11 An outline of British literature

1. Romantic epoch – the later 18th and early 19th centuries

• Time of reason, technical invention, and the Industrial Revolution;

• The most typical attitude is individualism, sense of strong feeling and the romantic hero is very often a solitary dreamer

• Literature shows a rebellion of feelings against reason

• Romantics looked for beauty in man and tried to defend it against the hell of industrialization

THE ROMANTICS OF THE LAKE SCHOOL

• A group of poets settled in the Lake District

• Expressed social criticism, protest against oppression and hypocrisy of monarchy and the church

• William Wordsworth

• Samuel Taylor Coleridge

• Lord George Gordon Byron

• Percy Bysshe Shelley

• John Keats

JANE AUSTEN 1775-1817

• Created the domestic novel dealing with family life

• Pride and Prejudice – best-known work; shows conflict and tension between reason and feelings

• Marriage – the main theme and purpose in all her works

• Pride and Prejudice - The story follows the main character Elizabeth Bennet as she deals with issues of manners, upbringing, education and marriage in the society of early 19th-century England. Elizabeth is the second of five daughters of a country gentleman.

Another important character of the novel is Mr Darcy – he and Elizabeth fall in love with each other. Darcy proposes to Elizabeth and they get engaged.

• Other books by Austen – e.g. Emma; Sense and Sensibility

SIR WALTER SCOTT 1771-1832

• Born in Edinburgh. Wrote poetry and later prose – his Scottish novels Waverley, Rob Roy, Ivanhoe, Kenilworth show his humour, his mastery of folklore, love of history, the processes of social and political change.

1. Realism (Victorian literature) – 19th century

CHARLES DICKENS 1812-1870

• The most popular English novelist of the Victorian era

• He was born in Portsmouth as a son of clerk, 1 of 8 children (Dickens himself had 10 children, many died young)

• Unsettled childhood – financial difficulties (debts) of his parents caused the imprisonment of his father (Dickens was 12)

• Dickens was sent to work He came into contact with poor people. This experience affected his whole life and work

• After his father was released from prison, Dickens returned to school, eventually becoming a law clerk.

• At the age of 25 – 1st novel (The Pickwick Papers)

• His characters include thieves, murderers, men in debt, hungry children and those who try to deceive the honest people.

• Dickens is famed for his depiction of the hardships of the working class, his intricate plots, and his sense of humour

• Dickens wrote fiction: The Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, A Christmas Carol, David Copperfield, Little Dorrit, Great Expectations

• The Pickwick Papers – a sequence of loosely connected adventures; The novel's main character, Mr. Samuel Pickwick, is a kind and wealthy old gentleman, and the founder of the Pickwick Club. To extend his researches into the curious phenomena of life, he suggests that he and three other "Pickwickians" should make journeys to remote places from London and report on their findings to the other members of the club. Their travels throughout the English countryside by coach provide the chief theme of the novel.

• Oliver Twist – a novel about an orphan Oliver Twist. Oliver Twist was born in a workhouse and his mother died. At the age of nine, the hungry Oliver asks for more food at the next meal. The hypocritical workhouse officials decide to sell him. Oliver is sent to Mr. Sowerberry, a coffin-maker.
  Mrs. Sowerberry and older apprentice Noah treat him badly that´s why he escapes and runs away to London. In the street, he is found by the Artful Dodger, a boy pickpocket. He takes Oliver to Fagin, an old man who trains boys to be pickpockets. Oliver experiences a lot of misfortunes with the gang. At the end, Oliver finds happiness under the care of a wealthy family of Mr. Brownlow

• An early example of the social novel – shows various contemporary evils (the Poor Law, child labour , children as criminals)

• David Copperfield – Dickens' most autobiographical novel; deals with the life of David Copperfield from childhood to maturity.

• A Christmas Carol – a novella; It is a story about a mean old man, Ebenezer Scrooge. At night Scrooge is visited by three ghosts at night. The ghost of Christmas Past who shows him his childhood, the ghost of Christmas Present who reveals how miserable his life is, and the ghost of Christmas Future who frightens him showing the horrible end of his life. Scrooge wakes up the next morning as a new man, full of generosity and kindness.

• Great Expectations - written in the first person from the point of view of the orphan Pip. The main theme is that not riches, but honest work and good relationships are the basis of a good society and lead to happiness