Contents

Write a note on the development of English novel up to Dickens.

In the 16th century, there was considerable activity in many kinds of prose fiction. John Lyly’s Euphues’ (1578) is a romantic intrigue told in elegant letters. It contains general discussions on such topics as religion, love and epistolary style. Lyly’s main interest is not narrative or psychological but educational. In ‘Arcadia’ Sidney tells a very long and complicated story of separated noble lovers, disguises, oracles, love philters and hair breadth escapes. The same emphasis on complicated adventure is found in many prose narratives, under the Stuarts, prose fiction continued along the established traditions of the picaresque novel, the romance and the Novella. Apart from Congreve’s Incognita’ there is little in 17th century prose fiction of note except Bunyan’s contribution. ‘Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners’ is in the established Puritan form of the autobiographical confession. The subject of Pilgrim’s Progress’ is similar. The Life and Death of Mr. Badman” depicts ‘graphic realism’.

The English novel emerged first in the 18th century. In this era Defoe, Richardson, Fielding, Smollett, Sterne and Goldsmith reflected life as it is in the form of story. The main factors for the rise of English novel are, rise of the middle class, the rise of reading public, rise of the democratic government, the rise of the periodical essay and the decline of the drama. Defoe reflected the strong secularizing tendency of his time. He presented his pretendedly, genuine autobiographical memories Robinson Crusoe’, ‘Moll Flanders’, The History of Colonel Jack’ and ‘Roxana’. These are vivid and comprehensive expressions of the social and economic individualism of the protestant ethic. In form, they are loosely episodic biographies of heroes or heroines for whom the quest for middle class security is the most compelling reality. His journalistic training enabled him to make his fiction literally convincing. He introduced into the tradition of the novel of its most enduring themes the struggle of the individual both with the external world and with his own conscience.

Samuel Richardson’s novels are in the main fictional patterns. His ‘Pamela’ or ‘The Virtue Rewarded’ seems to be a unified novel. Pamela’s great extension in psychological depth continued in ‘Clarissa’ or ‘the History of a Young Lady. It is the first and one of the greatest of tragic novels. In the History of Sir Charles Grandison’, Richardson used the epistolary method for a less intense kind of social and moral analysis. Fielding’s ‘Joseph Andrews’ is a lively comic story about the travels. Tom Jones’ is a panaromic novel. It reveals Fielding’s ethical and social views. His ‘Amelia’ is a more sombre treatment of the consequences of material fidelity and weakness. Smollett in ‘Roderick Random’, ‘The Adventures of Fieregrive Prickle’ and other novels of which the best is ‘Humphry Clinker’ developed the primarily comic and satiric novel along picaresque. Sterne wrote The Life and Opinions of Tristam Shandy’ and ‘Sentimental Journey. In these novels the sentimental note reaches the extreme limits of its principle. The history of the English novel in the 18th century after Richardson, Fielding, Smollett and Sterne, is the story of its disintegration. With the solitary exception of Goldsmith’s “The Vicar of Wakefield’, no good novel was published. Le Sage’s ‘Gil Bilas’ Marivan’s Marianne’, Abbe Prevost’s ‘Cleveland’, Rosseau’s ‘Heloise supplied models for cheap writers. Sarah Fielding, Mrs. Lennox, Mrs. Sheridan, Mrs. Brooke, Mrs. Griffeth wrote novels in profusion, novels of domestic manners or romantic adventure.”

The Gothic novel as originated by Horace Walpole in ‘Castle of Ofranto’ and practised by Ms. Anne Radcliffe in ‘A Sicilian Romance”, The Romance of the Forest The Mysteries of Udolpho’ Clara Reeve (The old English Baron), Mrs. Charlotte Smith (The Old Manor House) and Matthew Gregory Lewis (The Monk) deserve mention. These writers revealed the growing taste of writers and readers alike for strong appeals to the emotions.

In the romantic period, Sir Walter Scott’s interest in the past brought about the historical novel. Some of his historical novels are ‘Waverly’ ‘Old Morality’, ‘Roy Roy’. The Heart of Midothian, The Bride of Lammer moor’, The Monastery The Abbot’, ‘Knilworth’, ‘The Private’, ‘The Fortune of the Nigel’, ‘Poveril of Peak’, and Quentin Durward’. Jane Austen described her own time and scenes in Pride and Prejudice’, ‘Mansfield Park’, ‘Emma’ and Persuasion’. She initiated one of the greatest and most characteristic traditions of the English novel, that of familiar domestic comedy.

During the reign of Queen Victoria the novel became the dominant literary genre. Dickens was a reformer in every thing he wrote. He attacked a multitude of social, political, administrative and economic evils. We observe melodramatic over simplification of goodness and badness in ‘Nicholas Nickleby’, “The sentimentalism of The Old Curiosity Shop’, insular and unhistorical bias of A tale of two cities’. Martin Chuzzlewit’, David Copperfield’ ‘Bleak House’ and ‘Great Expectations’ provide a comprehensive, personal and enduring vision of the world. George Eliot, Thackeray, Emil Pronte, George Meredith and Thomas Hardy are other great Victorian novelists of real interest and importance. Almost all the Victorian novelists reflect some or the other social aspect in their novels. Dickens did much to idealise the England of his time and he depicted the lower and middle classes with imagination and humour. As a satirist and observer of manners Thackeray easily excels his contemporaries. Charlotte Bronte supplied a sombre passion that coloured the drabness of her life.

Trollope specialised with his persons. Collins wrote mystery stories of the rest. George Eliot showed a closeness of application to the mental processes of her characters that was further carried in the work of Meredith. Reade’s novels deal with the horrible conditions in prisons and lunatic asylyms.