorian Gray' is a beautiful novel inwhich Oscar Wilde puts the best of his

- Aestheticismr 'Becket, ' masterpiece work of Tennyson is the best

of his- Poetic dramas

r Drury Lane and Covent Garden are- the popular theatres of the

19th century

r 'A Blot in the Scutcheon' a play written byBrowning is influenced by

- Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet

r Dicken's 'Hard Times is an open attack against

- Evils of industrialism

Thomas Hardy

Contribution of Thomas Hardy to English novel

Hardy (1840-1928), the prominent victorian novel-ist, gave a new depth and gravityto the English novel.He was the creater of the philosophical novel. He creat-ed wessex - a small tract of country rich with its ownpeculiar atmosphere, passions and tragedies. Thus herfurther enriched the regional trend in the English Novel.

"Hardy's books are always pictures, and neverphotographs ; and we like them as we like goodpictures; for aesthetic reasons, not only becausethey recall reality to us but because they stir ouremotions directly by their own individual quality"

- David Cecil

Hardy classified his novels as

1. Novels of character and EnvironmentUnder the Greenwood Tree, Far from the madding

Crowd, The return of the Nature, The Mayor of Caster-bridge, The woodlandlers, Wessex Tales, Tess of theDurbervilles, Life's Little Ironies, and a few crusted char-acters Jude the obscure.

2. Romances and FantasiesA pair of Blue eyes, The Trumpet major, Two on a

tower, The group of Noble Dames, The well Beloved.

3. Novels of IngenuityDesperate Remedies, The Hand of Ethelbetra, A

Laodicean.Hardy was the last great novelist of the Victorian

age. The range of his novels was fairly wide ; the prob-lems of marriage, unhappy wedlocks, divorces and loveaffairs. He was a conscientious artist, and believedthat the novel should be as much of a whole as a livingorganism, in which all component parts such as plot,dialogue, character, scenery, are fitly framed togetherHis novels are masterly works of art.

He laid great stress in the plot or story of his nov-els. There is an architectonic quality in his plot con-

struction. Hardy's plot are not simple. In the words ofCazamian "They grow out of elementary passions, am-bition, greed, love, jealousy and the thirst for knowl-edge and the springs which move themare psychological. His range of char-acterisation is limited, and he could drawonly people belonging to the wessexregion. Hardy, for the first time in En-glish literature, has chosen peasanttypes for his heroes and heroines in aseries of literary masterpieces. His char-acters are emotional rather than intel-lectual.

His male characters are vivid, pas-sionate, emotional and impulsive. Theyusually suffer from indecision. He ex-cels in presenting female characters -women who are of a higher order ofpersonality like Tess, sue, ElizabethJane, women to less personal significance - Grace, Anneviviette etc. He prefers women who belong to the coun-try side.

His vision of life is not very attractive and glamor-ous. His attitude to life is pessimistic and gloomy in thesense that almost in all his tragic novels, we come acrosspictures of despair and defection, of hopes unfulfilled,and plans uncarried out. Man proposes and God dis-poses stands true in all his works.

Short notes

Poetry of the ninetiesThe poetry of this period was characterised by a

note of pessimism, a tendency to ignore problems, anda tendency of not taking positive attitudes for or againstcurrent ideas. It was a period of growing disillusion-ment and indecision and this is clearly borne out by thescanty poetic production in this period. The poetry ofthis period showed escapism, art for art's sake, avoid-ance of reality marked with doubt and pessimism, and areturn to spiritual security . The prominent figures wereThomas Hardy, John Davidson, Ernet Dowson and A.E.Housman. Among the religious poets G.M. HopkinsCoventry Patmore, Francis Thompson and Alice Mey-nell.

Fiction of the ninetiesIn the nineties fiction was not only used as a medi-

um of propaganda but also the spirit of romance wasrestored to the novel. H.G. wells wrote novels of scienceand social criticism. 'The Time Machine' of Wells is a

scientific romance. The Romantic spirit emergedin the fiction of Stevenson, Conrad, Barrie andKipling.

The aesthetic groupThe aesthetic group or Decadent

movement is frequently regarded as synony-mous with the nineties. The most famous fig-ure in the aesthetic movement were AubreyBeardsley, Ernest Dowson John Davidson,Arthur symons and above all Oscar Wilde.Wilde was the best and the most memorablewriter of the aesthetic group. He is best re-membered of his comedy 'The Importance ofbeing Earnest' and by his prose fiction. Thepicture of Dorian Gray and De Profundis, In

poetry, Prose and drama, he embodied the spirit of thedecadent school of the nineties. He struck against con-temporary standards of taste and morality and morefundamentally at contemporary society.r Marry Ann Evans is the true name of the famous

writer- George Eliot

r 'The Mill on the Floss' is an auto biographicalnovel of

- George Eliotr 'Silas Marner' is artistically perfect novel of

- George Eliotr –––– was the creater of the philosophical novel

- Thomas Hardyr Hardy promoted the –––trend in the English novel

- regionalr ––––– was the last great novelist of the Victorian age

- Thomas Hardyr Hardy's attitude to life is –––– which is seen in his

almost all tragic novels- Pessimistic and gloomy

r Man proposes and God disposes stands true in ––– works

- Hardy'sr The ––– movement is a famous movement of the

nineties- Decadent

r Oscar Wilde was the leading figure of the –––group

- aesthetic

Thomas Hardy