British Literature Since 1800:
Prose and Narrative, 19th Century.
ROMANTIC POETS:
Biographia Literaria: Chapters 4, [13,] 14, 17
Lectures on Shakespeare: [Fancy and Imagination in Shakespeare's Poetry]
HALF OF THE IMPORTANT ROMANTIC NOVELISTS
(the other is Scott):
Pride and
Prejudice (1813)
Characters:
Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, with five daughters
Elizabeth Bennet, her father's favorite
Jane Bennet, the most beautiful daughter
Mr Bingley, a bachelor
Caroline Bingley, his sister
Mr. Darcy, Mr. Bingley's friend, very proud and cold
Mr. Collins, a conceited bore
Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Collins' arrogant potatoes. . .no, I mean, patroness.
Emma (1816)
Characters:
Emma "Nem" Woodhouse
Mr. Woodhouse, her selfish and pettish father
Harriet Smith, daughter of someone or other who may or may not be extremely wealthy
Miss Bates, a gossip
Jane Fairfax, her niece, who is proud and has three ears and finally marries Frank Churchill
Mr. George Knightley, who is an older man, and confidante and moral guide to Emma
Mrs. Weston, formerly Miss Taylor, Emma's old nurse, and stepmother to Frank Churchill
Frank Churchill himself, a handsome and genteel moron who dresses like a bolt of chintz
Mr. Elton, a rector
Bob the janitor
Mr Robert Martin, a yeoman who finally marries Harriet
Das Story:
Emma was a single young woman who was an incorrigible matchmaker. She
missed her former nurse Miss Taylor, now Mrs. Weston, who got married and
moved away. Her father Mr. Woodhouse was querulous and also pretty
dumb. He hated any kind of change. Strapped for pals, she takes
the young lady Harriet Smith, who is the daughter of someone or other. Or
someone, at least. Emma took it into her head to believe that Harriet
was actually someone who ought to have been rich, so she tried to find a
rich man to marry her. She tried to get Mr. Elton to believe that he
was falling in love with Harriet, but her brother in law, Mr. George Knightley,
(ugh!) warned against trying to "help" Harriet. She had persuaded Harriet
to turn down Robert Martin's proposal just for the purpose of fulfilling
her scheme, and Harriet was falling for Elton at Emma's request. Nice
girl! But then Mr. Elton proposed to Emma, which she couldn't stomach.
His attentions were really for Emma, not Harriet. The first big
whoops. Jane Fairfax, the gossip's niece, makes a hit in the neighborhood.
Though she's an orphan, she has refinement and grace. Finally
Mrs. Weston's stepson Frank Churchill (he uses his dead Mom's last name)
appears and likewise is popular. Though he knows Jane Fairfax, he spends
his time with Emma. Jane gets a secret piano, just like Emelia did,
and Emma guesses that it's from Mr. Knightley, but Emma doesn't want her
to marry George so is glad when it seems they're just friends.
Frank leaves finally but wants to talk to Emma seriously first. Since
she has had a fantasy of herself refusing his proposal, she will not talk
with him, though she was only deluding herself. Meanwhile Mr. Elton
gets married to a lowlife and then Elton spurns Harriet at a dance, helping
Harriet to get over her Emma-started infatuation with Elton. Though
Emma is unaware of it, Harriet dances with George Knightley and so Harriet
starts to be attracted to him. Emma wants Harriet to marry Frank Churchill
now, but resolves to do nothing to further the match. However, she
does assume that she will do so, and so she is deaf to Harriet's praises
of Knightley, thinking that Harriet is talking about Frank. Anyway,
it turns out that Emma had things all bollixed up, since Frank and Jane had
been engaged for a long time, and Harriet wasn't in love with Frank anyhow.
Emma didn't mind that for herself, but she dreaded telling Harriet,
thinking that she'd misled her protege again. Finally Emma realizes
that Harriet likes Knightley, and encourages that--only to find out that Emma
herself likes Knightley. What an ultramaroon. She justifies her
feelings by saying that if Harriet married the rich Knightley it would be
a mismatch and cause no joy, because of social and financial inequality--thinking
that there would be no such inequality if Emma married him. Then
Knightley goes and proposes to Emma, and is accepted, provided that they
live with the old coot Mr. Woodhouse till he's safely dead. Done. Harriet
is again hit up by Robert Martin Ex Machina, and so all's well that ends well.
"All parties concerned had married according to their stations, a prerequisite
for their true happiness." That, in this case, means that Emma happily
marries her sister's husband's brother. How nice. So the sisters
and the brothers can visit together in a single visit.
EARLY VICTORIAN NOVELIST SISTERS OF AVERAGE HEIGHT:
Charlotte Bronte, writing as Currer Bell
Jane Eyre (1847)
Characters:
Jane Eyre, an orphan, the first person narrator of the whole book
Aunt Reed, her aunt, very cruel and disrespectful of Jane
John Reed, one of her cousins, who is a bully--finally dissipates and dies
Helen Burns, Jane's pious friend who dies of a fever while sleeping with Jane
Pig MGoo, a pile of suds
Bessie Leaven, a nurse
St. John Rivers, a clergyman and cousin to Jane, though that is only revealed in the ending.
Gunther Gabel-Williams, a lion tamer
Bertha Mason-Rochester, a nutter
Mr. Mason, sister of Bertha, from Spanish Town, Jamaica
Miss Ingram, a shill
Grace Poole, the supposed seamstress, who is actually the alcoholic keeper of Bertha Mason Rochester
Jane Elliot, the nom de decepcion of Jane after begging and running away from her fiance
Places: Gateshead Hall, the home of the Reeds
Lowood school, the school where Jane goes, and later teaches--led by Miss Temple, the headmistress
Thornfield, Rochester's home, where Mrs. Fairfax is housekeeper, and Adele
Varens, a French dancer's daughter (and possibly Rochester's too, reminisicent
of Wordsworth's daughter. . .)
Ferndean, Rochester's other house, where Jane and he live after Thornfield is burnt down by Looney Bertha
Emily Bronte, writing as Ellis Bell
She only wrote one novel, and this is it! With Charlotte, however,
she had worked on a book of poems by the Bells, ding dong.
Wuthering Heights (1847, the same year as JE)
See other page for details!
MIDDLE and LATE VICTORIAN NOVELISTS:
Great Expectations (periodical, 1860-61)
Characters:
Pip, an orphan
Joe and Mrs. Joe Gargery, humble folks; Joe is a blacksmith, and Mrs. Joe is Pip's sister; Pip is Mrs. Joe's "connubial missile"
Miss Havisham, an eccentric nutter who is a androgynist, having been jilted by Compeyson
Estella, the protege of Miss Havisham, taught to be cruel to men
Herbert Pocket, Pip's business partner, relative of Miss Havisham
Jaggers, a lawyer to Havisham and also to Provis, nee Abel Magwich
Magwich, a magnetic sandwich, escaped from the Hulks, later moved
to America and struck it rich; provided the money by which Pip became Greatly
Expectorant
Compeyson, killed by Magwich, a bad egg
Dolge Orlick, another; he grew up at Joe's forge, but didn't prosper.
He injures Mrs. Joe (who later dies, after being kind of a vegetable)
and blames Pip falsely, but makes Pip feel guilty about it.
Hard Times
Characters off the top of my head:
Mr. Thos. Gradgrind, a school owner influenced by Bentham's Utilitarianism, insists on only facts.
His son Tom Jr.
Lousia Gradgrind, Tom Jr.'s sister, both of these siblings are pretty miserable kids.
Josiah Bounderby, a sham bootsrapper and banker
Sissy Jupe, a circus clown's daughter, working at Gradgrind's home, and devoted to Louisa
Bitzer, a pale but utterly successful subject of the school of Facts
Rex the Wonder Horse
Stephen Blackpool, a poor worker for Bounderby, who didn't do it
Rachael, who is loved by Stephen and is loved in return, who also didn't do it
Mrs. Blackpool, a drunken, wretched, miserable piece of offalous filth that makes Stephen wish she'd never been born
Tom and Jerry, cartoon characters
Sleary, the circus owner, who alwayth lithpth thomething terrible
Slackbridge, an agitator and unionist
Mrs. Sparsit, a familied ex-spinster who is also an incorrigible spy
Bounderby's mother, Mrs. Pegler, who exposes her son as a humbug, but loves and is proud of him
James Harthouse, a playboy who tries to seduce Mrs. Lousia G. Bounderby.
Vanity Fair
Becky Sharp, a b-tch
Amelia Sedley, an ineffectual angel
Jos Sedley, a fat fool, later working in India
Rawdon Crawley, a cad who marries Becky
George Osborne, another cad who marries Amelia
Capt. William Dobbin, a schnook who is unreasonably loyal to George and to
Ameila; supplies a happy ending at looooooooooong last
Miss Crawley, waiting to die, a rich old crumpet
Sir Pitt Crawley, a rich lowlife dog
Special cameo appearance by Johnson's dictionary
Lord Steyne, well-named creepy aristocrat
George Eliot (Pen name of Mary Ann or Marian Evans)
The Mill
on the Floss
Characters:
Mr and Mrs Tulliver
Maggie Tulliver, a headstrong dreamer
Tom Tulliver, her brother, a dumb head, veeery stubborn like his dad
Aunts Glegg and Pullett, Mrs. Tulliver's well-married sisters
Philip Wakem, a hunchback of notre damoselle
Stephen Guest, a dastard
Madame LeFarge, a needler
Lucy Deane, a credulous friend of Maggie's
Bob Jakin, Tom's business partner
Iago, a villain
Middlemarch
Characters:
Dorothea Brooke, a warmhearted woman
Edward Casaubon, a coldhearted scholar
Will Ladislaw, Casaubon's impetuous, romantic cousin, younger of course, to marry Dotty at the end
Tertius Lydgate, a conscientious doctor
Rosamond Vincy, Dorothea's friend, a very selfish, manipulative B*TCH who nevertheless honestly believes she is innocent
Celia, Dorothea's sister
Sir James Chettam, a foolish rich guy who marries Celia
Bulstrode, the banker, a standard bad guy character, with a guilty secret--his
fortune should have gone to Ladislaw's mother--which secret is known to Mr
Raffles, a freeloading rascal and blackmailer
Fred Vincy, a somewhat irresponsible but unhatable young simperer
Mary Garth, his sweetie, very wholesome
Mr. Garth, a patient and fatherlike father to Mary Garth, working with Will for a time.
LATE VICTORIAN NOVELIST:
Thomas Hardy
He was at first an architect, but took to writing as his profession.
He reflected his lack of faith in Christianity in his novels and poems,
but still took Christianity as one of his themes, examining its beliefs in
order to expose what he saw as inherent errors or cruelties, related partly
to what he saw as badness in marriage rituals and strictures.
Key terms:
evolutionary meliorism
naturalism
Tess of the
D'Urbervilles
Characters:
Tess Durbeyville
Angel Clare
Mr. Durbeyville, who is told he is from a line of lords and thereafter rests on his laurels
Places: Marygreen, Jude's childhood home, where Phillotson was his teacher as a kid
Christminster, Hardy's diguised name for Oxford, where Jude goes to work and meet Sue
Victorian Essayist and by the way a cracking good Poet:
Go on to Twentieth Century Prose!
|
Click here
to read about some distasteful marriages in the above works, if you want to,
but I would advise you not to. I'd suggest that you go and toss your computer over a huge, slipperly
precipice instead, if you wanted my advice. I have devoted my life to
documenting the disastrous adventures of the Balzac widowers, but you will depart from this homepage
upon a scooter if you are smart. I am extremely sorry to present this maudlin article for your vituperation. Life? Don't talk to me about life! With all due respect,
Grapefruity Three-Musketeet
chronicler of "A Slew of Palpable Nonsense"
|