3. Novelists: t.Jones, h.Fielding, t.Smollet, l.Stern, o.Goldsmith.

The social moralizing novel was born in this period. It was represented by the works of such writers as Samuel Richardson, Henry Fielding and George Tobias Smollet.

Defoe introduced a picturesque and adventurous novel.

Swift introduced a sample of a satirical allegorical novel.

Their followers made their own contribution by making it reflect the everyday life of contemporary society.

Samuel Richardson (1689-1761) can be considered the initiator of the everyday family social novel (бытовой семейный социальный роман) He democratizes the novel by introducing a common woman as an embodiment of his ideal. His novels are deeply psychological. He wrote three of them in epistolary form (the letters which the characters exchange) – a structure that he refined and developed. For this reason he is considered a founder of the English modern novel.

1. “Pamela; or Virtue Rewarded” (2 volumes) Didactic, moralistic character of the novel can be seen from the title. Pamela is a maid in a rich family. She writes letters to her friend and family. Her landlady’s son makes passes on her trying to seduce her. But Pamela was so virtuous and gave a dignified resistance to the young lord so that he started to respect her and fell in love with her. He proposed to her and she became a lady. This novel came out to the bad morals of the aristocracy anв highly praised the feelings of self-respect and virtue of common people. The novel was very popular.

2. “Clarissa; or the History of a Young Lady” (7 volumes) The essence of the novel is similar to the first one. It is longer than the first one (537 letters). It is interesting from the psychological point of view. Clarissa Harlow, a daughter of a rich man, intelligent, beautiful. Her relatives decide to marry her off to a man whom she doesn’t love. She is in despair. A young aristocrat Robert Lovelace suggests his help. They run away but he takes advantage of his position and steals her virtue. Clarissa is shocked and finally she dies from grief and shame. Richardson wants the reader to sympathize with Clarissa, to show that it’s bad to disobey parents. But R. Lovelace was so appealing that readers had a different impression – they admired him. Being distressed by this fascination, Richardson wrote the 3^rd novel.

3. “The History of Sir Charles Grandison” (7 volumes) Here he presented his ideal of a true Christian gentleman. He overdid this image; it was too ideal.

Henry Fielding (1707- 1754) is the most talented and outstanding enlightenment writer. He was a playwright, a publicist and a novelist. He started his career with writing social-political comedies where he ridiculed corruption of the ruling classes of England, the grabbing policy of England. The Government disliked his criticism and introduced severe censorship. They made him give up drama and turn to novel- writing.

His novel “The Life of Mr. Jonathan Wilde, the Great” is a picturesque novel treating the life of a famous highway man who had been hung a few years before. Fielding used this plot for creating a satirical portrait of the country. He compared the rulers of England with the famous robbers.

“The History and the Adventures of Joseph Andrews and of His Friend Mr. Abraham Adams” was conceived as a parody on Richardson’s “Pamela”. Joseph Andrews is a servant at lady Butby’s house. The lady seduced him but being virtuous he ran away from her. Later this stupid situation developed into a realistic novel.

“History of Tom Jones, a Foundling” is considered to be one of the world’s great novels. Once there lived a gentleman Mr. Allworthy by name. He had a sister. Once he came home from his trip to London and found a baby boy in his bedroom and called him Tom. His sister was married and gave birth to Bliefield. Mr. Allworthy loved both boys but Bliefield was his heir. Sophia Western was his neighbour. She preferred Tom. His sister died and left a letter in which she told him that Tom was her illegitimate child (his father was a school teacher). Now both were equal. Bliefield decided to remove his rival. He slandered (оклеветал) Tom. Mr. Allworthy was shocked and banished Tom from the house. Tom joined the army. On his way he got in all kinds of adventures. Sophia ran away and followed him to London. He didn’t know that. Finally Bliefield was punished and Tom married Sophia. In this novel Fielding presented his views on the art of novel writing in the so-called lyrical digressions which came at the beginning of all 18 books of the novel. He put forward some ideas about the gist of the novel, the style, etc. That’s why Fielding is known as a theoretician of realistic Novel, his ideas are interesting.

“Amelia” is Fielding’s favourite work but it’s weaker in comparison with “Tom Jones”. Fielding defined his novel as comic-epic poems in prose. He was the 1^st to introduce the 3^rd person narration into a novel. It was a real step forward – the writer can present his own views.

Tobias George Smollet (1721-1778) His novels were critical of English social life, his mockery was harsher than Fielding’s but his novels were narrower in scope and less masterful. Smollet defined his novels as satire upon mankind. His aim was to laugh. He meant to ridicule everyone. No people deserved to be good spoken about. He presented some misanthropic (man-hating) ideas. His most known novels are “The Adventures of Roderick Random” – a story of a seaman, “The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle”, “The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker”.

Late Enlightenment (Sentimentalism/Pre-Romanticism) (1760-1780)

The social and political life in the 2^nd half of the 18^th century made the writers doubt the values and ideals of their older colleagues. The Early Enlighteners believed in Reason, in the great abilities of the human mind to cognize the world. Yet, the advance of industrialization, the emergence of new social force, that of the workers who began to be exploited by their masters, the ruins of the English countryside – all these phenomena were the result of the industrial revolution taking place in England. So the writers of a new generation began to rely on feelings, on sentiment, on heart rather than on Reason or Mind. Sentimentalism stressed the alliance of sensibility with true virtue. They also tried to appeal to their readers’ senses and sentiments.

Sometimes the 18^th century is called the Age of Sensibility. Poetry was best manifested in the works of the so-called ‘grave-yard poets’.

Tomas Gray (1716-1771) was the most prominent of them. The essence of his poetry is: the phenomenon of death makes us think over the morality values, essence of life, mortality. (melancholy, moonshine, nightingale songs)

The principle representatives of sentimentalism in the genre of the novel were Oliver Goldsmith, Lawrence Stern and in drama – Richard Sheridan.

Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774) is a very versatile literary writer. He wrote poetry, drama (comedies), essays and one novel with which he actually entered the literary world.

“The Vicar of Wakefield” is a story of a good family which has great misfortunes, but all comes well in the end. It tells about the fate of a kind-hearted, honest, village priest Dr. Primrose, a highly educated man with a scientific degree. He and his family suffered much from the hands of a young landlord. Yet the sufferings didn’t harden the priest’s heart. He remained as kind and sensible to the others as he used to be before the misfortunes began (he got into prison and helped the people beside him). His virtue is reinforced. The novel contains some short poems and shows the very age and body of the time.

O. Goldsmith’s most known poem is “The Deserted Village” in which he describes the situation in the English countryside changed by the industrial revolution. The essence of the poem is: landlords turned to ship-building, peasantry disappeared, turned into workers.

Lawrence Sterne (1713-1768) – a village priest, started his literary career when in mid-40s. His astonishing books are as confusing as life itself. He seems to dislike order and common sense. His ”The Life of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman” made him famous. It tells a story of an English aristocrat. It is a very eccentric novel. We have to read about half the book before the hero Tristram is born. The author leaves the story whenever he likes to give opinions and write essays on any subject in the world. Some chapters are several pages long and some contain only 3-4 lines. He leaves some blank pages to confuse his readers as much as possible.some pages contain only dots. The beginning of narration comes in the middle of the novel. Yet, the novel gives a fairly good idea of a country aristocrat family portraying people with all their weaknesses. Most of the characters are “shandies”. In a dialect it means ‘a crack’ – чудак, сумасшедший. The book was so popular that within a few years he produced 8 more volumes to it.

“A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy” describes the journeys of a poor village priest who sets out to travel about different English countries. But it’s not so much the adventures that constitute the contents of the novel but his feelings, emotions, thoughts and sentiments he expressed during the journey.

Sterne anticipated the technique which would be used by the 20^th century writers – the stream of consciousness.

To get away from the rationalism and realism of their predecessors some writers went to the genre known as the Gothic novel which was based on the phenomenon of writer’s interests in medieval literature which was awakening at the time. Their novels were full of mystery, fantasy, the scene was usually set among some ancient ruins, forests, castles. The Gothic novel was the beginning of what is called now ‘horror stories’.

Horace Walpole (1717- 1797) is known for his novel “The Castle of Otranto”

He wrote it just for fun. It is full of elements of the supernatural.

Ann Radcliffe “The Mystery of Udolfo”

Charles Maturin’s “Melmoth, the Wanderer” is about a man who sold his soul to the devil and couldn’t die when the time came.

Lecture 4