American Literature Book II Table of Contents New England Transcendentalism Ralph Waldo Emerson Henry David Thoreau Herman Melville Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Walt Whitman Emily Dickinson Mark Twain Stephen Crane Henry James New England Transcendentalism 1. It is the summit of American Romanticism. 2. Leaders: Emerson and Thoreau 3. Manifesto: Nature written by Ralph Waldo Emerson in 1836, which is regarded as the Bible of New England Transcendentalism. 4. Club: Transcendentalist Club 5. Journal: The Dial 6. Sources: German idealism, Transcendentalism, and American Puritanism. 7. Major features ( ideas): 1) Placing emphasis on spirit, or the Oversoul, as the most important thing in the universe. --a new way of looking at the world 2) Stressing the importance of the individual—self-reliance. --a new way of looking at man 3) Offering fresh perception of nature as symbolic of the spirit or God. (Nature was not purely matter. It was alive, filled with God’s overwhelming presence. It was the garment of the Oversoul.) “The Universe is composed of Nature and the Soul.” “Spirit is present everywhere.” The individual soul communed with the Oversoul and was therefore divine. 8. Influence New England Transcendentalism was important to American literature. It inspired a whole new generation of famous authors as Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Melville, Whitman and Dickinson. And it inspired one of America’s most prolific literary periods in its history. Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American philosopher, poet and essayist The most eloquent spokesman of New England Transcendentalis m. Works Essays: 1. Nature 1836 2. American Scholar 1837 3. Divinity School Address 1838 4. Essay (two series) 1841 1844 5. Representative Men 1850 6. English Traits 1856 7. The Conduct of Life 1860 8. Society and Solitude 1870 9. Letters and Social Aims 1876 10. Self-Reliance 1841 Poems: 1.Poems 2.May Day 3.Concord Hymn 4.The Rhodora 5.The Humble Bee 6.Days 1847 1867 1837 1846 1847 1857 Life Waldo was born May 25, 1803, the fourth of eight children. His father, William Emerson, distinguished minister of First Church, Boston, had drawn his congregation with him into Unitarianism. His father died when Waldo was eight, leaving the family without financial support. His mother Ruth sold her husband's library (which became the Boston Athenaeum), took in boarders and worked as a maid. They often had not enough to eat. Waldo and his brother Charles had only one overcoat between them. Taunting schoolfellows asked, "Whose turn is it to wear the great-coat today?" Waldo entered Harvard at 14. He began then to keep a journal, a practice he continued for the rest of his life, later calling its volumes—all long since published—his "savings bank." After graduation from the College in 1821, at the age of 18, Emerson taught school for his uncle in Waltham and later opened a finishing school for girls, but he did not enjoy school teaching. In 1825, Emerson gave up his teaching to enter Harvard Divinity School to study theology. Both Emerson’s older brother and his youngest died in 1834 and 1836 after Emerson himself had recovered from two years of tuberculosis in 1827. In 1829 Emerson was ordained as junior pastor of Boston’s prestigious Second Unitarian Church in 1829. That same year he married Ellen Tucker who died only 6 months later. Yet in 1832, in a radical departure from common practice, Emerson resigned his pulpit and never served another congregation. That same year Emerson toured Europe, meeting such major English poets as Wordsworth, Carlyle, and Coleridge. Through his acquaintance with these men he became closely involved with German idealism and Transcendentalism. In 1833 Emerson began a new career as a lecturer. He made Concord his home and lived there for the rest of his life. In 1835 he married Lydia Jackson. Lydian, as he called her, took a keen interest in his ideas and his work. They had four children. The loss of their first, Waldo, who died in 1842 at the age of five, was very hard. Their other children were Ellen, Edith and Edward Waldo. The sum-up of Emerson’s ideas The transcendence of the Oversoul. Emerson advocated a direct intuition of a spiritual and immanent God in nature. In his opinion, man is made in the image of God and is just a little less than Him. His Nature, which is generally regarded as the Bible of Transcendentalism, records his “moment of ecstasy” (妙悟时刻) , the moment of losing one’s individuality. The infinitude of man and human perfectibility. Emerson believes that the possibilities for man to develop and improve himself are infinite. Man should and could be self-reliant. Everyone makes himself by making his world, and he makes the world by making himself. The world exists for the individual and man should decide upon their own destinies. The regeneration of the individual leads to the regeneration of society. Emerson’s idea was an expression of the spirit of his time, the hope that man can become the best person he could hope to be. Nature as symbolic of God. In the eyes of Emerson, “nature is the vehicle of thought,” and “particular natural facts are symbols of particular spiritual facts”. Thus everything bears a secondary and an ulterior sense. A flowing river indicates the ceaseless motion of the universe. The seasons correspond to the life span of man. The ant is the image of man himself, small in body but mighty in heart. This is why Emerson called his most important work Nature rather than anything else. Emerson’s aesthetics Emerson believes that good poetry and true art should teach, serve as a moral purification. Emerson emphasizes ideas, symbols and imaginative words. Emerson advocates that American writers should write about America here and now. America itself is a long poem that is worthy of celebrating. Emerson possesses a cheerful optimism. He believes that there is force that can make the bad good and the good better. Good is a good doctor, and Bad is a better doctor. Angels must always be stronger than demons. Emerson’s influence Emerson’s importance in the intellectual history of America lies in the fact that he embodied a new nation’s desire and struggle to assert its own identity in its formative period. His aesthetics brought about a revolution in American literature. It marked the birth of true American poetry. He called for an independent culture, which represented the desire of the whole nation to develop a culture of its own. Nature , the Bible of Transcendentalism “The American Scholar”, regarded as “Declaration of Intellectual Independence” “The Poet”, the job of a poet to the seer, the sayer and the namer “Self-Reliance”, the importance of cultivating oneself “Each and All”, a poem in celebration of the wholeness. “Each is part of all, and all is in each.” “Rhodora”, a poem that argues that beauty is its own excuse of being Evaluation During his lifetime he was considered one of the two or three best writers in America, and certainly the most influential among his contemporaries. Thoreau, Whitman, Dickinson, Hawthorne, Melville, Frost and Wallace Stevens and many others were indebted to him in varying degrees. His influence extended beyond his own century. His reputation has fallen somewhat in the present century. 4) Questions a) What did Emerson and Thoreau deny? b) What did they strongly affirm? c) How has Transcendentalism been defined? d) What is “Understanding”/ “Reason”? e) Why was he not invited back to Harvard for 30 years? f) How did Emerson envisioned religion? g) Where did Emerson’s greatest fame come from? Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) American writer, philosopher, and naturalist American essayist and poet Leader of American Transcendentalis m Works 1. 2. 3. 4. Walden, or Life in the Woods 1854 Civil Disobedience 1849 Life Without Principle 1863 A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers 1849 5. The Maine Woods 1864 6. Cape Cod 1865 7. Slavery in Massachusetts 1854 Life Henry David Thoreau was born on July 12, 1817, in Concord, Massachusetts. Thoreau grew up in Concord and attended Harvard, where he was known as a serious though unconventional scholar. During his Harvard years he was exposed to the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson, who later became his chief mentor and friend. In 1845 Thoreau built himself a small cabin on the shore of Walden Pond, near Concord; there he remained for more than two years, “living deep and sucking out all the marrow of life.” Wishing to lead a life free of materialistic pursuits, he supported himself by growing vegetables and by surveying and doing odd jobs in the nearby village. He devoted most of his time to observing nature, reading, and writing, and he kept a detailed journal of his observations, activities, and thoughts. It was from this journal that he later distilled his masterpiece, Walden. One of Thoreau’s most important works, the essay “Civil Disobedience” (1849), grew out of an overnight stay in prison as a result of his conscientious refusal to pay a poll tax that supported the Mexican War. Thoreau’s advocacy of civil disobedience as a means for the individual to protest those actions of his government that he considers unjust has had a wide-ranging impact—on the British Labour movement, the passive resistance independence movement led by Gandhi in India, and the nonviolent civil-rights movement led by Martin Luther King in the United States. After graduation, Thoreau worked for a time in his father’s pencil shop and taught at a grammar school, but in 1841 he was invited to live in the Emerson household, where he remained intermittently until 1843. He served as handyman and assistant to Emerson, helping to edit and contributing poetry and prose to the transcendentalist magazine, The Dial. Thoreau is also significant as a naturalist who emphasized the dynamic ecology of the natural world. Above all, Thoreau’s quiet, one-man revolution in living at Walden has become a symbol of the willed integrity of human beings, their inner freedom, and their ability to build their own lives. Thoreau’s writings, including his journals, were published in 20 volumes in 1906. Evaluation He became one of the three great American authors of the 19th century who had not contemporary readers and yet became great in this century, the other two being Herman Melville and Emily Dickinson. His influence goes beyond America. His statue was placed in the hall of Fame in New York in 1969 alongside those of other great Americans. Thoreau has been regarded as a prophet of individualism in American literature. He was very critical of modern civilization. “Civilized man is the salve of matter.” Comment on Walden Between the end of March 1845 and July4, Thoreau constructed a cabin on the shore of Walden Pond, near Concord. There he lived alone until September 1847, supplying his needs by his own labor and developing and testing his transcendental philosophy of individualism, self-reliance and material economy for the sake of spiritual wealth. He sought to reduce his physical needs to a minimum, in order to free himself for study, thought, and observation of nature, himself. Therefore his cabin was a simple room and he wore the cheapest essential clothing and restricted his diet to what he found. Walden can be many things and can be read on more than one level. But it is, first and foremost, a book about man, what he is, and what he should be and must be. Thoreau has faith in the inner virtue and inward, spiritual grace of man. He holds that the most important thing for men to do with their lives is to be self-sufficient and strive to achieve person spiritual perfection. Thoreau was very critical of modern civilization. “Civilized man is the slave of matter,” he said on one occasion. Considered one of the all-time great books, Walden is a record of Thoreau's two year experiment of living at Walden Pond. The writer's chief emphasis is on the simplifications and enjoyment of life now. It is regarded as 1. a nature book. 2. a do-it-yourself guide to simple life. 3. a satirical criticism of modern life and living. 4. a belletristic achievement. 5. a spiritual book. The Reputation of Henry David Thoreau Emerson: "He was bred to no profession; he never went to church; he never voted; he refused to pay a tax to the State; he ate no flesh; he drank no wine; he never knew the use of tobacco; and, though a naturalist, he used neither trap nor gun." Ellery Channing (poet, friend, and biographer): "Thoreau was the PoetNaturalist, a sweet singer of woodland beauty." Frank Sanborn (young Abolitionist friend and biographer): He was a Concord warrior, a later embattled farmer." John Macy (early Socialist critic): "A powerful literary radical, but a little too selfish and aloof to be a good Socialist." Paul Elmer More: "He was one of Rousseau's wild men, but moving toward the higher self-restraint of neohumanism's inner-check." Lewis Mumford: "He was the Father of our National & State Parks." James Russell Lowell: "He was a Transcendentalist crackpot and phony who insisted on going back to flint and steel when he had a matchbox in his pocket; a fellow to the loonies who thought bran or wearing of the substitution of hooks and eyes for buttons would save the world." Thoreau’s Involment in Public Affairs Writing Walden was the high point of Thoreau's life and his main manifesto. Yet there were other important things that involved him. He believed that a writer's work and his life should be one, though he sometimes asserted the opposite. At any rate, he devoted both his writing and his life increasingly to public issues. With word and deed he had fought against the Mexican-American war of the mid-1840s. And in the next decade he became totally involved in the struggle against slavery. In John Brown he found his only hero: he became Brown's friend and ardent defender, and after Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry Thoreau spoke out for him in the most fiery words he ever used. Thoreau always marched to the sound of his own drum, as he said in one of his most enduring aphorisms, and yet the changing times had some effect on him. In the 1840s he was still advising the abolitionists to free themselves before trying to free the slaves, but by the time he stood up for John Brown, he had become a confirmed abolitionist himself. In the 1840s he still opposed war both in theory and practice. Yet when the Civil War came, he welcomed it. The thing that distinguished him was a matter of degree: he demonstrated, far more than most men, that his actions resulted from a consistent application of his personal philosophy. Emerson's Assessment The best analysis of Thoreau's character was Emerson's funeral elegy for him. Emerson was well aware of Thoreau's devotion to his principles and said that he "had a perfect probity." Emerson also realized, perhaps better than anyone else, that Thoreau gave an edge to his probity by his willingness to say no, to dispute, to deny. Emerson characterized Thoreau as a hermit and stoic but added that he had a softer side which showed especially when he was with young people he liked. Furthermore, Thoreau was resourceful and ingenious; he had to be, to live the life he wanted. He was patient and tenacious, as a man had to be to get the most out of nature. He could have been a notable leader, given all those qualities, but, Emerson remarked sadly, Thoreau chose instead to be merely the captain of a huckleberry party. Nevertheless, Thoreau was a remarkable man, and Emerson gave him the highest possible praise by calling him wise. "His soul, " said Emerson in conclusion, "was made for the noblest society." Questions 1. What are the two notable contributions Thoreau made? 2. Who were influenced by Thoreau’s ideas of non-violent resistance to injustices? 3. What is Thoreau’s style? 4. What is Thoreau’s masterpiece? 5. What did Thoreau want to illustrate through his writing? 6. What is the difference between Franklin and Thoreau? Herman Melville (1819-1891) His life represents: one of the greatest tragedies in the North American literary history, one of the greatest losses to American literature, one of the most disgraceful episodes of critical stupidity in the United States Works 1. Redburn 2. Typee 3. Omoo 4. Moby Dick 5. Mardi 6. White Jacket 7. Pierre 8. Billy Budd 1849 1846 1874 1851 1849 1850 1852 1924 Life Melville was born in New York City. Both his parents came from wellto-do families, but later their family business failed. Melville’s childhood was happy to the age of 11, when his father died in debt. Herman Melville was born August 19, 1819 into a slightly eccentric, established New England family. His father Alan imported clothes and other goods from France, providing Herman with a comfortable and happy childhood in New York. After Herman's father died in 1832, the family relied on financial assistance from his mother's wealthy family and Herman left school to go to work. Herman educated himself while working a variety of jobs throughout teens. In 1839, Melville began his affair with sea when he joined the crew of the St. Lawrence and set sail for Liverpool England. In 1840, Melville set sail aboard the Acushnet, a whaling ship headed for the South Pacific. The rough conditions of the sea toughened the romantic New Englander and he took such a liking to sea life that he sailed around the globe four years aboard various ships. Navy. Melville was welcomed home by his family who was entertained by his tales of the high seas and encouraged him to write them down. Herman wrote Typee quickly in 1845, and published it the next year. Typee became a critical and financial success in 1847, Melville married Elizabeth Shaw, daughter of the Chief Justice of Massachusetts. To make himself more financially stable for his impending marriage, Melville sought a position with the U.S. Treasury and took on extra work writing book reviews. Moby Dick published in November 1851, received poor reviews and did not sell. Despite this continued output and the fact his earlier novels continued to be reprinted and sold fairly well, Melville's literary reputation was in rapid decline. His death from a heart attack on September 28, 1891 went entirely unheeded by the general public. Melville's literary reputation remained in decline until he was rediscovered in the 1920's, when a generation, disillusioned by the Great War began to appreciate the depth of Melville's spiritual struggles and the 'modern' experimental style of his stories. Moby Dick Type of work: symbolic novel First publication: 1851 Author: Herman Melville Setting :Most of the book takes place on various oceans, such as the Atlantic, the Indian, and the Pacific, in the early to mid 1800’s. However, a good deal of the first part of the novel takes place in New England inside and around Nantucket. Principal Characters : Ishmael schoolteacher and part-time sailor; a Presbyterian, like Melville, he projects Calvinistic thinking tempered by his background in literature and philosophy. He discusses such issues as free will, predestination, necessity, and damnation. He is the sole survivor of the Pequod. Captain Ahab A man who is obsessed with the killing of a white whale that has maimed him. He has a scar which extends from his head to his leg. Starbuck He the first mate, is bold enough to criticize Ahab's vengeance, considers mutiny but fails. Stubb He is the second mate who is carefree, indifferent, and fatalistic. Moby Dick It is the White Whale; the world’s largest creature. It is powerful, legendary image of nature. It swims peacefully in the sea until disturbed by humans, then shows a terrible fury and anger. For Ahab, Moby Dick is the symbol of evil. Themes of Moby Dick 1. Search for truth The story deals with the human pursuit of truth and the meaning of existence. 2. Conflict between Good and Evil. 3. Conflict between Man and Nature. 4. Isolation between man and man; man and nature; man and society. 5. Solipsism. Symbols 1. The Pequod The Pequod is a symbol of doom. It is painted a gloomy black and covered in whale teeth and bones, literally bristling with the mementos of violent death. It is, in fact, marked for death. Adorned like a primitive coffin, the Pequod becomes one. 2. Moby Dick Moby Dick possesses various symbolic meanings for various individuals. 1) Symbol of nature for human beings, because it is mysterious, powerful, unknown. 2) Symbol of evil for the Captain Ahab. 3) Symbol of good and purity because of its whiteness. 3 Voyage of the Pequod Symbol of the pursuit of ideals, adventure, and the hunt in the vast wilderness. 4) Ahab Symbol of solipsism, revenge and then evil. 5) Starbuck Symbol of good and noble. 6) the Doubloon Symbol of the lure of evil and enticements to greed. 7) Sea Symbol of vastness, loneliness, and isolation. Evaluation Moby Dick is, critics have agreed, one of the world’s greatest masterpieces. To get to know the 19th century American mind and America itself, one has to read this book. One of the classics of American Literature and even world literature. Moby Dick is an encyclopedia of everything, history, philosophy, religion, etc. in addition to a detailed account of the operations of the whaling industry. Questions Who was Herman Melville? What is Melville’s masterpiece? What does Moby Dick symbolize? Why did Melville’s popularity begin to wane as he changed from writing adventure stories to philosophical and symbolic works? When did Melville’s work again come to the attention of literary scholars and the public? Why is Moby Dick difficult to read? Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born in Portland, Maine His father, Stephen Longfellow, was a Portland lawyer and congressman His mother, Zilpah, was the daughter of General Peleg Wadsworth Longfellow was early fond of reading Washington Irving's Sketch-Book was his favorite Among Longfellow's classmates at Bowdoin College was Nathaniel Hawthorne, whom he helped later reviewing warmly his Twice-Told Tales. Before leaving the college, Longfellow had planned to become a writer, and wrote to his father: "The fact is, I most eagerly aspire after future eminence in literature; my whole soul burns most ardently for it, and every earthly thought centers in it..." Longfellow's translation of Horace earned him a scholarship for further studies. After graduating in 1825 he traveled in Italy, France and Spain from 1826 to 1829, and returned to the United States to work as a professor and librarian in Bodwoin. In 1831 he married Mart Storer Potter, and made with her another journey to Europe, where he studied Swedish, Danish, Finnish, and the Dutch language and literature. Longfellow's wife died at Rotterdam in 1835 In 1836 Longfellow began teaching in Harvard Longfellow was married twice - after the death of his first wife he married in 1843 Frances Appleton Frances died tragically in 1861 by burning - her dress caught fire from a lighted match. Longfellow settled in Cambridge, where he remained for the rest of his life Queen Victoria, who was his great admirer, invited him to tea The poet's 70th birthday in 1877 was celebrated around the country Longfellow died in Cambridge on March 24, 1882. In London his marble image is seen in Westminster Abbey, in the Poet's Corner Works of Longfellow Voices of the Night Earlier Poems Ballads and other Poems Poems on Slavery The Belfry of Bruges and other Poems Evangeline: a Tale of Acadie The Seaside and the Fireside The Song of Hiawatha The Courtship of Miles Standish Birds of Passage Tales of a Wayside Inn Ultima Thule In the Harbor Fragments Christus: a Mystery Translations Longfellow’s Influence Longfellow also influenced America's artistic and popular culture. His works inspired artists and composers, and his poems were read and recited not only in parlors and schoolrooms, but also at civic ceremonies. Schools, geographic locations, and ordinary products, even cigars, were named for him and for characters from his poems. In the 1870s, schoolchildren celebrated his birthday as if it were a national holiday. His poetry has been a continuous presence in our language ever since. He is quoted by merchants and manufacturers on their products, by journalists and preachers in their articles and sermons, and by ordinary men and women in their daily lives. Some of his lines and phrases - "A boy's will is the wind's will," "Ships that pass in the night," "Footprints on the sands of time" - are so well known that they have entered the American language. Today they are often quoted without the speaker even knowing Longfellow penned the words. Poetic Features Longfellow was greatly influenced by the German Romanticism One of the reasons why he was loved best in his time is his optimistic attitude in his poetry he was one of the “schoolroom poets” or “fireside poets” His reputation as a major American Poet declined between the two wars for the gentleness and sweetness, and the common subjects He is lacking in passion and high imagination His style and subjects are conventional compared with modern poets Commentary Probably the best loved of American poets the world over is Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. There are two reasons for the popularity and significance of Longfellow's poetry 1. He had the gift of easy rhyme. 2.He wrote on obvious themes which appeal to all kinds of people He made a great contribution to "the flowering of New England Americans owe a great debt to Longfellow because he was among the first of American writers to use native themes Longfellow Quotations 1.All things come round to him who will but wait. 2. All things must change to something new, to something strange. 3. Ambition is so powerful a passion in the human breast, that however high we reach we are never satisfied. 4. Build today, then strong and sure, with a firm and ample base; And ascending and secure. Shall tomorrow find its place. 5. If you only knock long enough and loud enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody. 6. Life is real! Life is earnest! And the grave is not its goal; dust thou art, to dust returnest, was not spoken of the soul. 7. Music is the universal language of mankind. 8. People demand freedom only when they have no power. 9. Sometimes we may learn more from a man's errors, than from his virtues. 10.The talent of success is nothing more than doing what you can do well, and doing well whatever you do without thought of fame. If it comes at all it will come because it is deserved, not because it is sought after. 11. Trust no future, however pleasant! Let the dead past bury its dead! Act - act in the living Present! Heart within and God overhead. Questions Who was the most popular and the best loved poet in the 19th century ? Why was Longfellow often loved by common people? On what kind of subjects does Longfellow’s poetry put its emphasis? Which of Longfellow’s poems was first translated into Chinese? Hymn to the Night I heard the trailing garments of the Night Sweep through her marble halls! I saw her sable skirts all fringed with light From the celestial walls! I felt her presence, by its spell of might, Stoop o'er me from above; The calm, majestic presence of the Night, As of the one I love. I heard the sounds of sorrow and delight, The manifold, soft chimes, That fill the haunted chambers of the Night Like some old poet's rhymes. From the cool cisterns of the midnight air My spirit drank repose; The fountain of perpetual peace flows there,- From those deep cisterns flows. O holy Night! from thee I learn to bear What man has borne before! Thou layest thy finger on the lips of Care, And they complain no more. Peace! Peace! Orestes-like I breathe this prayer! Descend with broad-winged flight, The welcome, the thrice-prayed for, the most fair, The best-beloved Night! The Secret of the Sea Ah! what pleasant visions haunt me As I gaze upon the sea! All the old romantic legends, All my dreams, come back to me. Sails of silk and ropes of sandal, Such as gleam in ancient lore; And the singing of the sailors, And the answer from the shore! Most of all, the Spanish ballad Haunts me oft, and tarries long, Of the noble Count Arnaldos And the sailor's mystic song. Like the long waves on a sea-beach, Where the sand as silver shines, With a soft, monotonous cadence, Flow its unrhymed lyric lines:-- Telling how the Count Arnaldos, With his hawk upon his hand, Saw a fair and stately galley, Steering onward to the land;-- How he heard the ancient helmsman Chant a song so wild and clear, That the sailing sea-bird slowly Poised upon the mast to hear, Till his soul was full of longing, And he cried, with impulse strong,-"Helmsman! for the love of heaven, Teach me, too, that wondrous song!“ "Wouldst thou,"--so the helmsman answered, "Learn the secret of the sea? Only those who brave its dangers Comprehend its mystery!" In each sail that skims the horizon, In each landward-blowing breeze, I behold that stately galley, Hear those mournful melodies; Till my soul is full of longing For the secret of the sea, And the heart of the great ocean Sends a thrilling pulse through me. Walt Whitman • One of the great innovators in • American literature He gave America its first genuine epic poem: Leaves of Grass Life • Born on May 31, 1819, Walt Whitman was the second son of Walter Whitman, a house-builder, and Louisa Van Velsor. • At the age of twelve Whitman began to learn the printer's trade, and fell in love with the written word. • Largely self-taught, he read voraciously, becoming acquainted with the works of Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, and the Bible. • In 1836, at the age of 17, he began his career as teacher in the one-room school houses of Long Island. He continued to teach until 1841, when he turned to journalism as a full-time career. • In the fall of 1848, he founded a "free soil" newspaper, the Brooklyn Freeman, and continued to develop the unique style of poetry that later so astonished Ralph Waldo Emerson. • In 1855, Whitman took out a copyright on the first edition of Leaves of Grass, which consisted of twelve untitled poems and a preface. • He published the volume himself, and sent a copy to Emerson in July of 1855. • Whitman released a second edition of the book in 1856, containing thirty-three poems, a letter from Emerson praising the first edition, and a long open letter by Whitman in response. • Whitman struggled to support himself through most of his life. In Washington he lived on a clerk's salary and modest royalties, and spent any excess money, including gifts from friends, to buy supplies for the patients he nursed. • He had also been sending money to his widowed mother and an invalid brother. From time to time writers both in the states and in England sent him "purses" of money so that he could get by. • In the early 1870s, Whitman settled in Camden, where he had come to visit his dying mother at his brother's house. • after suffering a stroke, Whitman found it impossible to return to Washington. He stayed with his brother until the 1882 publication of Leaves of Grass gave Whitman enough money to buy a home in Camden. • In the simple two-story clapboard house, Whitman spent his declining years working on additions and revisions to a new edition of the book and preparing his final volume of poems and prose, Good-Bye, My Fancy (1891). • After his death on March 26, 1892, Whitman was buried in a tomb he designed and had built on a lot in Harleigh Cemetery. Works • • • • • • • • • • • • • Poetry Drum Taps (1865) Good-Bye, My Fancy (1891) Leaves of Grass (1855) Leaves of Grass (1856) Leaves of Grass (1860) Leaves of Grass (1867) Leaves of Grass (1870) Leaves of Grass (1876) Leaves of Grass (1881) Leaves of Grass (1891) Passage to India (1870) Sequel to Drum Taps (1865) • Prose • Complete Prose Works (1892) • Democratic Vistas (1871) • Franklin Evans; or, The Inebriate (1842) • Memoranda During the War (1875) • November Boughs (1888) • Specimen Days and Collect (1881) Poetic Features • Walt Whitman was one of the most • important American poets in the nineteenth century and one of the great innovators in American literature. In the preface to his Leaves of Grass, he says that one of his focuses is on the sort of poet America required and the sort of poetry America needed. The great American poet would create both new forms and new subject matter for poetry. • In terms of content, American poetry would not echo the sad complaints of the Graveyard school nor follow the moral preaching of didactic poets. As a matter of fact, Whitman himself was that poet and his Leaves of Grass is an example of that poetry. • Whitman’s poetry is typical of America’s. • Leaves of Grass grew and changed as he and his nation, America, grew and changed. • He saw reality as a continuous flow, without a beginning or end. He disliked the nineteenth-century poetic forms that are stiff and patterned. Most of the poems in Leaves of Grass are about man and nature, especially common people and ordinary Americans. • He wanted his poetry to be for the common people. He was determined “to meet people and the States face to face, to confront them with an American rude tongue”. • In the area of poetic form, Whitman made his great contributions. Through him, American poets finally freed themselves from the old English traditions. Throughout his life he advocated a completely new and completely American form of poetic expression. • The poetic form he employed is now called free verse ---- the verse that does not follow a fixed metrical pattern, the verse without a fixed beat or regular rhyme scheme. • Whitman thought that message was always more important than form. So he always developed his style to suit his message and the audience he hoped to reach. • He abandoned conventional and hackneyed poetic figures and drew his symbolism freely from his experience. He remains one of American most important poets because he announced and instructed a completely new age. Poem Appreciation • O Captain, My Captain • The following is a three-stanza poem by Walt Whitman. The poem was published in Sequel to Drum-Taps in 1865. The poem is an elegy on the death of President Abraham Lincoln and it is noted for its regular form, meter, and rhyme, though it is also known for its sentimentality verging on the maudlin. • The poem is highly popular among American people. It portrays Lincoln as the captain of a sea-worn ship which represents or symbolizes the Union that had experienced the American Civil War and triumphant at last. • While “The ship is anchored safe and sound, its voyage closed and done”, the captain lies on the deck, “Fallen cold and dead.” • The poem expresses Whitman’s deep sorrow for the death of Abraham Lincoln who was assassinated on April 14 1865, five days after the declaration of the triumphant close of the Civil War. • The poem contains three stanzas, each of which consists of 8 lines. The first four lines are two couplets and the last four are in the form of a regular ballad with the fifth and seventh lines iambic tetrameter and the sixth and eighth lines iambic trimeter. The rhyme scheme is aabbcded. O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done, The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won, The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring; But O heart! heart! heart! O the bleeding drops of red, Where on the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead. O Captain! My Captain! Rise up and hear the bells; Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills, For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths –for you the shores a crowding, For you they call, the swaying mass ,their eager faces turning; Here Captain! dear father! This arm beneath your head! It is some dream that on the deck, You’ve fallen cold and dead. My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still. My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will, The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done, From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won: Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells! But I, with mournful tread, Walk the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead. Come up from the Fields Father • The following is one of Whitman’s best poems. It is a short, well-written epic that tells a story about one family expecting a letter from their son who is fighting in the battlefields during the Civil War • But when his letter comes, the mother finds that “a strange hand writes for our dear son”, “the only son” of the family. • The stricken mother grieves deeply for the death of her son and wants “to follow, to seek, to be with her dear dead son.” We feel a strong affection of the mother, of the family for the son, and the indelible effect of the American Civil War on one of the common families. • • • • • • • • • • • • • Come up from the fields father, here’s a letter from our Pete, And come to the front door mother, here’s a letter from thy dear son. Lo,’tis autumn, Lo, where the trees, deeper green, yellower and redder, Cool and sweeten Ohio’s villages with leaves fluttering in the moderate wind, Where apples ripe in the orchards hang and grapes on the trellis’d vines, (Smell you the smell of the grapes on the vines? Smell you the buckwheat where the bees were lately buzzing?) • • • • Above all, lo, the sky so calm, so transparent after the rain, and with wondrous clouds, Below too, all calm, all vital and beautiful, and the farm prospers well. • • • • • Down in the fields all prospers well, But now from the fields come father, come at the daughter’s call, And come to the entry mother, to the front door come right away. • • • • • • • • • Fast as she can she hurries, something ominous, her steps trembling, She does not tarry to smooth her hair nor adjust her cap. Open the envelope quickly, O this is not our son’s writing, yet his name is signed, O a strange hand writes for our dear son, O stricken mother’s soul! • • • • All swims before her eyes, flashes with black, she catches the main words only, Sentences broken, gunshot wound in the • • • • • • Ah now the single figure to me, Amid all teeming and wealthy Ohio with all its cities and farms, Sickly white in the face and dull in the head, very faint, By the jamb of a door leans. breast, cavalry skirmish, taken to hospital, • At present low, but will soon be better. • • • • • • • • • • • • Grieve not so, dear mother, ( the just-grown daughter speaks through her sobs, The little sisters huddle around speechless and dismay’d,) See, dearest mother, the letter says Pete will soon be better. Alas poor boy, he will never be better, ( nor may be needs to be better, that brave and simple soul,) While they stand at home at the door he is dead already, The only son is dead. • • • • • • But the mother needs to be better, She with tin form presently drest in black, By day her meals untouch’d, then at night fitfully sleeping often waking, In the midnight waking, weeping, longing with one deep longing, O that she might withdraw unnoticed, silent from life • escape and withdraw, • To follow, to seek, to be with her dear dead son. Spirit that Formed This Scene • In the autumn of 1879, Whitman was invited to Lawrence to participate in the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Kansas Peasant Uprising. After that he went to Denver, Colorado where he viewed a canyon. • He saw “heaven-ambitious peaks” and “turbulent-clear streams”, which were majestic in all different forms. • These formless mountains and rivers have been formed for the “reasons of their own”. Suddenly he realized that his poems have also been created for the reasons of their own. After that he wrote the following poem in which he draws comparison between the canyon and his work. • Whitman’s poetry was criticized in his day for being rather rough and uncivilized and this poem is an example that justifies that criticism. • • • • Spirit that form’d this scene, These tumbled rock-piles grim and red, These reckless heaven-ambitious peaks, These gorges, turbulent-clear streams, this naked freshness, • These formless wild arrays, for reasons of their own, • I know thee, savage spirit --- we have communed together, • Mine too such wild arrays, for reasons of their own; • Was’t charged against my chants they • • • • • had forgotten art? To fuse within themselves its rules precise and delicatesse? The lyrist’s measure’d beat, the wrought-out temple’s grace ---- column and polish’d arch forgot? But thou that revelest here ---- spirit that formed this scene, They have remember’d thee. Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) life Emily Dickinson was born into one of Amherst, Massachusetts’ most prominent families on 10 December 1830. She was the second child born to Emily Norcross (1804-1882) and Edward Dickinson (1803-1874), a Yale graduate, successful lawyer, Treasurer for Amherst College and a United States Congressman. Emily had an older brother named William Austin Dickinson (1829-1895) (known as Austin) who would marry her most intimate friend Susan Gilbert in 1856. The Dickinsons were strong advocates for education and Emily too benefited from an early education in classic literature, studying the writings of Virgil and Latin, mathematics, history, and botany. Dickinson proved to be a dazzling student and in 1847, though she was already somewhat of a ‘homebody’, at the age of seventeen Emily left for South Hadley, Massachusetts to attend the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary. She stayed there less than a year and some of the theories as to why she left are homesickness and poor health. She was in the midst of the college town’s society and bustle although she started to spend more time alone, reading and maintaining lively correspondences with friends and relatives. Emily Dickinson died on 15 May 1886, at the age of fifty-six. She now rests in the West Cemetery of Amherst, Hampshire County, Massachusetts. Not wishing a church service, a gathering was held at the Homestead. Emily Dickinson’s Poetry Emily Dickinson had no abstract theory of poetry. It is not certain if she was familiar with the poetic theories of Edgar Allan Poe, Coleridge, Emerson, Whitman and Matthew Arnold. When editor Thomas Higginson asked her to define poetry, she gave a subjective, emotional response: "If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only ways I know it. Is there any other way?" The Character of Her Verse 1. Highly compressed, compact, shy of being exposed. 2. Her style is elliptical - she will say no more than she must suggesting either a quality of uncertainty or one of finality. 3. Her lyrics are her highly subjective. One-fifth of them begin with "I" - she knows no other consciousness. 4. Ambiguity of meaning and syntax. Wrote Higginson: "She almost always grasped whatever she sought, but with some fracture of grammar and dictionary on the way." 5. Concreteness - it is nearly a theorem of lyric poetry that it is as good as it is concrete. Even when she is talking of the most abstract of subjects, Emily specifies it by elaborating it in the concreteness of simile or metaphor. 6. Use of poetic forms such as alliteration, assonance, and consonance; also onomatopoetic effects 7. Obscurity. Higginson said " ... she was obscure, and sometimes inscrutable; and though obscurity is sometimes, in Coleridge's phrase, a compliment to the reader, yet it is never safe to press this compliment too hard." Themes In Emily Dickinson's Poetry A few themes occupied the poet: love, nature, doubt and faith, suffering, death, immortality - these John Donne has called the great granite obsessions of humankind. Love: Though she was lonely and isolated, Emily appears to have loved deeply, perhaps only those who have "loved and lost" can love, with an intensity and desire which can never be fulfilled in the reality of the lovers' touch. Nature: A fascination with nature consumed Emily. She summed all her lyrics as "the simple news that nature told," she loved "nature's creatures" no matter how insignificant - the robin, the hummingbird, the bee, the butterfly, the rat .Only the serpent gave her a chill. Faith And Doubt: Emily's theological orientation was Puritan - she was taught all the premises of Calvinistic dogma - but she reacted strenuously against two of them: infant damnation and God's sovereign election of His own. There was another force alive in her time that competed for her interests: that was the force of literary transcendentalism. This explains a kind of paradoxical or ambivalent attitude toward matters religious. She loved to speak of a compassionate Savior and the grandeur of the Scriptures, but she disliked the hypocrisy and arbitrariness of institutional church. Pain And Suffering: Emily displays an obsession with pain and suffering; there is an eagerness in her to examine pain, to measure it, to calculate it, to intellectualize it as fully as possible. Her last stanzas become a catalog of grief and its causes: death, want, cold, despair, exile. Emily says "I like a look of Agony." Death: Many readers have been intrigued by Dickinson's ability to probe the fact of human death. She often adopts the pose of having already died before she writes her lyric. She can look straight at approaching death Structural Patterns Major pattern is that of a sermon: statement or introduction of topic, elaboration, and conclusion. There are three variations of this major pattern: 1. The poet makes her initial announcement of topic in an unfigured line. 2. She uses a figure for that purpose. 3. She repeats her statement and its elaboration a number of times before drawing a conclusion. Poem Appreciation Success Emily Dickinson thought that she had never achieved success and considered failure her constant companion. But she really wished for success and believed that only those who never achieved success value it most and counted it sweetest. The poem also expresses a sense of distance. The thing that one has experienced will not leave a deep impression in his or her mind. Only does one keep a distance from what he or she wishes he or she will feel it most and therefore knows its value and real worth. Success is counted sweetest By those who ne’er succeed. To comprehend a nectar Requires sorest need. Not one of all the purple host Who took the flag today Can tell the definition, So clear, of victory, As he, defeated, dying, On whose forbidden ear The distant strains of triumph Break, agonized and clear. I Taste A Liquor Never Brewed Emily Dickinson was greatly influenced by Emerson’s transcendentalism. She had a profound love for nature and was often intoxicated with the beauty of nature. The following poem is a fine example. The poet compares nature to liquor that has never been brewed and herself to a debauchee who loves wine more than her life. The image the poet uses to suggest drunkenness epitomizes her deep love for nature. I taste a liquor never brewed, From tankards scooped in pearl; Not all the vast upon the Rhine Yield such an alcohol! Inebriate of air am I, And debauchee of dew, Reeling, through endless summer days, From inns of molten blue. When landlords turn the drunken bee Out of the foxglove’s door, When butterflies renounce their drams, I shall but drink the more! Till seraphs swing their snowy hats, And saints to windows run, To see the little tippler Leaning against the sun! I’m Nobody! Who Are You? Although the following poem is short, only consisting of two stanzas, the image is clear and vivid and pregnant with meaning and it calls for deep thought. The poem might explain the reason why Emily Dickinson preferred solitude to public life and was contented to become a recluse and stayed away from the bustle and clamorous society which she thought to be material-oriented and fame-driven. The poem sketches three different types of people: nobody, somebody and snobs. Clearly the poet identifies herself with nobody who she thought to be simple and honest. The selfimportant somebody is always boasting and advertising just like a frog and the snob admires him as a bog admires the frog whose mere merit is to blow his own trumpet and indulge in self-glorification. I’m nobody! Who are you? Are you nobody, too? Then there’s a pair of us ---- don’t tell! They’d banish us. You know. How dreary to be somebody! How public, like a frog To tell your name the livelong day To an admiring bog! Mark Twain (1835-1910) Born Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 1835–1910. He was an American author,a humorist, narrator, and social observer. Twain is unsurpassed in American literature. His novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a masterpiece of humor, characterization, and realism, has been called the first (and sometimes the best) modern American novel. After the death of his father in 1847, young Clemens was apprenticed to a printer in Hannibal, Mo., the Mississippi River town where he spent most of his boyhood. He first began writing for his brother’s newspaper there, and later he worked as a printer in several major Eastern cities. In 1857, Clemens went to New Orleans on his way to make his fortune in South America, but instead he became a Mississippi River pilot—hence his pseudonym, “Mark Twain,” which was the river call for a depth of water of two fathoms. The Civil War put an end to river traffic, and in 1862 Clemens went W to Carson City, Nev., where he failed in several getrich-quick schemes. He eventually began writing for the Virginia City Examiner and later was a newspaperman in San Francisco. Soon the humorist “Mark Twain” emerged, a writer of tall tales and absurd anecdotes. He first won fame with the comic masterpiece “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” first published in 1865 in the New York Saturday Press and later (1867) used as the title piece for a volume of stories and sketches. When he returned from a trip to Hawaii financed by the Sacramento Union in 1866, Twain became a successful humorous lecturer. He set out world tour, traveling in France and Italy. His experiences were recorded in 1869 in The Innocents Abroad, which gained him wide popularity, and poked fun at both American and European prejudices and manners. Its success gave Twain enough financial security to marry Olivia Langdon in 1870. They moved next year to Hartford., where the family remained, with occasional trips abroad, until 1891. Huckleberry Finn (1884) was first considered adult fiction. Huck Finn, which painted a picture of Mississippi frontier life, was intended as a sequel to Tom Sawyer. Huck, who could not possibly write a story, tells us the story. Both works stand high on the list of eminent writers like Stevenson, Dickens who honestly depicted young people without any condescension or moralizing. In the 1890s Twain lost most of his earnings in financial speculations and in the downhill of his own publishing firm. Twain closed Hartford house, and to recover from the bankrupt, he started a world lecture tour, during which Suzy, his favorite daughter, died of meningitis. Twain toured New Zealand, Australia, India, and South Africa, and returned to the U.S. in 1900. The death of his wife in 1904 in Florence and his second daughter darkened the author's later years, which is also seen in writings and his posthumously published autobiography (1924). Twain died on April 21, 1910. His Major works 1.The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County (1865) 2.Innocents Abroad (1869) 3.Roughing It (1872) 4.The Gilded Age (with Charles Dudley waenner,1873) 5.The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) 6. A Tramp Abroad (1880) 7. The Prince and the Pauper (1882) 8.Life on the Mississippi (1883) 9.The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) 10.The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson (1894) 11. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889) 12. The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg (1900) 13.What Is Man? (1906) 14. The Mysterious Stranger (1916) 15. Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc (1896) 16. Following the Equator (1897) The Mississippi River "Half twain! Quarter twain! M-a-r-k twain!” For most people, the name "Mark Twain" is virtually synonymous with the life along the Mississippi River immortalized in the author's writing. Clemens first signed his writing with the name in February 1863, as a newspaper reporter in Nevada. "Mark Twain" (meaning "Mark number two") was a Mississippi River term: the second mark on the line that measured depth signified two fathoms, or twelve feet—safe depth for the steamboat. In 1857, at the age of twenty-one, he became a "cub" steamboat pilot. The Civil War ended that career four years later by halting all river traffic. Although Clemens never again lived in the Mississippi valley, he returned to the river in his writing throughout his life. And he visited a number of times, most notably in 1882 as he prepared to write Life on the Mississippi, his fullest and most autobiographical account of the region and its inhabitants, and again in 1902 when he made his final visit to the scenes of his childhood. Life on the Mississippi 0riginally published in 1883, Life on the Mississippi is Mark Twain's memoir of his youthful years as a cub pilot on a steamboat paddling up and down the Mississippi River. Twain used his childhood experiences growing up along the Mississippi in a number of works, including The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, but nowhere is the river and the pilot's life more thoroughly described than in this work. Told with insight, humor, and candor, Life on the Mississippi is an American classic. Life on the Mississippi is Mark Twain’s memoir of his youthful years as a cub pilot on a steamboat paddling up and down the Mississippi River. Twain used his childhood experiences growing up along the Mississippi in a number of works, including The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. but nowhere is the river and the pilot's life more thoroughly described than in this work Told with insight, humor, and candor, Life on the Mississippi is an American classic Book Review Life On the Mississippi is perhaps his middle-aged, nostalgic look-back to the long gone days of his youth. Twain looks back from a distance of twenty years, back to his days as a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi River. From 1857 to 1861 Twain learned and worked and lived on steamboats traveling the river from St. Louis to New Orleans. Yet a mere twenty years later, he must have surely recognized that the 'glory days' of the steamboat on the Mississippi were already gone, for him and for his country Life on the Mississippi is full of stories. Stories of the geological history and the discovery and exploration of the river by man. Stories of Twain's early days as a boy on the river and the characters known and admired or censured from those early days. Stories from his days living and working on the river, as a 'cub pilot', as a respected working pilot, and—returning twenty years later—as a visitor seeing for himself the changes wrought on the river. Stories of the changes produced by the hand of man, straightening and deepening and channeling the river; changes forced by the development of tow-boats and railroads; changes perhaps best seen from the distance of time. Stephen Crane (1871-1900) American author, whose second book, The Red Badge of Courage (1895), brought him international fame. Crane's first novel, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, was a milestone in the development of literary naturalism. life Stephen Crane was the youngest of fourteen children. His father was a strict Methodist minister, who died in 1880, leaving his devout, strong mother to raise the rest of the family. Crane lasted through preparatory school, but spent less than two years in college, excelling at Syracuse in baseball and partying far more than academics. After leaving school, he went to live in New York, doing freelance writing and working on his first book Maggie, A Girl of the Streets. His times in New York City were split between his apartment in the Bowery slum in Manhattan and well-off family in the nearby town of Port Jervis. Crane published Maggie in 1893 at his own expense. He published The Red Badge of Courage in 1895, The Red Badge was quite different from Maggie in style and approach, and brought Crane international fame and quite a bit of money. Bolstered by the success of The Red Badge and his book of poetry The Black Riders, Crane became subsumed with ideas of war. He was hired to go to Cuba as a journalist to report on the rebellion there against the Spanish. On the way to the island, Crane was in a shipwreck, from which he was originally reported dead. He rowed to shore in a dinghy, along with three other men, having to swim to shore and drop his money in the sea to prevent from drowning. This experience directly led to his most famous short story "The Open Boat" (1897). For various reasons, Crane stopped writing novels during this time and moved primarily to short stories probably because they could sell in magazines better but also because he was constantly moving. When staying in Jacksonville, Florida, he met the owner of a brothel, Cora Taylor. Cora, by chance, had just been reading his novel George's Mother. When she presented the book to Crane for his autograph, he inscribed it "To an unnamed sweetheart." This meeting was the beginning of a love affair and she accompanied him to Greece as he reported on the GrecoTurkish War for New York newspapers; and stayed with him until the end of his life. At this point, rumors abounded about Crane, few of them good. There was talk of drug addiction, rampant promiscuity, and even Satanism, none of them true. Crane was disgusted with them and eventually relocated to England. After reporting on the Spanish-American War, Crane returned home to England. He then drove himself deeply into debt by throwing huge, expensive parties. While he could now count Joseph Conrad, H. G. Wells, and other authors in his circle, most people sponged off of Crane and his lavishness. He worked on a novel about the Greek War and continued writing short stories and poetry, at this point to pay off his large debts. The stress of this life, compounded by an almost blatant disregard for his own health, led to his contracting tuberculosis. He died while in Baden, Germany, trying to recover from this illness. He was not yet 29 years old. His Major Works Novels Active Service 1899 Maggie: A Girl of the Streets 1893 The Red Badge of Courage 1895 The Little Regiment 1896 The O’Ruddy 1903 The third Violet 1897 Short Stories The Open Boat 1898 The Monster 1899 Wilomville Stories 1900 Men, Women and Boats 1921 Poems The Black Riders 1895 War is Kind 1899 Historical book Great Battles of the War 1901 Major Themes In his themes and styles, Crane is an avant-garde writer. Crane writes about extreme experiences that are confronted by ordinary people. His characters are not larger-than-life, but they touch the mysterious edges of their capacities for perception, action, and understanding. The New York City sketch, "A Detail," was reprinted in 1898 with "The Open Boat," and the two works express parallel naturalistic themes. In both, individuals are shown to struggle for communication while being buffeted by tumultuous forces. Significant Style Crane's works reflect many of the major artistic concerns at the end of the nineteenth century, especially naturalism, impressionism, and symbolism. His works insist that we live in a universe of vast and indifferent natural forces, not in a world of divine providence or a certain moral order. "A Man Said to the Universe" is useful in identifying this aspect of Crane. Crane's vivid and explosive prose styles distinguish his works from those by many other writers who are labeled naturalists. Many readers (including Hamlin Garland and Joseph Conrad, who were personal friends of Crane) have used the term impressionist to describe Crane's vivid renderings of moments of visual beauty and uncertainty. Even Crane's "discontinuous" rendering of action has been identified as impressionist. The red Badge of Courage Commonly considered Stephen Crane's greatest accomplishment, The Red Badge of Courage (1895) ranks among the foremost literary achievements of the modern era. When Crane signed a contract with D. Appleton and Co. to publish Red Badge, he was not well-known enough to command an advance, and agreed to a flat 10 per cent royalty on the retail price of all copies sold. Published in the autumn of 1895, Red Badge went through two editions before the end of the year. By March of 1896 the novel was in eighth place on the international booksellers' list and had gone through fourteen printings; remarkably enough, Red Badge has never been out of print. With the publication of Red Badge, Crane achieved almost overnight celebrity. Character List Henry Fleming The novel’s protagonist; a young soldier fighting for the Union army during the American Civil War. Initially, Henry stands untested in battle and questions his own courage. As the novel progresses, he encounters hard truths about the experience of war, confronting the universe’s indifference to his existence and the insignificance of his own life. Often vain and holding extremely romantic notions about himself, Henry grapples with these lessons as he first runs from battle, then comes to thrive as a soldier in combat. Jim Conklin Henry’s friend; a tall soldier hurt during the regiment’s first battle. Jim soon dies from his wounds, and represents, in the early part of the novel, an important moral contrast to Henry. Wilson A loud private; Henry’s friend in the regiment. Wilson and Henry grow close as they share the harsh experiences of war and gain a reputation as the regiment’s best fighters. The tattered soldier A twice-shot soldier whom Henry encounters in the column of wounded men. With his endless speculation about Henry’s supposed wound, the tattered soldier functions as a nagging, painful conscience to Henry. The lieutenant Henry’s commander in battle, a youthful officer who swears profusely during the fighting. The lieutenant develop sympathy for each other, often feeling that they must work together to motivate the rest of the men. Henry’s mother Encountered only in a brief flashback, Henry’s mother opposed his enlisting in the army. Though her advice is only briefly summarized in Henry’s flashback, it contains several difficult themes with which Henry must grapple, including the insignificance of his life in the grand scheme of the world. Major Themes Courage Given the novel’s title, it is no surprise that courage—defining it, desiring it, and, ultimately, achieving it—is the most salient element of the narrative. Manhood Throughout the novel, Henry struggles to preserve his manhood, his understanding of which parallels his understanding of courage. Self-Preservation An anxious desire for self-preservation influences Henry throughout the novel. The Universe’s Disregard for Human Life Henry’s realization that the natural world spins on regardless of the manner in which men live and die is perhaps the most difficult lesson that Henry learns as a soldier. Youth and Maturity Although the novel spans no more than a few weeks, the reader witnesses a profound change in the characters of both Henry and Wilson. 3. Henry James (1843-1916) • novelist, literary critic, playwright and essayist 1) Works • • • • • 1865-1881 international novel/theme Daisy Miller 1879 The American 1877 The Portrait of a Lady 1881 The Bostonians 1886 The Princess Casamassima 1886 1882-1895 tales of inter-personal relationships. 1895-1916 novellas and tales dealing with childhood and adolescence; international novel • • • • • “What Maisie Knew” The Wings of the Dove The Ambassadors The Golden Bowl “The Art of Fiction” Literary criticism 1897 1902 1903 1904 2) Life • Henry James was born into a wealthy cultured family of New England. • His father, Henry James, Sr. was an eminent philosopher and reformer, and his brother, William James, was to be the famous philosopher and psychologist. • Henry James was one of the few authors in American literary history who did not have to worry about money. • He was exposed to the cultural influence of Europe ate a very early age. • Later he met and developed a life-long friendship with William Dean Howells. • For a while he attended the Harvard Law School. • He toured England, France and Italy, and met Flaubert and Trugenev who was then staying in Paris. • He settled down in London in 1876 and spent the rest of his life there. In 1915, he became a naturalized British citizen. 3) Evaluation • Henry James was a prolific writer. He composed novels, travel papers, critical essays, literary portraits, plays, autobiographies and a series of critical prefaces on the art of fiction. • Henry James produced a number of international novels. He was fascinated with his “international theme”. • Daisy Miller won him international fame. • The last 3 ones represent the summit of his art. • James’ contribution to literary criticism is immense. • In his whole writing career James was concerned with “point of view” which is at the center of his aesthetic of the novel. The author should avoid artificial omniscience as much as possible. • He is, today, a world literary figure, one of the “largest” to come out of America during the 19th century and the early 20th century, a remarkable New World bridge.