Adam Sumera
2nd year: English Novel
Lecture 1
Part One
1. What is a novel?
attempts at a definition: "an extended fictional narrative in written form"
novel and romance
Margaret Schlauch: a specifically modern form of fiction, realized at some length in prose (not
in verse, as were the ancient & feudal epics), dealing with ordinary men & women (not the
supernatural or larger-than-life figures of the age of myth), and making some claims to
verisimilitude in its manner of presentation
Fielding: "comic epic in prose" (in Joseph Andrews)
2. Antecedents of the novel
Elizabethan romance / mannered narrative: Sir Philip Sidney Arcadia (1580, 1590), John Lyly
Euphues (1578, 1580)
Elizabethan prose fiction: Thomas Nashe The Unfortunate Traveller (1594), Thomas Deloney
Thomas of Reading (1600)
John Bunyan The Pilgrim's Progress (1678, 1684)
3. Foreign influences
Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote (1605-15)
Part Two
Daniel Defoe (1660?-1731)
Robinson Crusoe 1719, Captain Singleton 1720, Moll Flanders 1722, A Journal of the Plague
Year 1722
Robinson Crusoe: The Life and strange surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe appeared in
1719, its sequel, The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, was published some months
later
a spoof-autobiography which was to be taken by his readers as fact
circumstantial realism
Moll Flanders: The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders
Spanish picaro = rogue, cunning trickster.
Anonymous Lazarillo de Tormes (1553)
Contemporaries:
The Augustan Age (1700-1740)
poetry:
Alexander Pope (1688-1744): The Rape of the Lock 1712-14
prose:
Joseph Addison & Richard Steele: The Tatler 1709-11 (periodical), The Spectator 1711-12
(periodical)
Jonathan Swift: Gulliver's Travels 1726, Modest Proposal 1729
John Locke: Essay Concerning Human Understanding 1690
Recommended further reading:
- Jerzy Strzetelski et al., Chronological Tables of English Literature
- Ian Watt, The Rise of the Novel (Polish translation: Narodziny powieści)
Adam Sumera
2nd year: English Novel
Lecture 2
Contemporaries:
poetry:
Thomas Gray (1716-71): An Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard (1751)
other writings:
Samuel Johnson (1709-84): A Dictionary of the English Language (1755)
Samuel Richardson (1689-1761)
Pamela: or, Virtue Rewarded (1740-41), Clarissa (1747-48), Sir Charles Grandison (1753-54)
epistolary novel
narration - comparison with Robinson ( ____ _____ _____ against ________________ )
Henry Fielding (1707-54)
mock-heroic farce Tom Thumb 1730
Shamela (1741) - a lampoon, anonymous but almost certainly his
Joseph Andrews (1742), Jonathan Wild the Great (1743), Tom Jones (1749), Amelia (1751)
Fielding in Joseph Andrews: "comic epic in prose" (preface explains his aim). "The only source
of the true ridiculous . . . is affectation"
telling names (Slipslop, Lady Tittle, Lady Tattle, Lady Booby)
mock-heroic style
similarities to the works of William Hogarth
Recommended further reading:
- Ian Watt, The Rise of the Novel (Polish translation: Narodziny powieści)
Adam Sumera
2nd year: English Novel
Lecture 3
Tobias Smollett (1721-71)
Roderick Random (1748), Peregrine Pickle (1751), The Expedition of Humphry Clinker (1771)
translated Don Quixote (1755)
Humphry Clinker - a picaresque novel written in letters
Characters writing letters: Mr Matthew Bramble and his family party - his sister Tabitha, his
nephew and niece Jerry and Lydia, and the maid Winifred Jenkins.
Humphry Clinker is a coachman who joins the party on the way, turns out to be Mr Bramble's
illegitimate son, and marries Winifred.
Malapropism
Laurence Sterne (1713-68) The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy (1759-67), A
Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy (1768). Influenced by François Rabelais
(1495-1553) and John Locke (Essay Concerning Human Understanding /1690/)
Henry Mackenzie (1745-1831) The Man of Feeling (1771) - probably the most celebrated of
sentimental novels. A similar pattern of innocent suffering - in Oliver Goldsmith's novel The
Vicar of Wakefield (1766) /Goldsmith - play She Stoops to Conquer 1773/
Gothic Novel
inspiration:
- poetry: Thomas Gray (1716-71): An Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard (1751)
- philosophy: Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime
and the Beautiful (1756)
sublimity
Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto (1764)
Clara Reeve, The Old English Baron (1777)
William Beckford, Vathek (1786)
Ann Radcliffe, The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794), The Italian (1797)
M(atthew) G(regory) Lewis, The Monk (1796)
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (1818)
John Polidori, The Vampyre (1822)
terror gothic, horror gothic
supernatural element (in Radcliffe's works - the supernatural explained)
Walpole's innovations used by other writers of Gothic novel: a Gothic castle (vaults, passages,
dungeons, convent, gusts of wind, moonlight, groans, clanking of chains); the supernatural
element (e.g., a portrait coming to life); the use of forces of nature to produce an atmosphere;
Theodore - one of the sources of the Byronic hero - dark-haired, handsome, melancholy and
mysterious. The other characters became the stock characters of Gothic fiction: the tyrant, the
heroine, the challenger, the monk.
Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus /prəʊʹmi:θju:s/ - In 1816 the Shelleys, Byron, his
physician Dr John Polidori and M.G. Lewis were staying at a villa near Geneva. Byron read
some German ghost stories and suggested they should each write one (cf. Ken Russel's 1986
film Gothic). Out of this came the first vampire story in English – Dr Polidori's The Vampyre.
Frankenstein itself was filmed many times, starting with the movie of 1931 with Boris Karloff as
the Monster. A recent version with Kenneth Brannagh as Dr Frankenstein.
Gothic novel developed into several genres - e.g., historical novel, science fiction, detective
story
Use of gothic elements by other writers - the Brontës, Dickens (Miss Havisham)
Superstitious dread was satirized by Jane Austen (Northanger Abbey 1818)
Adam Sumera
2nd year: English Novel
Lecture 4
Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832)
1798-1832 Romanticism (1798: Lyrical Ballads, 1832: Scott's death)
Scott's poetry:
 The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805)
 Marmion (1808)
 The Lady of the Lake (1810)
 also an influential collection of ballads, Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border (1802-3)
(interspersed previously uncollected folk-poetry with Scott's verse)
novels:
 Waverley (1814)
 Rob Roy (1817)
 The Heart of Midlothian (1818)
 The Bride of Lammermoor (1819)
 Ivanhoe (1819)
 Kenilworth (1821)
 He wrote about 30 novels; only one of them (St Ronan's Well, 1823) was set in Scott's own
time
an important influence:
Maria Edgeworth (1767-1849) Castle Rackrent (1800)
Historical novel: a novel set in a well-defined historical context, generally before the author's
own life (and therefore, in that sense at least, not based on the author's own experience, but on
other sources, whether literary or historical). Historical novels often include versions of real
events and persons and descriptions of social customs, clothing, buildings etc. to give an effect
of verisimilitude.
time precisely specified, reference to historical events
historical details - setting, clothes, etc.
historical characters (e.g. Richard Coeur de Lion in Ivanhoe)
the use of vernacular
Adam Sumera
2nd year: English Novel
Lecture 5
Jane Austen (1775-1817)
Sense and Sensibility 1797 (printed 1811)
Pride and Prejudice 1796? (printed 1813)
Mansfield Park (1812)
Emma (1814)
Northanger Abbey 1798 (printed 1818)
Persuasion 1815? (printed 1818)
The novels were published anonymously, her authorship was revealed only after her death,
through a biographical notice that came out with Northanger Abbey and Persuasion at the end
of 1817.
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the greatest novelist of manners
she invented her own special mode of fiction, the domestic comedy of middle-class
manners
accuracy and realism, commentary upon middle-class life and manners
inspired by Restoration drama (Sheridan, Garrick - their plays were performed by the family
at the rectory at Steventon): in many scenes the characters stand before us like actors on a
plain and shallow stage. Importance of dialogue
irony
first title of Pride and Prejudice - First Impressions
Northanger Abbey - in part a satire on the sensational and sentimental literature of the time,
particularly on the enormously popular Mysteries of Udolpho by Mrs Radcliffe.
Austen denies black-and-white morality - the words used in titles are shown to be complex:
'sense' can be as tiresome or as dangerous as 'sensibility'; 'pride' and 'prejudice' can be
strength as well as weakness.
Adam Sumera
2nd year: English Novel
Lecture 6
Victorian novel
Victorian period - the period coinciding with the reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901), commonly
divided into three:
1 1837-51: the Early Victorian period.
2 1851-1870: The Mid-Victorian period.
3 1870-1901: the Late Victorian Period.
Bowdler, respectability
William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-63)
The Book of Snobs 1847
Vanity Fair 1847-48 (published serially)
Pendennis 1848-49
Henry Esmond 1852
Vanity Fair - a town through which the pilgrims pass in John Bunyan's prose allegory Pilgrim's Progress
(1678, 1684). 'Vanity' in the biblical sense is equivalent to triviality and worthlessness, and it includes all
the good things of this world, when compared to the values of the heavenly world of the spirit: 'Vanity of
vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity' (Ecclesiastes 1:2).
‘A Novel without a Hero’
some of the characters: Becky Sharp, Amelia Sedley, Joe Sedley, Rawdon Crawley, George
Osborne, Captain Dobbin (the only human values), Lord Steyne
George Meredith (1828-1909)
The Egoist 1879
Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) (1832-98)
a mathematics lecturer at Oxford University
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland 1865
Through the Looking Glass 1872
Wilkie Collins (1824-89)
the first English novelist who dealt with the detection of crime.
The Woman in White 1860
The Moonstone 1868
These novels of sensation established a pattern for English detective fiction.
Benjamin Disraeli (1804-81)
Tory politician and prime minister, of Jewish origin. Novels of social and political satire, humour
'Young England Trilogy':
Coningsby 1844
Sybil, or The Two Nations 1845
Tancred 1847
Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-65)
Mary Barton 1848
Cranford 1853
North and South 1855
Edward Bulwer Lytton (1803-73)
His novels were very famous in his lifetime but now are little respected.
Anthony Trollope (1815-82):
Adam Sumera
Barchester Towers 1857
2nd year: English Novel
Lecture 7
Charles Dickens (1812-70)
Pickwick Papers 1836-37
Oliver Twist 1837-38
Nicholas Nickleby 1838-39
Christmas Carol 1843
Dombey and Son 1846-48
David Copperfield 1849-50
Bleak House 1852-53
Hard Times 1854
Little Dorrit 1855-57
A Tale of Two Cities 1859
Great Expectations 1860-61
Our Mutual Friend 1864-65
Edwin Drood 1870
The most popular and internationally known of English novelists.
lower-middle class origin, childhood in poverty, his father jailed for debts, had to work in a
blacking factory as a child, received little education. He began his career as a journalist,
reporting debates in the House of Commons.
Pickwick Papers – light-hearted; originally ordered as commentary to pictures
Hard Times - system of education and bringing up children (Sissy, Bitzer, Louisa, Tom;
Gradgrind’s tragedy "a wisdom of the Head and a wisdom of the Heart")
The only novel by Dickens not at least partly set in London.
Gradgrind is based on the Utilitarian leader James Mill; he is an educationist who believes that
education should be merely practical and hence factual, allowing no place for imagination or
emotion.
Great Expectations - mystery and tragedy. Miss Havisham - Gothic scenes
public readings
Adam Sumera
2nd year: English Novel
Lecture 8
Patrick Brontë, the Irish-born rector of Haworth in Yorkshire, had five daughters and a son
(Branwell).
the children developed their own imaginative world, set in the kingdoms of Angria and Gondal,
which they chronicled in minute script in a series of tiny books.
Charlotte, Emily and Anne published together "Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell" (the
pseudonyms reflected the initial letters of their names but gave no hint of their sex). They sold
only two copies (only Emily's verse is particularly noteworthy).
Emily Brontë (1818-48)
Wuthering Heights 1847 (the same year as Vanity Fair; two months after Jane Eyre)
her only novel, published under the name of Ellis Bell
Charlotte Brontë (1816-55)
Jane Eyre 1847 (a fictional autobiography, the story of a poor governess who wins the love of
the rich Mr Rochester. The terrible secret of Rochester’s wife, kept in the attic. Jane Eyre – the
first female figure in the English novel having the freedom of action of the modern woman. Jane
Eyre – an important text for feminist criticism)
Shirley 1849
Vilette 1853
The Professor 1857 (her first novel, published posthumously)
Anne Brontë (1820-49)
Agnes Grey (1847)
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848)
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys (1966) – an interesting novel describing the earlier life of
Mrs Rochester (a kind of prequel to Jane Eyre)
Adam Sumera
2nd year: English Novel
Lecture 9
George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) (1819-80)
first period:
Scenes of Clerical Life (tales) 1857
Adam Bede 1859
The Mill on the Floss 1860
Silas Marner 1861
transitional period:
Romola 1862-63
Felix Holt 1866
final period:
Middlemarch 1871-72
Daniel Deronda 1874-76
Brought up in a narrow religious tradition, in her early twenties she adopted agnostic opinions
about Christian doctrine (= neither belief nor disbelief; the term was invented by biologist Thomas
Huxley)
Began her literary carrer with translations (from German) of two works of religious speculation.
Interested in philosophy and a friend of Herbert Spencer; a free-thinker and a translator of
philosophical works.
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)
Far from the Madding Crowd 1874
The Return of the Native 1878
The Mayor of Casterbridge 1886
Tess of the d'Urbervilles 1891
Jude the Obscure 1895
Novelist and poet, and former architect.
Wessex