National Literature.

English literature in the last

third of the 19th century
1. Literary process of the late 19th century: general characteristics.
2. Realism: Meredith, Butler, Hardy.
3. Naturalism: Moore, Gissing.
4. Neoromanticism: Stevenson, Kipling, Conan Doyle, Conrad.
5. The Aesthetic movement: Wilde.
 The factors that predetermined the literary
development at the turn of the century:

(1) the general situation in Europe and social conditions in Great Britain in
particular;
(2) the impact of the philosophy of positivism (positive philosophy) playing
a significant role in the development of literary Realism and Naturalism;
(3) the idea of cyclic recurrence and the role of intuition as stated by the
philosophy of life (life philosophy), represented by Nietzsche and Bergson;
(4) the interest in human psychology.
 LITERARY MOVEMENTS

Neoromanticism Realism
Aestheticism Naturalism
Symbolism
 The System of Genres:
NOVEL POETRY
- the social-psychological SHORT-STORY - landscape poetry
novel (Meredith) - fairy-tales (Wilde, - political poetry
- the satirical novel ROMANCE Carrol, Barrie, Nesbit, - philosophical poetry
(Meredith, Butler) Kipling) - lyric poetry (ode, sonnet)
- the novel of formation / - the historical romance - animal tales (Kipling, - epic, ballad
(Stevenson, Conan Doyle)
Bildungsroman Wilde) - dramatic poem
- the adventure romance
(Meredith, Butler) - detective stories (Conan Stevenson, Kipling, Hardy,
- the social novel (Hardy, (Stevenson) Doyle, Chesterton)
- the scientific romance or Meredith, Browning, Wilde,
Wells, Moore, Gissing) - psychological stories Tennyson, Rossetti, Yeats
- the novel of ideas science fiction (Wells, Conan (Stevenson, Conrad)
(Meredith) Doyle) - ghost stories (Wilde,
- the political novel - the sea romance with
Wells, Stevenson) DRAMA
(Conrad) psychological implication - sea stories (Conrad)
(Conrad) Jones, Pinero, Wilde, Yeats,
Shaw
 Realism: Meredith, Butler, Hardy

The poetics of the late 19th-century Realism was characterized by:

(1)  the depiction of everyday life;
(2) the attention to detail and the effort to replicate the true nature of reality;
(3) the sharp critique of social values;
(4) the depiction of life as tragic and conflicting;
(5) the development of character as psychologically complicated,
with conflicting impulses and motivations;
(6) the use of internal monologues.
 GEORGE MEREDITH (1828-1909)
POETRY:
Poems (1851), Modern Love, and Poems of the English Roadside (1862),
Poems and Lyrics of the Joy of Earth (1883),
Ballads and Poems of Tragic Life (1887), A Reading of Earth (1888),
A Reading of Life, with Other Poems (1901).

NOVELS:
The Ordeal of Richard Feverel (1859), Sandra Belloni (1864),
Vittoria (1867), The Adventures of Harry Richmond (1871),
Beauchamp’s Career (1876),
The Egoist (1879),
Diana of the Crossways (1885),
One of our Conquerors (1891).
 General characteristics of Meredith’s fiction:

 In his novels, Meredith exposes his views on education, divorce, personal liberty,
conventional narrow-mindedness, egotism, sentimentalism, and obedience to law.
 Meredith provides strong and subtle character portrayals, brilliant conversations, and humour.
 Meredith’s characters are politicians, writers, or journalists belonging to higher ranks of
society.
 He is the satirist of social conventions.
 The dynamics of action is usually substituted in his novels by the dynamics of reaction to
events.
 Nature scenes are exposed through the character’s perception.
 The usage of internal monologues deepens the psychological level of Meredith’s novels.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1835-1902), satirical novelist and essayist called
the “first anti-Victorian writer”
TREATISES:
TRANSLATIONS of
Life and Habit (1877)
Evolution Old and New (1879) Iliad
Unconscious Memory (1880) Odyssey

NOVELS:
 Erewhon (published anonymously in 1872)
 Erewhon Revisited (1901)
 The Way of All Flesh (1903), a satirical novel of formation which with
typical Butlerian wit and irony attacks the Victorian family life and exposes
the shams and hypocrisies of all kinds, whether religious, social, or
political
 THOMAS HARDY (1840-1928)
POETRY
Wessex Poems (a collection of poems written between 1865 and 1898),
Poems of the Past and Present (1901),
dramatic poem The Dynasts (1903-1908),
Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses (1917),
Human Shows, Far Fantasies, Songs and Trifles (1925),
Winter Words (1928).
NOVELS
 Novels of Character and Environment:
Under the Greenwood Tree (1872), 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).
 Romances and Fantasies:
A Pair of Blue Eyes (1873), Two on a Tower (1882), The Well-Beloved (1897).
 Novels of Ingenuity:
Desperate Remedies (1871), The Hand of Ethelberta (1876), A Laodicean (1881).
 General characteristics of Thomas Hardy’s
novels:

 Hardy’s view of modern life is rather pessimistic and disillusioned. His novels leave a sense of
gloom. Sorrow appears in his work not as a punishment for crime, but as an unavoidable
result of human life.
 Events are generally tragic. No escape is suggested.
 In his novels, he focuses on human nature, rural scene, and moral issues.
 Hardy relates a straightforward tale, and makes his characters act and speak for themselves.
 His characters are mostly ordinary men and women living close to the soil, but usually their
progression is toward failure or death.
These men and women are largely rustics, they are simple, primitive, and superstitious.
 Naturalism: Moore, Gissing

The poetics of Naturalism was characterized by:

(1) the reference to heredity and history to define character;
(2) the dominant theme is that person’s fate is predetermined by heredity, environment, and
social conditions;
(3) the style of narrative is documentary with no comment on the situation.
Naturalists were influenced by the theories of Charles Darwin and the philosophy of positivism.
 Main representatives: George Moore and George Gissing.
They aimed to present everyday life with detached, photographic accuracy, regardless of moral or
ideological considerations.
Their novels are rather social documents of the life of lower classes.
 Neoromanticism: Stevenson, Kipling,
Conan Doyle, Conrad

General characteristics of Neoromanticism:

(1) Neo-romantic writers refer to feelings, employ the element of adventures and the cult of
heroic personality.
(2) They often use historic, exotic or remote sea landscapes as opposed to the “ugly” modern
world of machines.
(3) Characteristic themes include longing for perfect love, utopian landscapes, romantic death.
(4) The neo-romantic hero is usually idealised, it is a courageous person who is able to overcome
different obstacles and difficulties.
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON (1850–
1894)
WORKS:
travel books, essays, books for children, poems (landscape poetry
based on Scottish folklore), short stories, romances.

SHORT STORIES: ROMANCES:

 Will o’ the Mill (1878)
 Markheim (1885)
 The Strange Case of Dr.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886)
 Treasure Island (1883)
 Kidnapped (1886)
 The Master of Ballantrae (1889)
 David Balfour (Catriona, 1893)
 RUDYARD KIPLING (1865–1936)
WORKS: poems (landscape, political and
philosophical poetry), stories of Indian life, of
animals, of children, and of ghosts, war stories,
fables, romances, travel books.
PROSE
 collections of Indian tales:
Plain Tales from the Hills (1888), Soldiers Three (1888),
The Phantom Rickshaw (1888), Wee Willie Winkle (1888)
 stories for children:
The Jungle Book (1894), The Second Jungle Book (1895), Just-so
In 1907 Kipling was awarded the
Stories for Little Children (1902)
Nobel Prize in Literature, as the
 novels: first English-language writer to
The Light that Failed (1891), Captains Courageous (1897), Kim receive the prize.
(1901)
 a travel book From Sea to Sea (1899).
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE (1859–1930)
was noted in the field of detective fiction, science fiction and historical
romance.
Sherlock Holmes books:
A Study in Scarlet (1887),  The Sign of Four (1890),
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892),
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1894),
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902),
The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes (1928).

The elements of Conan Doyle’s detective stories:

· the seemingly perfect crime or mysterious event
· the wrongly accused suspect
· the bungling of dim-witted police
· the greater powers of observation and superior mind of the detective
Sherlock Holmes who is both an intellectual and a man of action.
· the narrator of Holmesian stories is Dr. Watson.
HISTORICAL ROMANCES:
The White Company (1891),
The Great Shadow (1892),
Rodney Stone (1896),
Sir Nigel (1906).

SCIENTIFIC ROMANCES:
The Lost World (1912),
The Poison Belt (1913).
JOSEPH CONRAD (1857–1924)
Early works set in the exotic landscapes of the Malay
Archipelago:
 novels Almayer’s Folly (1895)
An Outcast of the Islands (1896)
 collections of stories Tales of Unrest (1898)
Typhoon and Other Stories (1903).

Conrad is also known for

 psychological sea fiction:
The Nigger of the ‘Narcissus’ (1897),
Lord Jim: a Tale (1900), Youth (1902),
Chance (1913).
 novella Heart of Darkness (1902) is set in Africa.
 political novels:
Nostromo (1904), The Secret Agent (1906),
Under Western Eyes (1910).