English Literature in the Beginning of the 19th Century 3 страница
At the same time some of them want to subdue the Anglo-Saxons completely, while others are ready to co-operate with them.
Walter Scott shows that the second tendency is progressive because it leads to the birth of a new nation.
A great number of characters take part in the chief events of the novel. Some are historical people, e. g., King Richard I, his brother John and Robin Hood. Others are typical of the period, for instance, Cedric the Saxon and Isaac of York. There we meet also romantic heroes, such as Ivanhoe, Lady Rowena, Rebecca and Sir Brian.
Scott is not indifferent to the fate of the characters and to the historical events in which they take part. He was both romantic and realistic in his works. •
Walter Scott's style and language are very interesting. He was a master of dialogue, which helped him better describe his characters. His heroes spoke using expressions peculiar to their professions (the priests, the archers, the tradesmen).
He was fond of humour, and there are a lot of comic situations in his novels. This makes them still more interesting for the reader.
Walter Scott has always been loved and much read in this country.
Vocabulary
co-operate [kau'opsreit] vсотрудничать subdue [ssb'dju:] /полностью подчинять
feudal ['fju:dl] n феодал tournament [Чшпэтэш;] п турнир
former [Тэ:тэ] а бывший upset [A'pset] v нарушать
nobility [nau'bihti] n дворянство, знать ward [wo:d] n подопечный
peculiar Ipi'kjurlja] а присущий witch [witj] n ведьма
privilige ['pnvihdj] n привилегия, пре
имущество
.______ _............ __:.. _ ,. \
Questions and Tasks
| lie? /anhoe? ting? |
1. What century do the events described in Ivanhoe take us back to?
2. Where is the scene of the novel set?
3. What period of English history does Walter Scott describe in Ivanhoe'?
4. Give a brief summary of the plot of Ivanhoe
5. Where does the central conflict of the novel
6. What can you say about the characters of Л
7. What makes Walter Scott's language interes
Jane Austen (1775-1817)
|
Jane Austen ['rjstin] was born on December 16, 1775, in the Hampshire village of Steventon, where her father, the Rev.1 George Austen, was rector. She was the second daughter and seventh child in the family of eight: six boys and two girls. Her closest companion was her elder sister.
| Jane Austen |
Her formal education began in about 1782, when the sisters were sent to be taught by Mrs Cawley at Oxford; and, in 1784, they moved to the Abbey School, Reading, where they remained until 1787. After that their education continued at home. This was no deprivation, as the household at the rectory was unusually gifted. Her father encouraged the love of learning in his children. Her mother was a woman of wit. Reading and writing were enjoyed as family activities. Samuel Richardson and Henry Fielding were favourite novelists. The great family amusement was acting.
| 1 Rev. ['revarend] (сокр. от reverend) — (его) преподобие |
Austen's earliest known writings date from 1787, and between then and 1795 she wrote a large body of material that was collected in three manuscript notebooks: Volume the First, Volume the
Ш
Austen's house
Second, and Volume the Third. In all, these contain 21 items: plays, verses, short novels, and other prose.
In 1793— 1794 Jane Austen wrote a short novel-in-letters Lady Susan. Jane was a girl of seventeen. Some of the letters tell of her enjoyment of local parties and dances in Hampshire, of visits to London, Bath, Southampton [sauG'aemptsn], Kent and to seaside resorts in Devon [ 'devan] and Dorset.
Sense and Sensibilityv/as begun about 1795 as a novel-in-letters called Elinor and Marianne [ 'mean 'sen] after its heroines. She contrasted two sisters: Elinor who is rational and self-controlled, and Marianne who is more emotional. Between October 1796 and August 1797 she completed the first version of Pride and Prejudice. Northanger Abbey was written in about 1798- 1799.
In 1811 she began her novel Mansfield Park. Between January 1814 and March 1815 she wrote Emma.
In these novels she showed that it was important to know oneself in order to make the right choices in love and marriage. Although her endings are generally happy, her novels make readers feel that they have been made to think about themselves and their moral lives.
Jane Austen's novels are deeply concerned with love and marriage. The novels provide indisputable evidence that the author understood the experience of love and of love disappointed. This observation relates most obviously to her last novel, Persuasion [pa'swerpn] (1815- 1816). The years after 1811 seem to have been the most rewarding of her life. She had the satisfaction of seeing her work in print and well reviewed and of knowing that the novels were widely read. The reviewers praised the novels for their moral entertainment, admired the character drawing, and welcomed the homely realism. Although Jane Austen preserved her anonymity and avoided literary circles, she knew about the reception of her novels.
For the last 18 months of her life, she was busy writing. In 1817 she began her last work Sandition, but it was put aside on March 18. Her health had been in decline since early 1816. In April she made her will. On the morning of July 18 she died. She was buried in Winchester Cathedral.
Her authorship was announced to the world at large1 by her brother Henry, paying tribute to her sister's qualities of mind and character.
Jane Austin is different from other writers of her time, because her main interest is in the moral, social and psychological behaviour of her characters. She writes mainly about young heroines as they grow up and search for personal happiness. She does not write about the social and political issues, but her observations of people apply to human nature in general.
Modern critics are fascinated by the structure and organization of the novels, by the realistic description of unremarkable people in the unremarkable situations of everyday life.
1 to the world at large — всему миру
| Questions and Tasks 1. Where was Jane Austen bom? 2. What family did she come from? 3. Where was she educated? 4. When did she write her first works? 5. What was her first novel-in-letters? 6. What did some of the letters tell of? 7. Name Jane Austen's notable novels. 8. What themes did she deal with in her books? 9. What years seem to have been the most rewarding of her life? Why? 10. What did the reviewers praise her novel for? 11. When did she die? 12. Why are modern critics fascinated by Austen's novels? |
Vocabulary
anonymity Laena'mmiti] л анонимность apply [3'plai] ^относиться concern [k3n's3:fi] v касаться decline [di'klam] л ухудшение deprivation [^depn'veifan] л лишение evidence fevidans] л факт(ы) gifted ['giftid] а способный, одаренный heroine ['hereum] л героиня household fhaushsuld] л семья indisputable Lmdis'pjutabl] а бесспорный obviously ['Dbviasli] adv очевидно praise [preiz] v хвалить reception [n'sep/эп] n прием
rectory I'rektan] л дом приходского
священника relate [n'leit] v относиться resort [n'zo:t] л курорт review [n'vju:] v рецензировать reviewer [п'у)'и:э] п рецензент rewarding [n'wordm] а вознаграждающий satisfaction [^saetis'faekjbn] л удовлетворение tribute ['tnbju:t] n дань
to pay tribute платить дань will [wil] л завещание
English Literature in the 19th Century
CRITICAL REALISM
The critical realism of the 19th century flourished in the forties and at the beginning of the fifties.
The critical realists set themselves the task of criticizing capitalist society, exposing the crying social contradictions. Their strong point was their true reflection of life and their sharp criticism of existing injustice.
The merit of English realism lies in its profound humanism — its sympathy for the working people. The greatest English realist of the time was Charles Dickens ['tjklz 'dikmzj. With striking force and truthfulness he described the sufferings of common people.
Another critical realist was William Makepeace Thackeray ['wiljam 'meikpi:s 'вэекэп]. His novels mainly contain a satirical portrayal of the upper strata of society. Here belong, of course, Charlotte Bronte ['Jcdat 'bronti], Emily Bronte, Elizabeth Gaskell ['ilizabaG 'gses kal], George Eliot ['с{зз:ф' eljat]. These writers showed a realistic picture of their contemporary England.
All these novelists portrayed everyday life, with a little man as the - central character.
| strata ['straits] pi от stratum stratum ['stra:t3m] n слой striking ['straikirj] о поразительный sympathy ['simpaGij n сочувствие upper ['лрэ] а высший |
| Charles Dickens |
| Navy Pay Office— Казначейство военно-морского ведомства |
Vocabulary
contemporary [кэп 'tempsran] о современный
contradiction [^knntrs'dikjgn] n противоречие
profound [pra'faund] о глубокий
Questions and Tasks
1. When did the critical realism of the 19th century flourish?
2. What task did the critical realists set themselves?
3. What was the strong point of the critical realists?
4. Who was the greatest English realist of the time?
5. What did he describe?
6. Name some other writers belonging to this literary trend.
7. What did they portray in their novels?
Charles Dickens (1812-1870)
Charles Dickens was born» in Portsmouth ['poitsmaG] on the 7th of February, 1812. He was the second child and the eldest son of John and Elizabeth Dickens. John Dickens was a clerk in the Navy Pay Office1.
After a short period in London, John Dickens in 1817 was transferred to the dockyard at Chatham [ 'tfaetam], and here the family remained until 1822. These were the happiest years of Charles Dickens's childhood and youth. Here Dickens went to a small day-school. He also learnt much from his mother,
who was a well-educated'woman, and from the books she gave him to read.
It was here, years later, when he was at the height of his fame, that he returned to live, buying Gad's Hill place, the very house that he and his father had so often admired when out walking.
The little boy, eager, bright, sensitive, energetic but not really robust, found life opening out for him wonderfully during these years at Chatham.
His recollections of these years, seen in the golden haze of childhood, played a very important part in his work. If he had not had this happy time, brightening his childhood; the novels of Dickens would have been darker.
When Charles was about ten, the family left Chatham as John Dickens had been recalled to London.
John Dickens had left Chatham in debt, even after selling off some of his furniture, and nobody in London came to the rescue of John and Elizabeth Dickens and their six children. Everything that could be was given to the pawnshop, and young Charles was often sent on errands of this sort, for he was no longer going to school. He had done well at school in Chatham. But his parents had made no plans for him to continue his education in London.
A friend of the family helped Charles find work at a blacking warehouse. His parents instantly agreed. Charles had to paste labels on the jars of blacking. He received six shillings a week.
Only a few days after Charles started work at the blacking warehouse, his father was arrested and sent to the debtors' prison, the Marshalsea. John Dickens was a happy-go-lucky, irresponsible man, and he usually spent more than he earned. As a result of such living he was thrown into the debtors' prison. Later, Mrs Dickens and the younger children joined him. Little Charles did not live in the prison. He had to live in miserable lodgings and to feed himself.
It came to an end when a relative of the family left Mr Dickens a legacy which was enough to pay his debts and leave the prison. When his father was set free, Charles was sent to a private school where he remained for three years. He was fifteen when his education ended, and he was sent again to earn his living this
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Vocabulary
blacking ['blaekirj] n вакса
curiosity Lkjusn'ositi] л любознательность
dockyard ['dDkja:d] n верфь
eager [i:gs] о усердный
errand ['erand] n поручение
gap [gaep] n пробел
happy-go-lucky ['haepigai^Uki] а беспечный
haze [heiz] n дымка
height [hait] n вершина
illimitable [riimitsbl] а безграничный
irresponsible [^ins'pnnsabl] а безответственный
jar [фа:] п банка
label f'leibl] n наклейка
legacy ['legasi] n наследство lodging ['hxjjirj] n обыкн pi сдаваемая
комната paste [peist] v приклеивать pawnshop ['pomjbp] n ломбард phenomenal [fifrromml] а необыкновенный recollection [декэЧеЦГэп] п воспоминание rescue ['reskju:] n помощь restless [resths] а неугомонный robust [re'bASt] а здоровый shorthand ['/o:thaend] n стенография spare [spea] а свободный transfer [traens'f3:] v переводить warehouse ['weshaus] n склад
The Marshalsea debtors' prison
time as a clerk in a lawyer's office in London. All his spare time he spent in learning shorthand and visiting the British Museum Library filling up the gaps in his education by reading. Just before his seventeenth birthday Charles became a reporter. Soon he was recognized to be one of the best reporters in the whole country. He was invited to join several papers. When he was nineteen he was able to do some reporting in the House of Commons for newspapers.
Finally in 1834 he became the star reporter on the Morning Chronicle.
Young Dickens, with his restless energy and illimitable curiosity, went everywhere and noticed everything. His power of observation and memory were phenomenal.
He went all over the country getting news, writing up stories, meeting people and using his eyes. These early days of a reporter made very deep impressions on his mind and provided him with material for his books.
Questions and Tasks
1. Where was Charles Dickens born?
2. When was he born?
3. What did his father, John Dickens, do?
4. Where was John Dickens transferred in 1817?
5. What were the happiest years of Charles Dickens's childhood?
6. Describe the years Charles spent in Chatham.
7. When did the family leave Chatham?
8. Give a brief account of the financial position of the family.
9. What happened to Mr Dickens?
10. How did Charles live when his family was in prison?
11. What helped the Dickens's family leave the Marshalsea?
12. Where did Charles study?
13. What did he do when his education ended?
14. What did Charles become just before his seventeenth birthday?
15. What kind of reporter was he soon recognized to be?
16. What traits of character helped him become the star reporter on the Morning Chronicle1?
17. Why were these early days as a reporter very important for Charles Dickens in his later life?
|
Charles Dickens's Literary Work
| The title of Sketches by Boz |
Charles Dickens began his literary career in 1833. He wrote some sketches under the title Sketches by Boz. Boz was his pen-name. It was a nickname of his younger brother. The work was warmly received, but it was in 1836 that Charles Dickens rose to fame with the publication of The Pickwick Papers. A new firm of publishers, Chapman and Hall, asked Dickens to write some sort of humorous text, describing sporting misadventures, to support the drawings made by a popular comic artist called Seymour. Dickens agreed, but only on his own terms. These were that the drawings must illustrate the text, not the text the drawings.
The first instalment of Posthumous [ 'pnstjumas] Papers of the Pickwick Club (the full title of the book) came into being and brought the author world-wide fame.
The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club is a humorous description of funny adventures and misadventures of the members of the Pickwick Club which was founded by Mr Pickwick, a rich old gentleman, who had retired from business. The purpose of the club, according to its members, was "for the observations of character and manners". All the members, like Mr Pickwick, are rather well-to-do; they spend their time in travelling and in looking for mild adventures.
Long before the twentieth and last number of the paper with The Pickwick Papers came out, the country was Pickwick-mad. The name was given to all manner of things, from coats and hats to canes and cigars.
Dickens became famous all over the world, especially in America and in Russia.
Encouraged by his success Dickens set to work as a novelist. His next novel Oliver Twist (1838) deals with social problems. It is the story of a little boy born in a workhouse and left an orphan.
The kind and honest boy by nature rinds himself in the environment of thieves and lives through terrible hardships.
As Dickens believes in the inevitable triumph of good over evil, it is only natural, therefore, that Oliver Twist overcomes all difficulties. The novel ends happily which has become a characteristic feature of the greater part of Dickens's works.
The cottage where Dickens used to work
With Oliver Twist still in hand, Dickens began to work on his next novel Nicholas Nickleby ['nikabs niklbi] (1839).
The book deals with another burning question of the day — that of the education of the children in English private schools.
Nicholas Nickleby becomes a teacher of a typical English boarding-school for children of parents of modest means.
There is no question of real education at the "school". Its half-starved pupils are used by the master of the school and his wife for domestic work. Its master, Mr Squeers ['skwiaz], is veiy cruel to the children and his only aim in life is to have as much profit as possible out of his establishment.
| The beginning of the sixties saw the publication of Great Expectations (1860-1861) and Our Mutual Friend (1864- 1865). Dickens died in 1870, leaving his last work The Mystery of Edwin Drood unfinished. From 1858 to 1868 Dickens gave dramatic readings of his novels in England and America. He was a brilliant reader of his novels, but he overworked and died at the age of fifty-eight. He was buried in Westminster Abbey. Charles Dickens was one of the greatest novelists that ever put pen to paper1. His novels are now translated into most languages and are highly valued for their realism, their humour and their just criticism of English life. |
| Dombey and Son Dombey and Son is one of Dickens's best works. Dickens enjoyed life, but he criticized the social system into which he had been bom. As he grew older the criticism of his age became bitterer. The main |
| 1 that ever put pen to paper — который когда-либо брал в руки перо |
The scenes of the children's life were so realistic and true to life that a school reform was carried out in England after the publication of the novel.
Dickens's next novel was The Old Curiosity Shop (1841). It is a story of the sufferings and hardships of an old man named Trent, and his granddaughter, Nell, who live in London.
Dickens's first historical novel Barnaby Rudge [ 'ba:rabi 'глф]
(1841) was published before his visit to America in the autumn of
1841. There were many good reasons for going to America. He
wanted to lecture on his works as he knew he would have a large
admiring public there. Besides, he wanted to meet some American
writers, especially Washington Irving ['wrjjirjtan '3:vm], with whom
he had exchanged enthusiastic letters.
After his return from America Dickens wrote American Notes
(1842) andMarfm Chuzzlewit ftJXzlwrt] (1843-1844) which created
a sensation in America. They were social satires of the American
way of life.
Between 1843 and 1848 Dickens published his Christmas Books [A Christmas Carol [ 'knsmas 'kaerol], The Chimes, The Cricket on the Hearth [ha:9]). In 1846 he visited Switzerland and Italy. There he began Dombey [ 'dombi] and Son (1848). In the fifties and sixties the most profound novels were written — David Copperfield ['dervid 'krjpsMd] (1850), Bleak House (1853), Hard Times (1854) and others.
David Copperfield is, to a great extent, an autobiographical novel. In the character of David Copperfield, Dickens shows many features of his own life. The hero of the novel is a young man who lives through hardships and injustice but in the end achieves well-being.
Bleak House is a bitter criticism of England's courts of justice. Hard Times is a novel depicting the conditions of the working class in England.
Little Dorrit (1855— 1857) is the story of a little girl whose parents are thrown into a debtor's prison.
With A Tale of Two Cities (1859) Dickens returned to the historical novel. It is devoted to the events of the French Revolution of 1789-1794.
Vocabulary
admiring [ad'mainn] а восхищенный
boarding school ['bo:drrjsku:l] n пансион
cane [kem] n трость
environment [m'vaisranmsnt] n окружение
establishment [is'taeblijmsnt] n заведение
extent [iks'tent] n степень
feature ['й:ф] n черта
inevitable [I'nevitebl] а неизбежный
instalment [in 'stoilmsnt] n отдельный выпуск
means [mi:nz] n средства
mild [maild] о безобидный
misadventure [ 'missd 'ventjs] n злоключение
nickname ['nikneim] n прозвище
orphan ['orfan] n сирота
pen-name ['penneim] n литературный псевдоним
profit ['profit] n выгода
retire [n'tais] v оставлять должность
sketch ['sketfj n очерк
term [t3:m] n условия
well-being [ 'wel 'bi:in] n (материальное) благополучие
well-to-do ['welts'du:] а состоятельный
/
subject of his later novels is money and the things that go with money—power, position and so on. In Dombey and Son the symbol of money-power is Mr Dombey himself, to whose pride of position as a British merchant everything must be sacrificed — affection, wife, children and love. According to Dombey "The earth was made for Dombey and Son to trade in, and the sun and the moon were made to give them light. Rivers and seas were formed to float their ships; rainbows to give them promise of fair weather; winds blew for, or against, their enterprises; stars and planets circled in their orbits to preserve inviolate a system of which they were the centre".
Mr Dombey is a prosperous businessman, a starchy and purse-proud merchant. He is selfish to the core1, he bends down only before the power of gold. He looks upon the people surrounding him only from a business point of view. His coldness, his absolute lack of human feeling towards people is extraordinary.
The firm, which is his life, is called Dombey and Son. He has a daughter, Florence, whom he considers to be " a piece of base coin" because she is a girl. He does not love her, he does not notice her, although the little girl loves him dearly. When at last a son is born, it is he who becomes the centre of Dombey's life and interests. He is to become ffls heir, he is to continue to increase his riches.
But the dreams of Mr Dombey are not realized. Little Paul is a sickly child and he feels that he will not get better that he will die like his mother died when he was born. He cannot understand why the money, that his father considers to be so powerful, could not save his mother and cannot make him strong and completely well.
Little Paul dies and the hopes of Mr Dombey never come true. Mr Dombey marries again, but the marriage is a bargain. Dombey is sure that money can buy obedience, devotion, love, faithfulness. But money fails to bring what he expected.
His second wife, Edith, hates him and leaves him.
Florence runs away from his house, too. Misfortune falls on him in business as well. Mr Corker, his secretary, ruins Dombey and perishes himself. Dombey is left all alone. The atmosphere of cold reigns in the house.
The character of Dombey is a symbol of evil. Dickens shows how wrong and mistaken are all those who believe that money can buy everything: affection, happiness, love.
With great talent and power Dickens shows that money brings only evil, poisons the minds of people, makes them egoistic and cruel.
Opposed to Mr Dombey are his two children, Florence and Paul. Dickens made them loving and lovable creatures who hated money. Only Florence's love for Mr Dombey remains unchanged, and she and her husband take care of the lonely old man.
When Belinsky read Dombey and Son he called it a miracle that made all other works written by Dickens seem pale and weak. Dickens managed to show the ugliness of relations based on money in a work of art.
Up to now Dickens has remained one of the great realistic writers. In Russia his works became known a very short time after being published.
Vocabulary
| obedience [s'bkdjgns] n послушание oppose [э'рэш] v противопоставлять perish fpenf] v исчезнуть preserve [prf Z3:v] v сохранять purse-proud ['p3:spraud] о гордящийся своим богатством rainbow ['rembsu] п радуга sacrifice ['sasknfais] v жертвовать selfish ['selfij] а эгоистичный starchy ['stcttfi] о чопорный |
affection [s'fekjsn] n привязанность bargain ['ba:gm] n сделка base [beis] а неполноценный bend [bend] v (bent) склоняться core [ко:] л суть
to the core до мозга костей enterprise ['entapraiz] n предприятие fail [fell] v не удаваться inviolate [m'vaialeit] а нетронутый lack [laek] n отсутствие
1 to the core — до мозга костей 160
Questions and Tasks
1. When did Charles Dickens begin his literary career?
2. What was his first work?
3. Give a brief summary of the contents of the Pickwick Papers.
4. What Dickens's novels dealing with social problems can you name?
5. What historical novel was written by Dickens before his visit to America?
6. Why did Dickens want to visit America?
7. What novels were written by Dickens after his return from America?