Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

CHAPTER XVI

THE AGE OF TENNYSON-THE NOVEL (1832-1892)

Novel

In our consideration of the history of the modern novel, we have seen that it began in realism, under the classical influences of the eighteenth century. Later, under the influence of a growing romanticism, the novel also became romantic. Scott was the great The Modern romancer, and under his auspices the romantic novel came to the place of first importance in the field of prose fiction. Nevertheless, such work as that of Jane Austen had more than preserved the realistic tradition; and the Victorian Period found itself in possession of a broad and many-sided inheritance from the past development of the novel. On the whole, the history of the novel during this period is a history of change from romanticism back to realism, with certain marked tendencies toward romantic reaction. This seems altogether natural. The spirit of individualism that prevailed in the age of Scott tended mainly toward the freedom of romance, although, as we have seen, there was a side on which it tended toward the encouragement of realism. Individualism under the more concrete form of democracy was likely to emphasize the realistic view of life by emphasizing the place and importance of the ordinary man. This tendency toward realism was reënforced by the influence of science. Science had given men a new insight into psychological as well as into physical facts, it had taught methods of intellectual analysis that supplemented the imaginative insight of genius, it had brought new conceptions of man's

relations to society and of his place in the universe. All this gave to real life a new and different interest, and novelists were encouraged to a fresh zeal in the study of its actual phenomena. The romantic fiction of the age was largely written in a spirit of protest or of escape. Its writers struggled against the coldness and bareness of the scientific aspect of things, or else they tried to escape from it into the world of dreams. Some, however, took a better view. They found new marvels in the revelations of science which they displayed as more romantic than Gulliver or the "Gothic" romance of terror. This points to still another fact; namely, that the boundaries between romance and realism were to some extent obscured. Each used in a measure the materials and the methods of the other, and thereby enlarged the boundaries of its own province. The amount of work produced in the various departments of the novel was immense. The necessary limitations of a brief discussion will therefore compel us to a more than usually rigid selection and exclusion. Three novelists of the age stand out from the crowd Dickens, Thackeray, and George Eliot. They were undoubtedly the greatest in genius. They were also typical, in a sense that makes them illustrative of the principal facts and movements of their age. To these three, then, we may devote our attention with the assurance that they will be found largely representative of the history of fiction in their time.

Charles

Charles Dickens was in many ways in harmony with the spirit of his generation, but with striking personal peculiarities. No author of the period save Robert Browning better illustrates the necessity of Dickens: taking into account the personal equation in literary work. At the basis of his genius lies his broad and intimate familiarity with men and things. He was by nature a shrewd and accurate observer of

his Life

life; and his own practical experiences had brought him to a close knowledge of its realities and even of its hardships. Born in Portsmouth in 1812, he was early removed to London with his family, and learned there to know the privations and sordid cares of humble life in the great city. At ten years of age, he was working in a blacking factory, while his father was confined for debt in the Marshalsea Prison. His literary apprenticeship was served as a newspaper reporter and later as a magazine and newspaper editor. Experience as an amateur actor also contributed to the training which was to take the place of a university education in preparing him for his life work. Literary work began early and was almost immediately successful. Few writers have been so popular as Dickens or have lived to reap such abundant literary honors. His life was prematurely shortened in 1870, by the excitement and the physical strain of his public readings before vast and enthusiastic audiences in England and America.

Dickens had certain points of contact with the realistic school, although he is by no means to be called a realist. His personal experiences gave him opportunity His Subjects for wide and varied knowledge of English life. Within this field, he best knew the middle and lower classes, and nothing was more familiar to him than the life of London streets and homes. One of the most interesting minor features of his novels lies in his particular acquaintance with certain favorite localities, in and out of London. Readers of Dickens will recall many illustrations of this from works like Our Mutual Friend, Bleak House, The Old Curiosity Shop, and David Copperfield. The last of these is in effect an idealization of actual experiences from his own life. His subjects are drawn almost entirely from the life of the English common people. Even in a novel like A Tale of Two Cities, in which he deals

with events of the French Revolution, a very large propor tion of the book is taken up with description of English life and especially the life of London.

If Dickens is a realist in knowledge of actual life and in choice of subjects, he is anything but a realist in his methods of treatment. He handles his real

His Methods subject-matter with the greatest freedom. We can hardly call him a romantic novelist, for his field lies rather between the territories of realism and romance. For lack of a better term, he might be designated an idealist in fiction. This means to imply that his novels, while keeping within the limits of ordinary life for their materials, are an extreme idealization of the actual and the familiar. He takes liberties with the literal facts of life in the portrayal of character and perhaps still more in the construction of plot. What he seeks is not primarily a faithful picture of life as it is. He displays that life rather in the light which his singular fancy has shed around it. Often he is concerned with the attack or defence of some moral principle, and portrays life in a way to suit his immediate purpose. Illustrations of this are to be found in such books as Dombey and Son, Little Dorrit, and Nicholas Nickleby. In all his works, we may see his marked disposition toward partisanship for or against his various characters. He applauds and rewards the good, he condemns and arbitrarily punishes the bad. In a word, there is lack of that artistic impartiality which character izes a great master like Shakespeare. What we shall have occasion to see is that Dickens supplies this lack by other remarkable powers and that he is great in spite of all faults and limitations.

His Emo

We must probably seek the deepest secret of Dickens's genius in his emotional nature. He had intense tional Power power of feeling, and his feeling was easily aroused. His emotions were not inspired primarily by litera

ture, by the ideals of his art, or even by the strong impulse to personal expression. Their inspiration was rather in the human spectacle which he saw around him. He was profoundly interested in the joys and sorrows and manifold experiences of men and women, and he was profoundly moved by them. His deep and strong sympathies were always on the side of truth, morality, and religion. The two most characteristic emotions of his nature were pathos and humor. These seemingly opposite feelings have not seldom been found in harmony with each other in great men of genius; and in Dickens, they met in a rare and happy union.

His Pathos

On the one side, we feel the deep tenderness of his nature, and are witness of his power over the softer emotions of the human heart. His pathos permeates all his work. Every reader of Dickens will recall such examples as the death of Little Nell, of Little Jo, and of Paul Dombey; and these are only extreme illustrations of what is to be found in greater or less degree in all his novels. He has been charged with sentimentalism, with exaggeration, with "pumping for tears," and there is something of justice in the charge; but nevertheless, his pathos is an element of undoubted power in his work and helps in large measure to account for its popularity.

His Humor

Over against his pathos is his humor-not delicate, subtle, and half melancholy, as we might expect, but rather of the broad and boisterous kind. Hearty laughter, playful irony, potent ridicule, a singular love of the grotesque - these are some of the characteristics of Dickens's humor. We may declare without qualification that he is one of the world's great humorists. Whatever other limitations upon his art may be allowed, there surely can not be much room for cavil here.

This is one of the secrets of his literary greatness, while at the same time it accounts for much that is strange, dis

« AnteriorContinuar »