李曾版《英国文学史》复习资料
Part One The Middle Ages I. Coverage and Division
1. The Middle Ages lasted from Anglo-Saxon invasion(449)to the end of the War of Roses.(1485)
2. Division of the Middle Ages
A.The Old English Period (449---1066)
B.The Middle English Period (1066---1485) II.Two Divisions of the Middle Ages
1.General Background
a. The earliest settlers were Celtic-speaking Britons, from whom the island got its name-----
Britain (land of Britons).
b. Roman general Julius Caesar invaded Britain in 55 B.C. The Roman occupation ended in
410 A.D.
c. The three Germanic tribes --- the Angles, The Saxons and thttpe Jutes invaded Britain in the
middle of the 5th century. By the end of the 7th century the three tribes were combined into a
United Kingdom, England (land of Angles). They spoke Anglo-Saxon, or Old English, a
derivative of Low German.
d. The Anglo-Saxons were a heathen people. They believed in the old mythology of Northern
Europe. In 597 St. Augustine and his monks landed on Kent and England was Christianized
e.Danish Vikings (Scandinavian sea robbers)began to invade England from 787. King Alfred the
Great succeeded in. driving off the Danes. The king started the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. (the
King’s contribution to literature).
f. Led by Duke William the French-speaking Normans came in 1066. The Norman Conquest
marks the establishment of feudalism in England.
g.The formula of the nation is : the original Britons + Angles +Saxons + Jutes +Danes +Normans
?English
2.Early English Literature
a. Non- Written Literature
1) English literature began with the Anglo-Saxon Settlement in England, but there was
only spoken form of literature.
2)English myths and legends were not recorded for many centuries. E.g. The Adventures of
King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table is about a Celtic chieftain of the 5th or 6th
century, but these legends were not written down until the 11th century in France and were
circulated after the 13th century.
b. Written Literature
1) Long Poems
a) The long poems written in English language are almost all lost. The earliest English books
were written down in monasteries.
b) It is believed that the first long poem preserved in English is Beowulf. (a folk legend)
(brought to English by the Angles)
(1) Its importance : (a) the most important work of old English literature; (b) the national epic
of the English people: (c) perhaps the greatest Germanic heritage (epic).
(d)reflection of the features of tribal society in ancient time.
(2) Written (Composed) Time, Language and Length: (a) composed around 750: (b) the
manuscript preserved today was
written, in the Wessex tongue about
1000 A.D.(c) 3183 lines long.
(3) Setting: southern part of Sweden
(4) Hero : Beowulf is a Scandinavian hero. He is a Geat.
(5) Beowulf’s Character: blending of historical figures with various mythical heroes of an
earlier day.
(6) Three Episodes (Plots): (a) Fighting with the monster, Grendel (b) fighting with Grendel’s
mother(c) fighting with the Fire Dragon
(7) Three Features: (a) alliteration(The most striking feature) (b) metaphor and understatement
e.g. ring giver for king; hearth –companions for attendant warriors; swan’s path or whale’s road
for sea; sea-wood for ship, battle-hero, shield-bearer or spear-fighter for soldier (metaphor) not
troublesome for very welcome; need not praise for a right to condemn (understatement )(c)
2) Shorter Poems or. Short Fragments of Long Poems mixture of pagan and Christian elements.
a)Widsith, Doer’s Lament ( two lyrics about a Scop)
b) Seafarer
C)The Fight at Finnsburgh---a war song
d)Waldere ---love story of Waldere and his betrothed bride Hildgund
3) Religious Poetry: two religious poets
a) Caedmon is the first poet we can give a definite name and date.
b)Cynewulf composed the Christ, Juliana, The Fates of Apostles (signed) and The Dream of
the Rood. (unsigned; one of the world masterpieces)
4) Riddles
a)Reflection: They offer many valuable clues to the daily habits and interests of English
forebears.
b) Features: (1) Many show Latin originals . (2) Christian compositions (3) work of many hands
(4) composed in the 8th century. 5) Old English Prose: two prosers
a) Venerable Bede is the first scholar and chronicler in England. He wrote
Ecclesiastical History of the English people in Latin and was translated
into English by Alfred.
b)Alfred the Great started the Anglo-Saxon chronicle. 6) Summary
a) In Contents: epic, short lyrics, shorter heroic fragments, Christian poems and prose made
up the heritage of old English literature. Most are translation from Latin.
b) Handicaps: The works are obscure, repetitious and childish, and nearly all are
characterized by rhetorical artifice rather than by beauty.
For the two reasons English literature is often described as beginning with Chaucer.
1.Norman Conquest and Its Influence:
a. The Normans were Norsemen in Origin.
b. During the two centuries after the Norman Conquest in 1066 French literature expanded. The
basic part of the language remained Old English; the intellectual, artistic and theological
came mostly from French
2.Middle English Literature
a. General Points:
1) In one and half centuries after the Conquest, English literature almost stood still.
2) The 12th and 13th centuries witnessed a flowering of literature in Latin and French
but the literature was not a part of English literature. 3) The French narrative poems fell into three subject groups: a)matter of France b)
matter of Britain c) matter of Rome
4) About 1200, the first pieces of English writing appeared. They
were ,homilies,prayers,lives of saints, retelling of Biblical tales and religious
writings and later the most prevailing (prevalent) kind of literature in feudal
England ,the romance ,appeared.
b. Different kinds of literary forms:
1) The Romance:
(1) It’s the most prevailing kind of literature in England in feudal England.
(2) It is a long composition, in verse or in prose.
(3) It describes the life and adventures of a noble hero.
(4) The central theme is loyalty to king an lord.
(5) The most important romance is King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table.(in
Latin)
b)General points: (1) The first Arthurian legend is Brut by Layamon. Brut is the first important English poem
after the Norman Conquest.
(2) Brut and other early metrical romances pave the way for Sir Gawin and the Green Knight.
(3) Sir Gawin and the Green Knight is the best Arthurian romance, and The Pearl, Patience
and Cleanness are also written by the same author.
(4) The Arthurian romance is summed up in Thomas Malory’s Mort. d’Arthur written in
prose.
(5) The romance of King Arthur has its origin in Celtic legends and begins in Geoffrey of
Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain (in Latin prose).
1) Poetry:
a)William Langland (1332----?)
(1) He wrote the most popular poem of the 14th century England, Piers the Plowman
(Peter the Ploughman)
(2) Form: dream-allegory Setting: Malvern Hills
(3) Progressive Value:
(a) attack on the Seven Deadly Sins(Pride, Luxury, Envy, Wrath, Avarice,
Gluttony, Sloth)
(b)attack on the corruption of the rich and the wickedness of the clergy (ruling
class).
(c) the political situation of the time shown through an animal story, The Story of
the Cat and Rats, where lies a famous saying, LET THAT CAT BE.
(d) the realistic picture of medieval English
(e)Langland is a forecaster of the 17th-century Puritans.
(4) Artistic Value/ Style:
(a) It is a classic of popular literature
(b) It is an allegory which uses symbolism to relate truth, but in the main it is a
realistic picture of medieval England.
(c) Language style: lively speech of the countryside, blunt and unpolished words
(5) Contribution: It paved the way for religious reform and also for the Rising of 1381.
b) Geoffrey Chaucer (1340---1400)
(1) Importance of Chaucer: (a) the lst great poet who wrote in English language (b)
the greatest poet of the Middle English period (c) father of English poetry (d) though less read he
had a most far-reaching influence on the later generations. (and) a pre-Renaissance writer
(2) His life: (a) born in a wine merchant’s family (b) connected with the court as a page boy (c) imprisonment in France during the Hundred Years’ War (d) trip to the Continent on diplomatic missions, two of which took him to Italy. (e) The first to be buried in Westminster
Abbey and thus founding the Poets’ Corner. (f)His political background can be seen from his
relation with John of Gaunt.
(3) Literary Career: Three periods ----the French, the Italian and the English (13605---1372)
a) French period: The Book of the Duchess, The Romaunt of the Rose ---a
translation of the French Roman de la Rose.(1372---1385)
(b) Italian period: Influenced by Petrarch and Boccacio in Early Renaissance Italy,
he wrote three long poems: The House of Fame, Troylus and Criseyde,
Legend of Good Women.
(c) English period: The Canterbury Tales (masterpiece) and some short poems. In
this period Chaucer was addressing himself not to the court but to reading
public. He reached maturity and was free from dominant foreign influence.
(4) His style: (a) He writes in various forms in poetry. (b) His poetry is rich in music and elegant . (c) He is a master of genial satire. The fusion of humour with satire is the basic note
of his style. (d) His characters are vividly drawn.
(5) His standpoint: (a) He sympathizes with true piety and goodness and attacks the hypocritical.
(6) His contributions. a) As a master of verse, Chaucer introduced the various forms of rhymed stanzas from France and Italy to English poetry, especially rhymed couplet of 5 accents in
iambic meter (the heroic couplet)(b) He did much in making the dialect of London the foundation
of modern English language.
(7) Poetic forms He introduced : (a) the heroic couplet: the rhymed couplet of iambic
pentameter. This form was popular in the 18th century. (b) the rhyme royal, a seven –line stanza in
iambic pentameter, rhyming ababbcc. (c) the terza rima, three-line stanza, rhyming aba, bcb ,
cdc.(imitating Dante in his minor poems) (d) the octave, eight-line iambic pentameter stanza
rhyming ababbcbc.
(8) His works:
(a) His greatest artistic Troylus and Criseyde(It’s based on a poem by Boccaccio. As
his greatest artistic achievement, it is his longest complete poem, about 8000
lines) is written in the rhyme royal.
(b) The Monk’s Tale is written in the Octave.
(c )The Canterbury Tales:
(1) Form : Most of the tales are written in heroic couplet.
(2) Reflection : a panoramic view of Chaucer’s contemporary life.
(3) Setting : Tabard Inn
(4) Characters: The author, twenty-nine other pilgrims and the host.
(5)Types of literature: all major types of medieval literature---- romance,
folk tale, beast fable, story of travel and adventure, saint’s life,
allegorical tale, sermon, alchemical account.
6) Language: Chaucer’s language, Middle English, is vivid and exact.
(7) Length: planned to be 124 stories but only24 were written.
(8) Arrangement: Linked through the host’s comments and prologue.
Linked through two ways: The personality of the host affords a clear
string of connection from the lst to the last tale. There is an intimate
connection between the tales and Prologue.
(9) The Best Parts: The tales of the Prologue.
(10) Typical characters: Almost all medieval figures from different sides
(walks) of life except nobles and the serfs (the impoverished).
(11) Written Time and Reason for Writing It: In memory of Thomas’a
Becket (1387)
(12)Its significance: Reflection of his times -----a panoramic view of his
contemporary life. Reflection of his humanist idea----- he exposed the
evils of church, the corruption of the upper class , praised man’s
intellect and love
(12)Character of the Wife of Bath: she is the owner of a cloth factory,
light-hearted, merry, somewhat vulgar and talkative.
(13) His Progressive Aspect: He affirms men and women’s right to
pursue their happiness and opposes the dogma of asceticism preached
by the church.
(14) His Shortcomings: He is religious himself. There is nothing
revolutionary in his writing.
(15) Structure: Remarks of the Inn host and interplay between Prologue
and tales
1) Popular Ballads (Theme /subject matter of Ballads: family tragedy; border war; humour)
a)Term: It is the most important form of popular literature. It is an ageless narrative folk song.
It flourished in England in the 15th century. The most important ballads in England are the
Robin hood ballads.
b)Collection of Ballads: from 18th century on.
c) Main producing place: Scottish border c) Types: (1) Tragedy: The Babes on the wood (2)
Humour: get up and Bar the Door D)Form : Mostly written in quatrains.
2) Beast Epic: Reynard the Fox, The Nun’s Priest’s Tale. The adventures of animals are used
to ridicule human beings.
The fabliau: six of the Canterbury Tales( often coarsely satirical, popular in medieval French
and English literature)
1) Medieval Drama:
a) Types: miracles, morality (mystery) and interludes.
b) Miracles: (1) subject: story from the Bible or life and martyrdom of a saint.
(2) Works: Noah, Second Shepherd’s Play, Brome’s Abraham and Isaac.
(3)Full Development: 14th century
c)Morality: the best morality, Everyman, at the end of the 15th century marked the moving
of maturity in drama.
d)Interludes: variety of short entertainments including secular farces of witty dialogues.
The best interludes are Heywood’s The Four PP and Sir John the Priest.
?Miracles denote only dramas based on saint’s lives. Mystery plays refer to those plays based on the Old and New Testaments.
7.Sir Thomas Malory and Prose in the 15th Century
His masterpiece: Le Morte d’Arthur is a kind of final summing-up of the Arthurian legend
built up from the 12th to the 15th century. It is the bais of most modern telling of the Arthurian
story and was the inspiration for Tennyson’s Idylls of the King. The prose consists of 8 tales in
507 chapters in 21 books.
Contribution: 1)Le Morte d’Arthur is an important landmark in the development of English
prose from the late middle English to early modern English, which is characterized by a lucid
and simple style. 2)Both the Arthurian legendary material it contains and its facile prose style
have their wide and lasting influence upon English literature of the later centuries.
Part Two The English Renaissance (1485—1660)
Chapter I Background
I. Translation of Bible: The first complete English Bible was translated by John Wycliffe, the
morning star of the Reformation, and his followers. (from Latin to English)
II.The Authorized Version of Bible: translated under the auspices of James I in 1611and so it
was called the King James Bible. This version is simple and dignified in language.
III. Peak of English Renaissance: the Elizabethan Age. We can find Edmund Spencer,
Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson, Francis Bacon and William Shakespeare.
I. Renaissance in Europe
1. It began in the 14th Italy. Italian influence can be traced in Chaucer’s poetry.
2. Nature: Cultural and intellectual movement
3.Characteristics: It was marked by a reawakening of interest in learning, in the individual
and in the world of nature. The revival of learning led scholars back to the culture of Greek
II. Humanism and Rome. The rebirth of interest in the individual gave rise to a new creation of beauty, to a 1. Nature: a literary and philosophic(al) system of thought which attempted to place the desire for self---expression in various activities and to the creation of great works of art.
affairs of mankind at the center of its concerns.
2. Origin : in Italy. 3. Source: Based on a new reading of Greek and Roman literature, an affirmation of the
importance of Platonic philosophy, and reinterpretation of the writings of Aristotle. 4. Ideal: It took he life of man in the presence as a major interest 5. Humanism was one of the most important factors giving rise to the Renaissance.
6. Humanism is an attitude rather than a philosophy III.The Main Traits of the Renaissance Literature
1. Its chief characteristic is the expression of secular values with man instead of God as the
center of the universe:
2. It emphasizes the dignity of man, affirms and eulogizes the value of man.
3. It advocates the full expression of individualism and the fulfillment of one’s abilities,
against the despotic rule of feudalism.
4. It affirms the delight of earthly achievement as well as man’s desire for happiness and
pleasure.
IV. Two Striking Features
1. Curiosity for classical literature
2. Interest in the activities of humanity.
V. Special Points
1. Dr Faustus by Marlowe is a typical example of Renaissance melancholy which doubts
man’s own powers..
2.The Renaissance spirit is best expressed through the works of Shakespeare.
VI. Renaissance in England
1. Italian influence came to be important at the end of the 15th century.
2. It was not until the accession of Henry VIII to the throne in 1509 that notable Renaissance
took place in England.
VII.Division
1.First stage (1485---1558)
2. Second stage (Elizabethan Age 1558---1603)
3.Third stage (17th century including James I Period/ Jacobean Period, Charles I Period
/Caroline Period and Puritan Revolution VIII. The Oxford Reformers (students and teachers at Oxford in the14century )
1.Representatives: Grocyn, Linacre and Colet.
2. Contribution: they helped to spread the light of a new science and new world outlook and
laid the foundation for the rise of a new literature in England in the later decades of the 16th
century.
IX. Representative: Thomas More (1478--- 1535)
1. Life: Humanist leader of early 16th century, a scholar , master of Latin, witty talker, music
lover, great thinker, once Lord Chancellor. Beheaded on a false charge of treason.
2. Masterpiece: a. Utopia in 1516 (in Latin). b. Narrator: a traveler c. meaning : Nowhere Land from Greek. d. translated into English in 1551 e. structure: dream
3. Ideal: More was the first to see the relation between wealth and poverty, and to bring up the idea of communist society. He was one of the forerunners of modern socialist thought.
X. Two Poets Before the Elizabethan Age
1.Thomas Wyatt: a. the first to bring Italian. sonnet to England b. He wrote sonnets in
imitation of Petrarch.
2. Howard(Earl of Surrey): a .He invented the English sonnet b. He invented blank verse
The Songs and Sonnets by Wyatt and Surrey was the first anthology of English lyric poems. (1557)
I. Poetry
1. John Lyly : a Romance---- Euphunes, the Anatomy of Wit (adventures of a young Athenian)
b. As a style, euphumism is from the Romace
2. Philip Sidney:
a.First important work :Arcadia ( to please his sister)
b. He wrote the first. series of sonnets (sonnet sequence) known as Astrophel
(star—lover)and Stella (the star, Penelope, a girl).
c. criticism: Apology for Poetry.
d. Life: He’s Spencer’s friend. Spencer wrote Shepherd’s Calendar to dedicate to him. He was a courtier, a scholar and soldier.
3. Edmund Spencer(1552—1599):
a. the greatest non-dramatic poet of the Elizabethan Age
b. the first master of English verse
c) Chaucer is his model.(pastoral poem)
d) His first work is The Shepherd’s Calendar.
e.) Second work , The Amoretti, a sequence of 89 sonnets, containing Spencer’s love poems
to his future wife, Elizabeth Boyle.
f) He invented Spencerian Sonnet (ab ab bc bc cdcd ee)
g)Masterpiece: Faerie Queen(planned in 12 books but only 6 finished) in Spencerian Stanza(first eight lines are iambic pentameter and the ninth has two more syllables, rhyming ababbc bcc)
h) His Themes: 1) Nationalism 2)Humanism 3) Puritanism
i)Influence: His Spencerian stanza has been utilized by Thomson, Keats, Shelley and Byron. j) Shortcoming in poetry: lack of power and unity .
k) school- belonging: Like Lyly and Sidney, Spencer was a court poet. Novels were I nfluenced either by Euphunes (Lyly) or by . Arcadia (Sidney). l)His position: master painter and the 1st to make English the natural music in poetry.. m)Why is Spencer called the ―Poet’s Poet‖? He is so called because of his superb technical skill, perfect melodies, rare sense of beauty, splendid imagination, lofty moral purity and seriousness and delicate idealism. l)The Elizabethan Age was called ―a nest of singing birds‖
because there was great achievement in lyric poetry. 2)The glory of English sonnet rests
mainly with Sidney, Spencer and Shakespeare. 3)Even the Queen, Elizabeth I, wrote When I
was Fair and Young (a song).
II. Drama
1. The morality play Everyman at the end of 15th century marks the beginning of modern
English drama.
2. Two Influences on Elizabethan Drama: a) Influence from the classics. b) Influence from the
popular drama.
3. First Known Dramatists: Nicholas Udall (Ralph Roister Doister), Mr. S( Gammar Gurten’s
Needle, the first English comedy)The first English tragedy was Gorboduc or Ferrex and
Porrex (by Thomas Sackvill and Thomas Norton, two lawyers in 10th century)
5. Three kinds of Drama
a)The Miracle (It is the root of English drama. It is based on Bible stories.)(Miracles were
first performed in the churches)
b) The morality (It presents the conflict of good and evil with allegorical personages such
as Mercy, Peace, Hate, Folly, etc.) (Everyman is a morality)
c) Interlude (A short performance during the break )( The Play of the Weather is such a
play)
6. The University Wits:
a) They are Lyly, Lodge, Peele, Greene, Nash and Marlowe,
b) the most influential is Marlowe.
7. Marlowe:
a) He was the predecessor of Shakespeare.
b) He was the greatest pioneer of English drama
c) His two achievements: 1) He first made blank verse ( unrhymed iambic drama) the
principal instrument of English drama. 2) He replaced the stilted heroes of drama in
the past by men of vitality and passion. He created the Renaissance hero for English
drama
d) His works paved the way for Shakespeare
e)His works : ?Doctor Faustus (for knowledge) ?Tamburlaine (based on a German
legend, ambition), Jew of Malta (greed for wealth) All are tragedies.
f)Themes of His plays: ?Scorn of orthodox creeds ?Praise of individuality.
g)Faustus is the hero in Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus. He’s a young and brilliant scholar. He has
an insatiable desire for knowledge.
8. Walter Releigh: Soldier, statesman, seafarer, poet, historian and scientist He wrote
―Discovery of Guiana‖, an account. of exploration, and History of the World.
9.Ben Jonson:
a) He was the successor of Shakespeare.
b)He was the greatest writer of comedy after Shakespeare.
c) His masterpieces are Velpone and The Alchemist( about a swindle). They are both
plays.
d) Everyman in His Humour and Sejanus are his other plays. E)His plays are written
according to ―humours‖.
f)Every character in his comedies personified a definite humour, so his characters are like
caricatures.
g)His pays were not deep but had much surface energy.
i) The first playhouse (built in 1576)in London was closed in 1692.
j) During Ben Jonson’s time, drama was already declining.
k) His contibution:
a)Humour
b) Forrunner of classicism
c) Having followers ---sons of Ben
III.Shakespeare (1564—1616) 1.Life: Little is known about him from:1)the church and legal records2) folk tradition 3)
comments of his contemporaries. He was born in Stratford-on-Avon. He went to a
grammar school. He became part owner of the theatre, ―Globe.‖ after he acted and
wrote plays and became famous .
2. Collection of His plays: a) His first collection of plays known as the First Folio was
published by his fellow actor, John Heminges and Henry Condell. It Has 36 Plays, not
including Pericles
3. His achievements: 154 sonnets, 37 plays (14 comedies, 12 tragedies and 11 historical
plays)and two long poems
4.Four periods in play –writing :
A. Features of the lst period(before 1594). It’s Shakespeare’s early experimental period.
1)It is marked by youthfulness and rich imagination.
2) by extravagance of language
3) by the frequent use of rhymed couplets with blank verse.
4)He looked upon the world as a just one. Justice would eventually win in the end.
5) love, faith, work and duty were the four elements that made the world right.
B)His major works (comedies) The Comedy of Errors, The Taming of the Shrew and
Love’s Labour Lost. B.Period Two(1594-1600)
a)Features:
1) He worked as a master in play writing.
2) It was a period of rapid growth and development of his artistic power.
3) His wit was at is best.
4) He had a keen insight into human nature, great power of expression and genius for
constructing a play.
5) To this period belong his best history plays.
b) What are the Rosalinds and Orlandos ?
1) They refer to characters in Shakespeare’s comedies in his second period.
2) The are young full of love and have ideal of happiness as well as of victory through
struggle.
3) The heroes and heroines fight against destiny.
4) They are the sons and daughters of the Renaissance.
5) they trust not in God but in themselves.
c) His works
1) comedies: A Mid –Summer Night’s Dream, The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About
Nothing, The Merry Wives of Windsor and As You like It .
2)Tragedies: Romeo and Juliet
3) History: Henry V
C. Period Three (1600-1608)
a) Features:
1) The Period of gloom and depression.
2) He was concerned with deepest matters of human life.
3) He grew in experience, in vision and in sympathy.
4) His belief and trust in mankind had been shattered.
b)Works: He produced his four greatest tragedies: Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and
Macbeth.
D. Period Four (Dramatic Romances) (after 1608):
a) Features:
1) A period of unrealistic compromise and fantasy.
2) A period of restored serenity and tolerant resignation.
3) His latest plays including The Tempest have happy endings.
4) He sounds again a note of calmness and hope and serene wisdom.
b) Major works: The Tempest, A winter’s Tale, Cymbeline
5.Four great comedies: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merchant of Venice, As You
Like It, Twelfth Night.
1. Analyze Hamlet:
a) He’s a humanist free from medieval prejudice and superstition.
b) He has love for the world rather than heaven.
c) He loves good and hates evil.
d) He is a close observer. He can easily see through people
e) He is a scholar, soldier and statesman all rolled into one.
2. Othello : a) A new man of the Renaissance.
b) A great soldier, too noble to suspect those he loves.
c) He has moral beauty.
d) He belongs to the future of the world .
e) His tragedy is that of humanism.
3. Macbeth : a) He is the character of Macbeth by Shakespeare. 麦克佩斯
b) He is a complicated and contradictory man
c) He is a courageous (brave) and clever.
d) He is greedy and ambitious
e) He becomes the prey of his ambition.
f) Longing for power drove him to crime.
1. What is responsible for Othello’s tragedy? 奥赛罗
a) Iago’s envy and intrigue .
b) Othello is jealous and simple—minded. c) The evils of the society.
d) Racial prejudice.
e) His tragedy is the tragedy of humanism.
2. Theme of King Lear: a.) Filial ingratitude.
b) King Lear wanted to divide his kingdom.
c) Living in her elder daughter’s house only with his title.
d) His elder daughter drove him mad.
e) His youngest daughter went to revenge her elder sister. The play ends with the death of King
Lear and his three daughters.
3.Analyze Falstaff: a) He’s character in Henry IV and in Henry V. He is a very complicated character.
b) He is a feudal knight by origin but he has no estates and becomes a parasite and adventurer.
c) He is fat , old , ugly, gross and guilty of many sins.
d) He is treacherous, selfish and cynical
e) He is the product of the transition from feudalism to capitalism.
12. Henry V
a) symbol of Shakespeare’s ideal kingship.
b) Budding statesman in Henry IV by Shakespeare.
c) cool-headed and strong –willed d) wise and far-sighted.
13.Poetry:
a) Long poems: 1) Venus Adonis 2) The Rape of Lucrece
b) sonnet sequence:
1) Theme : truth , kindness and beauty.
2)Characters: handsome young man , dark lady
14.Features of Shakespeare’s works: a)Founder of realism in world literature.
b) He used the method of adaptation.
c) He is a master hand.
d) He is skilled in many poetic forms (sonnet couplet, blank verse and he invented ―run-on‖
blank verse )
e) Great master of English language.
15.Shakespeare’s successes( achievements) in drama:
a) progressive significance of his themes .
b ) successful character portrayal.
c) master hand in constructing plays.
d) the ingenuity of his poetry
e) mastery of English language.
16.His women characters:
a )He is good at drawing women characters.
b) A lovely woman and more intellectual than a man --- Portia (Merchant of Venice),
Rosalind (As You Like It), Isabella( Measure for Measure), Helena(All’s Well That Ends
Well).
c) His heroines are all intelligent, warmhearted and generous.
17.Clowns: Fool (King Lear), drunken porter (Macbeth) , gravedigger (Hamlet) 18.Shakespeare is also a great prose writer.
II. Prose
1. In 1611 , the Bible was translated into English from Latin. Authorized version, or King
Jame’s Bible is the triumph of Elizabethan prose.
2. The most important prose writer is Bacon. He is the first English essayist. His works :
New Instrument, Advancement of Learning (58 essays) Marx called him ― the real father
of English materialism and experimental science of modern times‖. His style is neat,
precise, weighty ,brief and clear.
3. The best prose was written by Shakespeare during Elizabethan Age.
I. Coverage : from the accession of Stuart, to King James I and the Restoration of the third
(Charles II)
II. Background
1. Fight between Monarchy and Parliament.
2. Puritan Revolution
3. Change in Literature
a) No steady trend. b) No unity of spirit.
c) Tone or mood is somber or gloomy d) Literature was tool of Revolution. Losing romantic impulse and becoming critical and intellectual.
III. The Metaphysical
a) Name given to John Donne and his followers.
b) It is a phrase given by Dryden
c) The poetry was too often laboured , intellectual, obscure
d) It’s concerned too much with philosophy.
e)The representative is John Donne (including Herbert, Marvell, Crashaw ,Cowley, Cleveland ,
Vaughan)
f) marked by mysticism in content and fantastic in form.
IV. Cavalier
a)The poets were courtiers and squires.
b) They stood on the side of the king.
c) They called themselves ― sons of Ben Jonson‖.
d) The features of the poetry are polished, elegant, amorous and gay.
e)The representative was Herrick.
Herrick’s representative poem is To Daffodils.
V. John Donne
a)Founder of metaphysical poetry .
b) Two groups of his poetry
1) Youthful love lyrics (Songs and Sonnets)
2) Sacred verses(Devotion Upon Emergent Occasions)
c) Features
1) Original images and conceits 2) Use of colloquial speech . 3) Flexibility of rhythm and meter 4) Complex theme VI. Herbert: The saint of Metaphysicals . He wrote The Altar. 5) caustic humour 6) Sensuality is blended with philosophy , passion with intellect. VII. John Milton:
1. Life: Puritan, Cambridge graduate, travel to the Continent , participation in the
Revolution, nicknamed ― the lady of the Christ’s ―, spokesman of the Revolution, blind
later. He’s the greatest poet after Shakespeare.
2. Literary career:
a. Up too 1641 (First Period)
He was greatly influenced by humanism and the spirit of Elizabethan Age. His
important poem is Lycidas , a pastoral elegy on the death of a college mate, Edward
King.
b. From 1641 to 1654 (second period)
He wrote no poems but political essays and pamphlets. Areopagitica called for freedom
of press.
c. From 1655 to 1671 (Third Period)
He wrote Paradise Lost (masterpiece), Paradise Regained, Samson Agonistes. 3. Introduction to Paradise Lost
a. It is based on Old Testament.
b.It is the masterpiece of Milton .
c.It is a great epic.
d.It is written in blank verse.
e. The theme is to Justify the ways of God to men.
f. Style: dignity and polish.
Characters: Satan , God , Adam , Eve
4. Contribution: Master of blank verse, the first to use blank verse in non—dramatic
works.
5. Image of Satan:
a. The hero of Milton’s Paradise Lost.
b.He is very firm revolt against God.
c.He makes man revolt against God.
d.Though defeated he won the respect of his angels.
He prefers independence to happy servility. He welcomes defeat and torment as a glory,
a liberty and joy.
6. Samson is modeled on the Greek tragedy. Samson is Milton. a)Both of them were
embittered by marriage. b)Both were persecuted by enemies. c) both suffered from
blindness and yet were unconquerable.
7. His Writing Features:
a. He was political in both his life and his art. He was the greatest English revolutionary
poet of the 17th century.
b.He wrote the greatest epic in English literature. He and Shakespeare have always been
regarded as two patterns of English verse.
c.He is a master of blank verse. He first used blank verse in non- dramatic works.
d.Milton is a great stylist.
His thought is sublime and his expression is majestic.
VIII.John Bunyan
1. Life : a) son of a tinker b) He joined a Baptist society and became a preacher.
2. His works: Pilgrim’s Progress
a. It’s a book by John Bunyan.
b.It’s written in the form of allegory and dream.
c.The most famous part is Vanity Fair.
d.The theme to preach religion and expose social reality in England and also advocate
self- salvation.
e. Main Characters: Christian, Faithful and Hopeful.
f. Plot: a) Based on Bible b) Burden---- human burden c) Climax---- Vanity Fair
I. General Features:
1. It was a period of reaction and degeneration.
2. The Restoration comedy is notorious for its licentiousness, being full of love intrigue,
seduction and promiscuity.
3.The most distinguished literary figure of the Restoration Period was John Dryden.
II. Dryden (q631—1700) 1. Achievements in Literary genre: He was a poet , playwright, critic. He was a versatile
writer.
2. Works:
a. All for love, a tragedy dealing with the same story as Shakespeare’s ― Antony
and Cleopatra‖.
b. His famous prose composition, An Essay of Dramatic Poesy, established his
position as the leading critic of the day. 3. His contributions:
a. He established the heroic couplet as one of the principal English verse forms.
b. He clarified the English prose and made it precise, concise and flexible.
c. He raised English literary criticism to a new level.
d. He was the forerunner of the English classical school in the next century.
Part Three The 18th Century Literature in England
Chapter I General Introduction
I. Background
1. A period of Peaceful Development.
2. The nation became more and more prosperous.
3. Upper classes wanted no religious enthusiasts, and revolutionaries.
4. This was ― The Age of Reason‖ because the people at that time (18th century) believed
in reason, and their watchword was common sense:.
5. In literature there was a desire for perfect form. This desire resulted in adoption of
Greek and Latin models. So this period was called ― Neoclassic Age‖.
II. Connection Between politics and Literature.
1. In the 18th century, literature and politics were closely connected.
2. Daniel Defoe was more widely known for his political pamphlets, but not for Robinson
Crusoe during his life time.
3. Each party prized good writers , and literary men were eager to offer their services in
shaping the government.
II. Enlightenment
1. Term:
1) It appeared in Europe in 18th century. It marked the beginning of an intellectual
movement in Europe .
2)It was an expression of the bourgeoisie against feudalism
3) the enlighteners fought against class inequality, stagnation, prejudice and other feudal
survivals
4) The enlighteners strove to bring deaf thinking and dead systems to an end and replace
them by bourgeois ideology.
5) The chief means for the betterment of the society was the ― Enlighteners.
2. Influence:
1) Most of the important writers of the 18th century belonged to the enlightenment.
2) The literature of the Enlighten England mainly appealed to the middle class readers. A. The Meaning of Neoclassicism
It was initiated by Dryden, culminated in Pope and continued by Johnson.
These writers themselves on classical (ancient) Greek and Latin authors. They wanted to achieve
perfect form in literature. The general tendency of neoclassical literature was to look at social and
political life critically, to emphasize intellect rather than imagination, the form than the content.
They observed fixed laws and rules in literary creation. Neoclassical poets only preferred heroic
couplet. In drama they adhered to three unities of time, place and action. They emphasized the
didactical function of literature.
B.The Restoration Literature
1.Drama
Dryden is the only important dramatist. His masterpiece is All for Love ( a noble tragedy based on Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra) The typical form of drama is the heroic play.
The best comedies were written by Dryden. Marriage a la Mode is an example. Old plays were revised. Romeo and Juliet and King Lear were given happy endings.
2.Prose
a. Good prose is simple, clear and natural ( precise, direct and flexible.) b. The Restoration prose paved the way for periodical essays , for the novelists of the 18th
century and for the many practioners of letter writing. 3.Poetry
c. Dryden was the most important poet, the Poet Laureate from 1668 to 1688.
Dryden’s major satirical poems are Absalom and Achitophel and The Medal.
4.Literary Life
III. The Augustan Age ( the Age of Pope) (1700-1745) Addision established ―Spectator‖ and Steele‖ the Tatler‖ . 1. Why was it so called?
a. The main writers of the age, Addison, Steele, Swift and Pope compared themselves
with Virgil and Horace.
They also compared the age they lived in with the days of Augustus Caesar
2. The culmination of Neoclassicism
a. After the death of Dryden, Swift, Pope, Steele and Addison represented Neoclassicism.
From the death of Dryden (1700) to the death of Pope and of Swift (1745) ,
Neoclassicism achieved its greatest triumphs in England.
3. The Flowering of the periodical literature
a. The Tatler and The Spectator were the first literary periodicals in England.
b. The Contribution (Significance0 of the Tatler and the Spectator:
1) It shaped a code of social morality for the rising bourgeoisie.. It gave a true picture
of social life in England in the 18th century.
English essays had established as a literary genre.
4. The satirical spirit of the Age:
a. Satire flourished in the 18th century. The most distinguished practioners were Pope
and Swift.
The best satire of Pope are poems (The Rape of the Rock ) and (the Dunciad) , and
Swift’s (Gulliver’s Travels). 5. The Foreshadowing of Romanticism
a. (James Thomson) (born in Scotland ) wrote ( The Seasons ) ( poem). and the poem
foreshadowed the Romantic’s interest in ( nature).
(Feeling ) is the crucial fact in the history of the century after the deaths of ( Pope) and
( Swift)
7. Main writers
a. Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
1) Life : Merchant’s family, Roman Catholic family. Crippled.
2) Achievement: a) the greatest poet of his age. B) The manifesto of English.
Neo-classicism
His style: a) (Pope) brought the neoclassicism initiated. by (Dryden) to its climax. In
(Pope’s ) hands, the heroic couplet achieved all the finish, elegance, wit and pointedness.
b) He was a technician in English verse. He dominated the literary world of his time and
so the early 18th century’s literature has been called ―The Age of Pope.‖
3) Comment on him : Blake summarized him as ― elegant formalism‖.
4) His influence: Byron thought highly of him and was under his influence.
5) His works: three periods:
a)Didactic and philosophical poems: Essays on Criticism, Moral Essays,(didactical)
An Essay on Man(philosophical0
b) Poems of social satires: The Rape of the Rock
Translation of homer’s Illiad and Odyssey.
b. Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) 1) Life: Born in Dublin, Ireland . He is a satirist.
2) Works:
a)Most of his works were satires.
b) Battle of : Books and A Tale of a Tub satired the corruption and learning .
c) Gulliver’s Travels is an allegorical novel, his masterpiece.
3. His standpoint A Modest Proposal is the climax of Swift’s Irish series
He was sympathetic with the Irish people. We can see this in his the Drapper’s letters
and A Modest Proposal.
4) Gulliver’s Travels‖ (Gulliver is a surgeon.)
a)Lilliput ---- the first part (six-inch high people)
b)Brobdingnap---the 2nd part (satirizing lords and ladies )
c) Flying island of Laputa --- the 3rd part (satirizing philosophers, scientists,
historians, projectors(inventers)
d) Houyhnhnms--- the 4th part. This is his bitterest in satire. Houyhnhnms are houses
of reason and Yahoos are beasts in the shape of men. They are brutals.
What are High heels and Low Heels?
(1) They are the names of the two parties in Lilliput in Gulliver’s Travels by Swift.
(2) The two parties are struggling only for power.
(3) They are divided according to the different kinds of shoes they wear . Those who wear shoes
with high heels are High Heels and those who wear shoes with low heels are Low Heels .
(4) High Heels and Low Heels refer to Tories and Whigs in 18th century’s England.
(5) Writing Features / Style
a) satirical and biting b) simple, straightforward c) Interested in social criticism
He said, ― Proper words in proper places , makes the true definition of a style.‖
d)Gulliver’s Travels is the most biting example of humanity ever penned.
IV. Neoclassical Decline
(Time of Johnson )(1747—1785)
1. An Age of prose: Mathew Arnold called the 18th century ― Age of Prose‖ when he
spoke for Victorian taste.
2. The precursors of Romanticism: William Collin (Ode to Evening), Thomas Gray
( Elegy) , Young and Chatterton,.
Three supporters of Neoclassicism: Johnson, Burke and Reynolds
4. Samuel Johnson
a. Life: 1) poet , essayist, literary critic, lexicographer. 2) A son of a poor book seller.
3) He was called ―the great champion of literature‖ after he published his
Dictionary. 4) He founded literary club in 1764. 5) He was buried in Westminster
Abbey.
b. Works: 1) The Vanity of Human Wishes 2) London( Both are poems.) 3) The
Lives of Great Poets (Criticism) 4) He edited the complete woks of Shakespeare.
5) The Dictionary of English Language.
c. Style: Satire
His poetic satires:London , The Vanity of Human Wishes Satirical novel:
Rasselas.
Importance of His Dictionary : It met the Neoclassical need for standards and
helped to standardize vocabulary and usage.
5. Literary Club:
a. It was created by Johnson b. the members included Sheridan, Gibbon and
Boswell , etc. c. At the gatherings Johnson’s conversational gifts were exercised
and enjoyed. d. Johnson gave verdicts on literature through his talk. 6. James Boswell
a. Born in Scotland. Biographer.
Works: The Life of Johnson (containing anecdotes and descriptions of Goldsmith,
Reynolds, Burke and Garrick.
7. Oliver Goldsmith
a. Life : Son of a poor curate. Born in Ireland. A member of Literary Club.
b. Works: 1) The Citizen of the World(essay) (A successor of Addison) 2) The Vicar
of Wakefield ( novel) (satire in heroic couplet).3) The Deserted Village(satire in
heroic couplet) 4) She Stoops to Conquer( a comedy).
c.. School: Neoclassic and Pre—Romantic
8. Sheridan:
a. Life: 1) the only dramatist of importance of the age(18th century 2) Born in
Dublin. 3) His Drury Lane Theatre caught fire in 1809. He said ― A man may
surely be allowed to take a glass of wine by his own fireside.‖:
b. Works 1) Masterpiece: The School for Scandal is the best English comedy
since Shakespeare. 2) The Rivals
Generally speaking the greatest name in 18th century English drama is not
that of a playwright, but that of a player. 9. Burke : Born in Dublin. His life was a political one.
10.Gibbon : His The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is the greatest of historical
works in English literature.
Part Four The Age of Romanticism
I. Sentimentalism
1. In the half of the 18th century, (pope) was the leader of English poetry and the (heroic
couplet) was the fashion of poetry.
2. Thomas Gray was the representative of sentimentalism. His masterpiece was Elegy.
Elegy is a model of sentimental poetry.
3. Term: 1) Sentimentalism gradually appeared by the middle of 18th century . 2) It
appeared because of a bitter discontent among the enlightened people with social
reality 3) It struggled against feudalism and it appealed to sentiment, to ― the human
heart ― but not to reason. 4) It turned to the countryside for its material. 5) The most
famous representative was Thomas Gray.
4. Sentimentalism included Gray, Cowper (The Task ) ,George Crabble, Thompson,
Young and Collins.
II.Pre-Romanticism
1. In the latter half of the 18th century , a new literary movement arose in Europe, called
the (Romantic Revival)
2. It was marked by a strong protest against Classicism.
3. It was marked by recognition of emotion and passion. It hastened the decline of
Neoclassicism and the revival of Romanticism..
4. It was marked by a keen interest in medieval literature.
5. It showed in poetry in England. It was ushered by Percy , Macpherson and Chatterton ,
and represented .by Blake and Burns Writers (Sentimentalism)
1.Thomas Gray:
Masterpiece: Elegy
a.Features: 1) the appearance of melancholy.2) the study of nature
b. His Elegy is the summit of graveyard poem, the best poem of graveyard school.
2.Thomas Percy :
His collection of folk songs and ballads, Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, marks an epoch
in the history of English poetry.
3.James Macpherson wrote an epic, Fingal. It tells a hero of ancient Scotland.
4.Chatterton is the saddest of the pre-Romanticism. His poems resembled Elizabethan poetry.
5William Blake:
a. Life: engraver and poet
b. Works: Songs of Innocence, Songs of Experience
c. What’s the significance of the contrast between Songs of Innocence and Songs of
Experience?
1) In Songs of Innocence, Blake describes the happy condition of a child who was in a
world of light, peace, harmony and love.
2) In Songs of Experience he describes the unhappy condition of a child who was in a
world of neediness, distress and misery.
3) The contrast marks a progress in his outlook.
6. Robert Burns
a. Life: son of a poor Scottish peasant or cotter , poet of peasants. The best poet of
Scotland.
b. Works: The Three of Liberty, A Man’s a Man for A’That , A Red, Red Rose
c. His Writing Features:
1) All his poems were written in Scottish dialect.
2) All his poems have a great charm of simplicity.
3) Music effect
4) Love for freedom
5) Patriotic
6) Satire
7) About love and friendship
III. The Age of Romanticism (1798---- 1832)
1. It extends from 1798 when Lyrical Ballads was published to 1832_ when major Romantic
writer were either dead or no longer productive. 2.The Impetus of Romanticism
a. The French Revolution b. The Industrial Revolution 3. The Meaning of Romanticism
a.vitality , powerful emotion b. limitless and dreamy ideas. C. A poetic revolution d. It
was an international movement.
4. The special qualities of Romanticism ( What are the qualities of the English Drama?)
a) The spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.
b) The creation of a world of imagination.
c) The return to Nature for material
d) Sympathy with the Humble and glorification of the Commonplace.
e) Interest in old stories and medieval romances.
5. Two schools:
a) First generation included Wordsworth and Coleridge, passive Romantic school.
b) Second generation included Byron, Shelly and Keats, active Romantic school.
I. Lake Poets:
Wordsworth, Coleridge and Southey were in the first generation of Romanticism. They were called Lake Poets because:
a. They lived in the mountainous Lake District for a long time.
b. They had the same literary and social outlook.
c. They had the same path in politics and poetry. They all began as radicals and closed as
conservatives.
II. Major writers
1. William Wordsworth
a. Life: The Representative of the lst generation of Romanticism. The chief spokesman of
Romantic Poetry. Greatly influenced by French Revolution. He was made Poet Laureate. b. Works:
1) His best poems are description of nature--- mountains, flowers, rivers, birds, children ,
peasants, childhood and youth.
2) In 1998 (Wordsworth ) and (Coleridge) jointly published ( Lyrical Ballads). It marked
the (break) with the conventional poetical tradition of 18th century (Neoclassicism) (and
the beginning ) of ( Romantic movement) in England. 3) His major works: We Are Seven, To the Cuckoo, I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud, The
Solitary Reaper and Prelude.
c. Features (Why is he called ― Nature Poet‖?
a)A constant theme –growth of human spirit through natural environment
b) Combination of natural description with expressions of inward states of mind. c)Sympathy with the poor , simple peasants.
d)Love of nature.
e)Simplicity, vivid imagery
1) The Prelude is Wordsworth’s autobiographical poem. It is the spiritual record of his mind.
2. Coleridge
a. Works: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner , Kubla Khan and Christabel, three supernatural
poems.
b.Characters: 1) supernatural and fantastic atmosphere 2) Mystic imagery 3) Haunting
music
I. General points
1. The generation included Byron, shelly and Keats.
2. (Byron) and (Shelley) were called ― (satanic)‖ by Robert Southey because their
revolutionary spirit and rebellion against society.
II. Three Poets
1. George Gordon Byron
a. Life: Educated at Harrow and Cambridge.
b. Works:
1) Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage made him instantly popular. He said, ― I awoke
one morning to find myself famous‖. It is a narrative poem.
2) Byron was famous chiefly because of his long narrative and dramatic poems.
Such poems include Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Oriental Tales, Manfred,
Cain and Don Juan, his unfinished masterpiece.
3)His best lyrics are When We Two Parted , She Walks in Beauty. c. His Writing Features:
1) Sympathy with the suffering people.
2) Introduction of Byronic hero of satanic spirit into English poetry.
3) Novelty of his subject matter, exotic quality of description.
4) Expression of his ideas on political, social and cultural problems in his long
poems.
5) Magnificent description of natural scenery and exquisite lyrics of love and
despair.
6) His style is loose, fluent and vivid.
2.Shelley
a. Life : Like Spencer, he is also called ― the poet’s poet‖. Like Byron he is also a
wanderer. He wrote The Necessity of Atheism and this caused his expulsion
from Oxford. He is a lyric genius. b. Two Moods of His Poetry
1) Shelley is a violent reformer
2) He is like a wanderer. (With the lst mood he wrote most of his longer poems and
lyrical dramas ---- Queen Mab, Promethus Unbounded, with the 2nd mood he
wrote his nature poems ----- Ode to the West wind, To a Skylark, The Cloud. c. Features of His Poetry
1) He wrote because he thought he could pave the way for a better society. This is
his fundamental characteristic in poem-writing.
2) His poems shine with radiant beauty, marvelous symbolism and imagery.
3)His greatness lies in the nobility of ideas and his superb artistry.
3. John Keats
a. Long poems: Isabella, Hyperion (Two masterpieces)
b. Short Poems: On a Grecian Urn, To a Nightingale, Ode to Autumn , To Psyche.
c. Features: 1) Fascinating ( Enthralling) beauty of line, colour , shape , order and
taste. 2) Mastery of artistic form 3)Depth of feeling 4)Vivid imagery 5)Perfect finish
6.)Touching melody.
I. The Familiar Essay
1. The periodical essay in England began with ( Defoe ) (1704) and continued /
developed by (Addison) and ( Steele ) in ―The Tatler‖ and ―The Spectator‖. The
(familiar ) essay is best represented by ( Lamb).
2. Charles Lamb:
a. Life : A friend of Coleridge. Clerk in the South Sea House, then in the East India
House. His life was clouded by poverty and his sister’s malady. Essayist and
critic.
b. Works : 1) Essays of Elia 2) Mary Lamb and Charles Lamb adapted Shakespeare’s
plays into stories for children.(―Tales from Shakespeare‖).
c. Features: 1) The most striking feature is his humour. He is a master of puns and
jokes2)and also his archaism 3) Lamb is the romanticist of the city. 3.Hazlitt
a. Life : critic and essayist
b. Works : The Spirit of the Age.
c. Influence :Great influence on realistic writing
d. Style : graphic, terse and energetic.
4. Quincy
a. Life: critic and essayist
b. His autobiography: Confessions of an English Opium-eater.
II. Drama was not for stage but for reading . The best examples were Byron’s Manfred and
Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound. The poetic drama by Shelley, Cenci, was most successful. A. Three kinds of novels
1. Two new types: (Gothic novel) in the late 18th. The lst Gothic novel was ( Horace
Walpole’s ) Castle of Otranto, ( novel of purpose ) at the turn of the century.
2. Romantic novel --- Jane Austen and Sir Walter. Scott wrote Romantic novels. In fact
only Scott belonged to this age both in time and spirit. Austen stayed within the
culture and literary traditions of the neoclassical past and also anticipated the realist
novel of the next age .
3. Term: Gothic novel.
a. It appeared at the end of the 18th century.
b. It had desolate or remote settings.
c. It talked about fantastic , mysterious and violent incidents.
d. The characters are grotesque, savage, ghost-like.
e. The first Gothic novel was Walpole’s Castle of Otranto
4. Jane Austen
a. School: In her novels we can find the ( rationalism) of ( neoclassicism), the
(vitality) of (romanticism) and ( detailed) description of ( realism).
b. Works: Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Emma
c. Features:1) His novels describe a narrow range of society and events. 2)Her
subject was in human nature. 4) Her language style is witty and humorous ,
graceful , elegant and refined.
d. She once compared her work to a fine engraving made upon a little piece of ivory
only two inches square.
5. Sir Walter Scott
a. Life: Born in Edinburgh , Scotland. Poet, novelist
b. Works: Three groups of his historical novels (His main to literature lies in
historical novels)( His historical novels range from the Middle Ages up to 18th .)
1) History of Scotland ( The earliest and largest group): Waverley, Rob Roy, The
Heart of Midlothian.
2) English History : Ivanhoe ( masterpiece) is his realistic description of the life of
feudal England ( the setting is in 12th)
3) European history : Quentin Durward ( based on French Revolution)
c. His importance: His career in literature marks the transition from romanticism to
realism in English literature of the 19th century. His historical novels paved the
way for the development of the realistic novel of the 19th century.
d. Writing Features:
1) He has a gift of vivifying the past.
2) His novels combine historical facts with imagination.
3) Historical events are interwoven with the fates of individuals.
4) He is not only concerned with the lives of kings, nobles and other historical
figures, he also concerned with the fates of ordinary people.
He is a romantic in literature and a Tory , a conservative in politics.
Chapter V The Rise of Realistic Novels I. Origin
1. Modern European novel can be said to begin in late Renaissance with Cervantes’
Don Quixote.
2. English novel got along a century later.
3. Daniel Defoe made the most important advances to novels.
4. Romances are the origin of novels.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, novels become the most popular of all literary forms.
II. Writers
1. Daniel Defoe
a. Life: Born in London, son of a butcher. A preacher. Travel in Spain, Italy, France,
Germany as a merchant.
b.Masterpiece: 1) Robinson Crusoe is based on a real story of a Scottish sailor, Alexander
Selkirk. 2) Characters: Crusoe, Friday (a Negro with whose help Crusoe builds
another boat)3) Image of Crusoe: a) The hero in Defoe’s novel, Robinson
Crusoe b) He has marvelous capacity for work c) He has boundless energy and
persistence in overcoming obstacles. d) He is most practical and exact. He is
always religious and mindful of his own profit. e) Crusoe is representative of
early English bourgeois.
c. Plot: Loosely connected. Picaresque romance.
d. Comment on Him: Defoe is often credited with writing the first ― novel of incident‖.
2. Samuel Richardson
a. The first English novelist is Richardson.
b. Pamela or Virtue Rewarded is the first English novel . It is written in epistolary novel.
c. Why is Pamela a new thing?
1) It discarded the ― improbable and marvelous‖ accomplishments of the former heroic
romances. It pictured the life and love of ordinary people for the first time.
2) It not only entertains but also gives moral instruction
3) It describes not only the sayings and doings of the characters but also their secret
thoughts and feelings.
4) It is the first English psycho-analytical novel.
d His Influence: He fathered a long line of novelists such as Sterne, Jane. Austen , Balzac
and George Sand.
e) Why does Crusoe glorify labour?
1) Labour brings him food and shelter.
2) Labour saves his life.
3)Labour is source of pride and happiness.
3. Henry Fielding
a. Life: 1) 2nd but more important novelist of the 18th century 2) Originally he just wrote
plays. 3) Father of English novel . 4) Best known for his dramatic satires on current
politics 5) characterization and typification
b. Works: The Historical Register for 1737
The Coffeehouse Politician
Don Quixote in England
And the greatest English novel of the 18th century, his masterpiece: The History of
Tom Jones.
c. Fielding’s first novel , Joseph Andrews ( Pamela’s elder brother in Richardson’s Pamela)
was written in connection with Pamela of Richardson. .
d. Image of Parson Adams: 1) A character in Fielding’s Joseph Andrews
2) He is a poor, honest old parson, an English Don Quixote
3) He is high –minded, simple –hearted.
4) He is ever ready to help the weak and the oppressed
5)He is a man of extraordinary learning but the most absent-minded man
e. What is Fielding’s view of novel ? Why is Fielding the founder of English realist novels?.
1) He is the founder of English realistic novel. He sets up the theory of realism in literary
creation.
2) He imitates the nature---- the real life.
3) His center of working philosophy is Man , common earthly man.
4)He reveals human nature through conversations
f. His masterpiece: Tom Jones (a comic romance)
1) The subtitle : a Foundling
2) Theme: The hypocrisy and depravity of the ruling class. The poverty of the working
masses.
3) Image of Tome Jones. A) He is the main character in Field’s Tom Jones b) He is a
founding , a handsome young man .c) He is frank and open, kind ,disinterested,
quick-tempered but having no malice. D) His outstanding quality is ― Good nature‖ and
―goodness of heart‖ e) He is one of the best –natured fellows alive . He is never
indifferent to the misery and unhappiness of anyone. He lives by impulse, not by reason.
4) Other characters: a) Bilfil, a villain. B) Sophia, heroine, the ― Somersetshire Angel‖.
4.His Features in novels: (Why is he called Father of English Novel?)
1) His method of relating a story is direct by the author.
2) Satire
3) Belief in educational function of the novel.
4) Style: easy, unlabored and familiar but vivid and vigorous.
Comment on Tom Jones ( Character of Tom Jones )
1)He has an ordinary man’s feeling and behaviors .
2) He is honest , good –natured, sympathetic with the poor and willing to help others. 3) He lives by impulse , dominated by emotions , also has liaison with some bad women.
4)He can finally overcome his weak points
5.Tobias Smollett : father of the nautical novel
6.Laurence Stern: 1)representative of the sentimental school. 2) Born in Ireland 3)He wrote The
life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy. 4) Comment on Him: a) To him,
sentiment counted far more than reason. B) To be free in the expression of
thought and emotions c) Description of inner life of characters, their tears and
laughters, griefs and joys. For this reason he has been remembered as a true
father of postmodernist novel.
Part VI. The Victorian Age I. Three periods
1. Early Victorian Period ( 1832-1848): a time of troubles.
2. Mid –Victorian period ( 1848-1870) Economic prosperity and religious controversy.
3. Last period ( 1870-1901) ___ Decay of Victorian values.
Chapter I . General Points 1. An age of Expansion
2. Chartist movement : In Sybil by Disraeli he called England ― The Two Nations‖.
3. Reforms.
4 .Darwin’s Theory : It shook the old Christian belief in divine creation of men .This theory
led to a loss of faith in religion. Matthew Arnold’s Dover Beach and
some of Hardy’s novels can show this. Such prose writers as Thomas
Henry Huxley did a good job in popularizing Darwin’s theory of
evolution.
5.The women Question: Victorian Age produced a group of women novelists such as George
Eliot, Mrs Gaskell and the Bronte‖ sisters (realist group)
6.What did the women novelists in Victorian Age focus on in their novels?
a) Love and marriage
b) Women’s social position. c) Women’s equal rights with men. d) Moral problems
e) Educational system and social problems. Chapter II Literature in Victorian Age
I. Diversity in Victorian Age
The diversity existed in form and content There was no dominant theory in Victorian Age.
The literary trends were:
1. Chartist Literature.( The Greatest poet is Ernast Jones. Cooper and Linton are also in this
school.)
2. Realist novels
3. Poetry of the BigThree—Tennyson, Browning and Arnold 4. Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
5. Aesthetic movement
II. Features (Characteristics) of Victorian Literature:
1.Realistic prose 2. Moral purpose 3. Optimism and pessimism 4. Variety in form , content , style
and subject matter.
Chapter III Victorian Novels I. General Points
1. Victorian literature was mainly in the novel, from the time of Charles Dicken’s first
novel , Pickwick Papers to Thomas Hardy’s last novel , Jude the Obscure.
2. Charlotte and Emily Bronte wrote their best novels in the 1840’s.
3. In the 1860’s Anthony Trollope was a portraitist of mid-Victorian society.
4. Most of the Victorian novelists were primarily realists.
5. The ( Victorian novelists) are also ( critical realists). For in addition to ( describing life)
they were also ( critics ) of the society in which they lived.
II. Charles Dickens
1. Life: Greatest English novelist. Bitter experiences in childhood. ( Such experiences were
reflected in many of his novels. ) As a junior clerk in a lawyer’s office.( We find many
lawyers and criminal characters in his novels ). A reporter for the parliament. ( He got a
first hand knowledge of political life of capitalist England) He was buried in the Poet’s
Corner at Westminster Abbey.
2. Works: Three Periods
a. In his first period he mainly wrote The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, Oliver
Twist, The Old Curiosity Shop ( His optimism in life)
b. In the 2nd period he wrote Dombey and Son and his masterpiece, David
Copperfield.( Irritation Period)
c. In the 3rd period he wrote Bleak House, Hard Times and Great Expectations. and A Tale
of Two Cities( Pessimistic Period).
3. Introduction to some of His novels:
a. The Pickwick Papers tells us a story about a retired well-to –do merchant, Pickwick. In
the novel the ― Buffs‖ and the ― Blues‖ hint at the Tories and the Whigs. The novel is
called ― the supreme epic of English life‖. 1) Image of Pickwick :benewlent , good –hearted, often involved in unpleasant situations because
of his goodness of heart. 2) ( Pickwick ) and ( Sam Weller ) are a pair of
19th –century English Quixote and ( Sancho Panza) . The brilliant
portraits of ( Pickwick ) and ( Sam Weller ) account a great deal for the
popularity of ― The Pickwick Papers‖. b. Oliver Twist tells a story of an orphan boy. It provides a description of the lower depths of
London. Bumble made Oliver suffer a lot. Brownlow is a good man in the novel.
c. The Old Curiosity Shop tells the sufferings and hardships of an old man Trent and his
granddaughter, Nell.
d. Martin Chuzzlewit is a social satire. It criticizes both British and American bourgeoisie. It
attacks the worship of money in England and America. Hypocrisy is also attacked.
e. Dombey and Son marked a great advance in Dicken’s art of novel –writing ( The 2nd
period began after he visited America in 1842) It is worth noticing that the good characters
in David Copperfield are forced to face hardships, disappointment , trial and affliction ,
and to suffer most cruelly, while the bad characters do not suffer so much.
f. David Copperfield is told in the first person’s point of view. This is the author’s favourite novel, his masterpiece. In this novel Dickens exposed the miseries of child-labour, the
tyranny in schools, the debtor’s prison, cruelty, immorality and treachery in the English
bourgeoisie world ,so the novel is not merely a personal record, but a broad picture of
the author’s day. It is his most autobiographical of all his works.
f. Bleak House(3rd Period) aims at the abuses of the English court.
h. Hard Times attacks the bourgeoisie system of education and ethics and utilitarianism.
Chartist movement is also described in it .
i. The common theme of Bleak House and Hard Times is a general attack upon the
bourgeois order of society.
j. A Tale of Two cities takes the French Revolution as the subject of his novel, and the ― two
cities are Paris and London in the time of the French Revolution The hero is Dr
Manette.
4. Features:
a. Character sketches and exaggeration.
b. Broad humour and penetrating satire.
c. Complicated and fascinating plot.
d. The power of exposure.
e. Sympathy with the working people.
5. Additional points
a. The theme underlying ― A Tale of Two Cities” is ― Where there is oppression, there is
revolution.‖
b. Great Expectations resembles David Copperfield in being a first – person narration
and in drawing on parts of Dicken’s personal experience.
c. Our Mutual Friend is Dicken’s last completed novel. d. In his first period Dicken’s novels illustrate that ―cheats never thrive, ― be sure your sin
will find you out‖, ―virtue will triumph in the long run‖. Dickens believed that all the
evils of the capitalist world would be remedied if only men behaved to each other with
kindliness, justice and sympathetic understanding. The whole question, Dicken believed,
would be settled by such good gentlemen like Pickwick and Brownlow.
e.Politically and ideologically , Dickens was a radical.
III. Thackery:
1. Life: Like Dickens, he was a representative of critical realism in 19th-century England.
2. Works:
a. Satirical series ----- The Snobs of England, later collected under the title ― The Book of
Snobs‖. This book may be regarded as a prelude to Thackeray’s major literary career as
it contains all the important ideas that constitute the contents of his later novels.
B .Vanity Fair was the peak of his literary career.
3. Introduction to His Masterpiece:
The subtitle of Vanity Fair is (A Novel Without a Hero) . This emphasizes the writer’s
ntention of portraying the (bourgeois and aristocratic society ) as a whole but not the
(individuals ). Building his plot around the fates of (Amelia Sedley) and Rebecca ( Becky)
Sharp, Thackeray managed to show a picture of the life of the (ruling classes) of England.
The title was taken from (Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress).
4. Image (Character ) of Becky (Rebecca) Sharp
a. She is the heroine of Vanity Fair by Thackeray.
b. She is unscrupulous, shrewd and .
c. She is an adventurer. She always clings to the rich.
d. She is determined to worm her way into upper society at all costs.
e.Her only purpose in life is to grab money and gain wealth and position by all means.
5. Why did Thackeray borrow (choose) Vanity Fair for the title of his novel?
a. Vanity Fair is one chapter in Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress.
b. In Vanity Fair in Bunyan’s novel, everything can be sold and bought except truth.
c. Thackeray borrowed (chose) the title to show that English society of that time was
just like the Vanity Fair in Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, where everyone was driven by
ambition for wealth and fame.
6.The only somewhat positive character is Dobbin in Vanity Fair.
IV. George Eliot
a. Life: Eliot was the pseudonym (pen name) of Mary Ann Evans. She is one of the three
giants of Victorian novelists ( Dickens, Thackeray and Eliot). She was interested in social
and philosophical problems.
b. Works:
1) Adam Bede (first full-length novel) : Anovel of moral conflicts Theme: social inequality
2) The Mill on the Floss: largely autobiographical in its early chapters.
3) Middlemarch (finest novel of hers)
c.Silas Marner.
c.Features:
1)She is a realist, psychologist and moralist. Her novel is of psychological realism.
2)As a realist, she reproduced scenes and characters in real life as she had observed them:
3)As a psychologist, she sought to represent the inner struggle of the soul and to reveal the
motives, impulses and hereditary influence which govern human action.
4)As a moralist she believes that every evil act will bring inevitable punishment to the man who
does it.
What are the features of English critical realism? 1) English critical realism appeared in the 1840’s and 18505.
2) Those critical realists described English society and criticized capitalism.
3) Dickens, Thackeray and Hardy are the three representatives of this school.
4) They not only gave a satirical picture of the bourgeoisie and the ruling classes but also
showed sympathy for common people.
How does David Copperfield reflect (show) Charle Diclen’s view toward his characters?
1) In this novel , Dickens put the characters into two groups David, Micawber and Peggotty
are good ones. Steerforth, Heep and Murdstone are bad ones.
2) The good characters are forced to face hardships and suffer a great deal at the beginning,
but they are rewarded in the end.
3) The bad ones do not suffer much.
This view of Dicken’s view toward his characters shows that he has lost his old naïve optimism
about bourgeois society.
V. Women Writers:
1. Charlotte Bronte and Emily Bronte were the daughters of a poor Irish clergyman 2. Jane Eyre is Charlotte’s masterpiece. It’s in the form of fictional autobiography. Characters
in it are Jane Eyre, an orphan girr, Mr and Mrs Reed , Mr Rochester.
3. Emily Bronte is the most gifted of the three Bronte sisters She wrote Wuthering Heights.
Catherine is unorthodox and Heathcliff represents savage forces that society tries in vain to
eliminate.
4. Why is Charlotte Bronte called a (critical) realist?(Her writing features)
a. In her novels she showed herself a critical realist, for she attacked the greedy petty
bourgeoisie.
b. She showed her sincere feelings for the victims of the unjust society.
c. The chief feature of her novels is the creation of courageous, upright characters such as
the heroine in ― Jane Eyre‖, who successfully resists oppression and other social evils.
5.Gaskell’s masterpiece is Mary Barton. Gaskell was one of the first English writers to describe in a novel the class struggle between
workers and capitalists in ― the Hungry Forties.‖ She also wrote North and South
VI. Thomas Hardy
1. Life: Novelist and poet. Builder. Born in Dorset and called Wessex in his books. His
principal works are the Wessex novels describing the characters and environment of his
native countryside. He began writing as a poet and ended as a poet.
2.Works: The Return of the Native, The Mayor of Casterbridge, Tess of the D’urbervilles and Jude
the Obscure ( summit of his realism)
3. Difference Between Dickens and Hardy: 1) Unlike Dickens, most of Hardy’s novels are
(tragic) 2) Hardy is a (transitional) figure between the (Victorian Age) and the (20th) century.
In many ways , he belonged more to the 20th century than to the 19th century. 3) Dickens is
a critical realist but Hardy’s novels have strong elements of naturalism and symbolism
though he is also a critical realist.
4. What accounts for / causes Tess’ tragedy?
a. Her family was poor
b. Alec’s harm
c. Angle Clare’s irresponsibility d. Her murmuring
e. Evil society.
Features of Hardy’s Novels:
a. His chief works are the Wessex Novels, novels describing the characters and
environment of his native countryside.
b. He describes truthfully the impoverishment and decay of small farmers.
c. His pessimistic philosophy seems to show that mankind is subjected to the rule of some
hostile and mysterious fate which brings misfortune to human life.
e. There are strong elements of naturalism combined with symbolism. VII. Other Writers
1. Trollope was a strong admirer of Thackeray and shared Thackeray’s contempt for the
commercial arrogance of the British upper—middle classes.
2. (George Gissing) is a naturalist novelist. He is the most significant figure in the period of
transition from the (Victorian) to the (modern) novel.
Chapter IV Victorian poetry I. What was the poetry like ? (Features)
1. By the 1830s all the great Romantic poets had died except Wordsworth , who was no
longer creative, but the development of English poetry did not stop.
2. (Tennyson) and (Browning) have been considered by some critics the ―Third Generation
of (Romantics).
3. In many ways, Victorian Poetry is a contribution of the Romantic poetry of the previous
age.
4. Victorian poetry is no more regular in form and in meter, and it becomes more scientific
than romantic.
II. Major poets
1. Tennyson
a. Life : 1)(Tennyson), (Browning) and (Arnold) are called ― The Big Three‖ of ( Victorian
Poets. 2) Tennyson gained the title of ― Poet of the People‖ 3) Poet Laureate. 4) Baron
b. Works: 1) In Memoriam – his greatest poem(in memory of Hallam).2) Two long poems:
Idylls of the King (about king Arthur) and Maud 3) His best lyric --- Crossing the Bar.
c. What’s the symbolic meaning of the setting in ―Crossing the Bar‖?
1) The settings refer to sunset, evening star , twilight and the bell.
2) They shows the dividing line between life and death.
3) The speaker in the poem now is old and he is standing on the edge of death.
4)The settings agree with his own situation.
2. Robert Browning
a. His contribution: Dramatic monologue ( The speaker is not the poet but an invented
character) ( This skill was brought to its most sophisticated by T.S. Eliot in his Love
Song)
b. Works: Longest and greatest poem is The King and the Book
1. Elizabeth Browning: Her works are: Sonnets from the Portuguess and The Cry of the Children.
3. Matthew Arnold: 1) a poet, critic( Essays in Criticism) 2) His poem, Dover Beach expresses a deep disillusionment with Victorian society.
III. Pre-Raphaelite Poets
1. Term: a) It means before Raphael, an Italian painter in Renaissance. b) Before 1050, a
group of painters and poets form Pre- Raphaelite Brotherhood. c)the Pro-Raphaelites
advocate a return to the techniques of the primitive d) they opposed conventionalism in
painting and writing. e) They emphasized true-to – nature depiction.
2.Representatives: a) Dante Gabriel Rossetti ( the most important ) b) William Morris c)
Algernon Charles Swinburne d) Christina Georgina Rossetti ( the second
greatest woman poet of her age)
IV. Hopkins: He created ― sprung rhythm‖. His unconventional rhythm and diction, his
imagery, colloquial and unusual language made him seem modern. W. H.
Auden and Dylan Thomas regarded him as their masters.
Chapter IV. Prose I. Carlyle: Born into a Scottish peasant family. He wrote life of Schiller and On Heroes and Hero
Worship. He believed that the decisive factor in history is the individual leadership of
genius.
II. Ruskin: Critic of art and society. He wrote letters and pamphlets to defend Pre-Raphaelites.
His social and aesthetic ideas influenced Morris, the pre-Raphaetites, Wilde, Bernard
Shaw and Lawrence.
Chapter V. The Nineties I. General Points
1. The writers of the 1890s are sometimes styled‖(late Victorians)‖ and sometimes ― the first
of the (Moderns)‖
2. Butler’s The Way of All Flesh satired Victorian family life.
3. (Melancholy) is characteristic of the spirit of the 1890’s
4. The deaths of (Arnold), (Tennyson) and (Browning) symbolized the end of (Victorian Age).
5. Kipling was the lst English writer to win the nobel prize for literature (1907)
6. Kipling and Henley shared a belief in the so-called civilizing mission of British imperial
power.
7. Steverson insisted that literature and art were for entertainment. His work The Treasure
Island was best liked by children. Steverson, was a representative of neo- romanticism. 8. The most important literary movement is Aestheticism represented by Oscar Wilde.
II. The Aestheticism
Term: 1) It began to prevail in Europe in the middle of the 19th century.2) Its theory is ― art for
arts sake‖. 3) The aestheticists believe that art should serve non-religious moral and
social end. 4) They try to separate art from real life. They place art above life and hold
that life should imitate art, not art imitate life.5) The representatives of this school in
England were Pater and Wilde
1. Oscar Wilde:
1. Life: Dramatist, poet, novelist and essayist. in Ireland. Leader of Aesthetic Movement.
2. Works:1) (The Picture of Dorian Gray) whose hero is an embodiment of the (aesthetic)
way of life. This novel is an illustration of his aesthetic view 2) Wilde’s fame chiefly
rests on his four comedies: Lady Windermine’s Fan, A Woman of No Importance, An
Ideal Husband, The Importance of Being Earnest.
I. General points
1. The 20th century literature began in the late 19th.
2. Two Trends: a) Anti-Victorianism b) Loss of faith and the rise of pessimism (Waste Land)
3. Woolf, Mansfield and Lessing were all women writers.
II. Modernism
1. It was a movement of experiments in new techniques in writing.
2. Modernist fiction emphasizes the description of the character’s psychological activities. It
has also been called modern psychological fiction.
3. It was international. It was influenced by French symbolist poets and psychological
teachings of Freud.
4. It broke with traditional forms.
5. Yeats, Eliot and James Joyce, Lawrence were the representatives of modernism in
England
Chapter II Poetry
I. Characteristics (Features)
1. A large number of both major and minor poets
2. Many writers of significant works of fiction also wrote poems.
II. General Survey of 20th Century Poetry
1. The century begin with Thomas Hardy’s first volume of poetry . His poems represent
traditional rural poetic tradition.
2. Yeats, T.S. Eliot become the representatives of modernist poetry.
3. Left-wing poets led by Auden appeared in the 1930’s.
4. Welsh poet Dylan Thomas represented the return to the themes of Romanticism.
5. In the 1950’s the Movement poets led by Larkin wanted to find a middle position
between modernism and traditional poetic forms and styles. III. Major Poets
1. Hardy: Wessex Poems and Other Verses (1998), Poems of the Past and the Present , The
Dynasts(averse drama about Napoleonic Wars), Human Shows , winter words (last
poem)
2. The Georgians
The second decade of the 20th century appeared minor poets known as the (Georgians),
including (Davies) , (Mare), (Masefield) and (Graves)
3. Three Young war poets: Brooke, Owen and Sassoon
IV. Two Modernist Poets
1. Technical Revolution in Poetry
In the early years of this century a major technical revolution occurred. (Yeats), (Eliot)
and (Pound) were the leaders of modernist poetry.
2. What exerted influence on modernist poetry?
a. (Imagism) b. (Metaphysical poets) of 17th century , especially from John Donne. c.
(French symbolist poetry).
3. Chief Traits (Features) of Modernist Poetry
a. Direct treatment of things
b. Freer metrical movement
c. Higher degree of intellectual complexity
d. Use of symbolism
e. Often international and urban in theme.
4. Yeats: poet, dramatist
a. Life: Born in Dublin , Ireland. With Lady (Gregory) he founded the (Irish National
Theatre). He wrote his first play The Countess Cathleen. b. Works: The Responsibilities, The Wild Swans at Coole, The Tower, The Winding Stair.
Many of his poems are connected with Maud Gonne. Nobel Prize winner in 1923. c. Features of Yeat’s poetic construction in different periods.
1) In his early period he mainly wrote about romantic poetry and he was influenced by
Spencer and Blake.
2) The next period was his transition from romanticism to modernism. He was
influenced by Eliot and Pound.
3) From 1919 to 1939 it was a period of his maturity. He focused on the rise and fall of
civilization, and eternal beauty in the world of art.
4) He also pondered over youth and old age.
5.T.S Eliot
a. Life: Poet, playwright, critic. Born in America, a British subject later. He was Anglo-
Catholic in religion, royalist in politics and classicist in literature, Nobel Prize
winner in 1948.
b. Works : 1) The love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock 2) Masterpiece: The Waste Land 3) The
Hollow Men and Ash Wednesday are his most personal statements.4) Criticism: The
Use of Poetry, On poetry and Poets 5) Eliot did much to revive verse drama. He
wrote Murder in the Cathedral.
c. The Waste land : 1) A poem by T. S. Eliot 2) It is a long, complicated poem . 3) It shows
disillusionment and pessimism with contemporary society 4) It is remarkable for its
originality in form and content. 5) Eliot’ masterpiece.
V. Auden Group
1. In the 1930’s in English there was a group of young left-wing poets who later came to be
known as the Auden Group.
2. They had studied together at Oxford and were united in the protest against social evils
and in their rejection of middle –class capitalistic society. 3. Auden was the leader and the most active of the Group. Chapter III 20th –century Fiction I. Say something About the Fiction of 20th –century England: 1. Modernism and traditional realism are the two simultaneous but contrary tendencies of
the century.
2. Modernism is influenced by psychological analysis and existentialism.
3. The continuation of the tradition of realism is similar to realism of 19th century.
4. The cross currents of 20th century fiction move between modernism and realism.
II. Realistic Novels----- three realists: Galsworthy, Bennett and Wells
1. Galsworthy:a) Successor of Dickens and Thackeray ,Nobel Prize winner in 1932. b)
Works : Masterpiece is a trilogy: The Forsyte Saga (including The Man of Property, In
Chancery and To Let).Another trilogy is A Modern Comedy (Composed of The White
Monkey, The Silver spoon and Swan Song).
2. Arnold Bennett: The Old Wive’s Tales ( setting: The Industrial Five Towns of northwest
midlands.)
3. Wells : science fiction writer. Works: The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, The War
of the Worlds, The First Man in the Moon.
III. Modernism in Fiction
1.Henry James:
a) Life: Born in America, a British subject.
B) Importance: The first English writer to study fiction as an art and to give novel and its form
concentrated critical attention. Forerunner of stream of consciousness.
C) Theme: A recurring theme in his fiction, or the (international, theme, is the conflict between
(the European and American world views,) which he used to symbolize as the conflict
between (innocence and corruption), the (New World) and (traditions), (customs) and
(values) of the old,
D) works: Daisy Miller, Portrait of Lady, The Ambassador, The Golden Bowl. His criticism:
The Art of Fiction.
2.Joseph Conrad: (Joseph Conrad), a successor to ( Henry James), together with (Lawrence)
and (Joyce) are three giants of modern English novelists. Born in Poland,
Conrad wrote The Nigger of the Narcissus,Lord Jim.
3.Forster: 1) Combination of realism and modernism.
2) Central theme of his novels is ( personal relationships)
3) Works: Where Angels Fear to Tread, The Longest Journey, A Passage to India
( Masterpiece). Literary criticism: Aspects of the Novel IV. Lawrence
1. Life: Mother- son relationship is represented in his autobiographical novel , Sons and
Lovers. Novelist, poet, critic.
2. Works: The White Peacock, Sons and Lovers, The Rainbow, Women in Love, Lady
Chatterley’s Lover. 3. Theme: The major theme of almost all of Lawrence’s novels and short stories is ( natural)
harmony between men and (men ) . Men and (women ) has been destroyed by (industry)
and modern (civilization). He developed this theme by exploring the (emotional lives)
and ( sexual instincts ) of his characters and showing the (great harm) that (modern
industrial civilization ) has done to human nature). In this way , he combined
(psychological analysis) and (social criticism).
4. Feature: A distinctive feature of Laurence’s style is the (fusion) of (realism) and
(modernism). His language is highly (poetic) and (symbolic)
5 . Masterpiece: The Rainbow tells about three generations of a rural family and their
marriages. Women in Love continues the story of two of these characters.
V. Stream of Consciousness
1. The term originated with Henry James’s elder brother (William James ) who wrote
( Principles of Psychology).
2. The founders are French writer Proust, James Joyce and Woolf.
3. It had great influence on poetry. Drama and film.
4. James Joyce and Woolf are two great writers of the school.
5. James Joyce 1) Born in Dublin. 2) The setting for all his fiction is Dublin . 3) Novelist,
poet and playwright 4) A collection of short stories--- Dubliners. 5) First novel, largely
autobiographical--- A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man . 6) Ulysses is his masterpiece.
The novel deals with the events of one day (18 hours) in Dublin in June, 1904. It is a
typical example of (stream of consciousness). The three characters, Stephen Pedalaus, the
hero of A portrait of the Artist as a Young man, Leopold Bloom and his wife , Molly are
all taken from ( Greek mythology). The book is based on ( Homer’s Odyssey). Ulysses is
called a modern Odyssey. 7) His last novel is Finnegans Wake.
6. Woolf : 1) Novelist, critic 2) Unlike (Joyce), who dealt with the ( lower middle class in
Dublin), Woolf mainly described the (spiritual life ) of the (English upper class). 3) She
became The center of ( ― Bloomsbury Group‖) 4) Works : The Voyage Out, Night and
Day , Mrs Dalloway. To the Lighthouse and The Waves.
VI. Social Satires:
1. Representatives Waugh , Huxley and Orwell.
2. Waugh: The Sword of Hour (Men at Arms, Officers and Gentlemen , Unconditional
Surrender)
3. Huxley: Nineteen Eight-Four predicted social conditions in a highly centralized, tightly –
controlled state of the future.
VII.Summary of Fiction
1)Picaresque novel in the 16th century was the beginning of English novel.
2)Addison and Steel contributed a lot to novel in ushering in the dawn of modern English
novel through their ―The Spectator‖ and ―The Tatler‖ in early 18th century.
3)The modern English novel began in the 18th century.The rise and growth of the realistic novel
was the most prominent achievement of 18th century English literature, which gave the world
such novelists as Defoe, Richardson, Fielding, Smollett and Stern. The two founders of
modern English novel were Defoe and Richardson.
4)In Romantic period, Scott was the strongest voice in novel writing. With his numerous
historical novels, Scott became a mountain of novel of his time.
5)Jane Austen was a pioneer of English realistic novel in the 19th century.She wrote about the
small world she lived in with vividness and exquisiteness.
6)The Bronte Sisters, Charlotte, Emily and Anne, Mrs. Gaskell and George Eliot were all
women writers active in novel writing and were all renowned novelists of the 19th century.
Generally speaking they all wrote in the vein of realism although they differed in one way or
another in their meticulous writing styles.
7)Dickens and Thackeray were two important critical realists in the 19th century. The former based his novels mainly on the life of lower class, lashed the middle and upper classes and
sympathized the poor, while the latter chose the middle class life as his material and as the
target.
8)Conrad, Joyce, Woolf and Lawrence were famous modern writers in the last century. They all wrote in modernist way.
9)Hardy and Galsworthy were two realistic writers in the last century who wrote in realistic tradition to great extent.
10)Evelyn Waugh and Orwell were famous novelists of social satire in the 20th century.
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