Romanticism, which was the leading literary movement in England for half a century, was caused by great social and economic changes. The Industrial Revolution, which had begun in the middle of the 18^th century didn't bring happiness to the people of Great Britain. During this period England changed from an agricultural to an industrial society and from home manufacturing to factory production. The peasants, deprived of their lands, had to go to work in factories. Mines and factories had changed the appearance of the country. In the cities a large new working class developed. But mechanization did not improve the life of the common people. The sufferings of the working people led to the first strikes, and workers took to destroying machines. This was a movement directed against industrial slavery. Workers, who called themselves Luddites after a certain Ned Ludd who in fit of fury broke two textile frames, naively believed that machines were the chief cause of their sufferings. These actions led to severe repression by the authorities.

During the early 1800s the French situation dominated England's foreign policy. The French Revolution had begun in 1789 as a protest against royal despotism. In its early phases the French Revolution had seemed to offer great hope for common people. At the beginning of the French Revolution, most enlightened people in Great Britain had felt sympathy for the democratic ideals of the revolutionaries in France. But after achieving power, the revolutionary government in France resorted to brutality. Furthermore, in 1793 revolutionary France declared war on England.

Scientific achievements in the areas of geology, chemistry, physics, and astronomy flourished during the Romantic Age, but they also did not improve the living conditions of the common working people. Now the belief of progressive-minded people in the ideal nature of the new system fell to pieces. As a result the Romantic Movement sprang up towards the close of the 18^th century.

The Romantic Age brought a more daring, individual and imaginative approach to both literature and life. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, many of the most important English writers turned away from the values and ideas characteristic of the Age of Reason. The individual, rather than society, was at the center of the Romantic vision. The Romantic writers believed in the possibility of progress and social and human reform. As champions of democratic ideals, they sharply attacked all forms of tyranny and the spreading evils of individualism, such as urban blight, a polluted environment, and the alienation of people from nature and one another. They all had a deep interest in nature, not as a centre of beautiful scenes but as an informing and spiritual influence on life. It was as if frightened by the coming of industrialism and the nightmare towns of industry, they were turning to nature for protection. Or as if, with the declining strength of traditional religious belief, men were making a religion from the spirituality of their own experiences.

They all valued their own experiences to a degree which is difficult to parallel in earlier poets. Spencer, Milton and Pope made verse out of legend or knowledge, which was common to humanity. The romantic poets looked into themselves, seeking in their own lives for strange sensations.

Whereas the writers of the Age of Reason tended to regard evil as a basic part of human nature, the Romantic writers generally saw humanity as naturally good, but corrupted by society and its institutions of religion, education, and government.

In the period from 1786 to 1830 two generations of Romantic poets permanently affected the nature of English language and literature. Usually, William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who wrote most of their major works from 1786 to 1805, are regarded as the first generation of the English Romantic poets.

William Wordsworth Samuel Taylor Coleridge

George Gordon Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Keats, who produced their major works between 1810 to 1824, are regarded as the second generation of English Romantics.

Percy Bysshe Shelley John Keats

In 1798, with the publication of “Lyrical Ballads”, William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge gave official birth to the Romantic Age in literature. The second edition of “Lyrical Ballads”, published in 1800, contained a preface in which Wordsworth stated the poetic principles that he and Coleridge believed in: first, that ordinary life is the best subject for poetry because the feelings of simple people are sincere and natural; second, that the everyday language of these people best conveys their feelings and is therefore best suited to poetry; third, that the expression of feeling is more important in poetry than the development of an action, or story; and finally, that “poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings”. These principles were often challenged by other writers of Wordsworth's day, but, nevertheless, they served as a formal declaration of a new spirit in English literature and became a turning point in the history of English poetry.

The important figures of the second generation of Romantic poets were Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and John Keats. Though highly different in personality and artistic temperament, they were similarly intense, precocious, and tragically short-lived. During his brief lifetime, George Gordon Byron, was the most popular poet abroad as well as at home and also the most scandalous. He was reckless, bitter, in constant revolt against society and devoted to the cause of freedom and liberty. Shelley, too, like Byron was rebellious and scandalous. In his poems revolted against tyranny, he believed that the church and state commerce, as organized and conducted in his time, led to superstition, selfishness and corruption. That's why some literary critics call them Revolutionary Romantics.

Romanticism represented an attempt to rediscover the mystery and wonder of the world. Romanticists made emotion, and not reason, the chief force of their works. This emotion found its expression chiefly in poetry.

Some poets were seized with panic and an irresistible desire to get away from the present. They wished to call back “the good old days”, the time long before the mines and factories came, when people worked on “England's green and pleasant land”. These poets are sometimes called the Passive Romanticists.They spoke for the English farmers and Scottish peasants who were ruined by the Industrial Revolution. They idealized the patriarchal way of life during the Middle ages, a period that seemed to them harmonious and peaceful. Their motto was : “Close to Nature and from Nature to God”, because they believed that religion put man at peace with the world.

The poets William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Robert Southey belonged to this group. They were also called the Lake Poets after the Lake District in the north-west of England where they lived. The Lake District attracted the poets because industry had not yet invaded this part of the country.

In the poetry of all romantic poets there is a sense of wonder, of life seen with new sensibilities and fresh vision. This strangeness of the individual experience leads each of the romantics to a spiritual loneliness. They are keenly aware of their social obligations, but the burden of an exceptional vision of life drives them into being almost fugitives from their fellow-men. This sense, present in them all, can be found most strongly in Shelley, “who seems even more content amid the dead leaves, the moonlit water, and the ghosts, than in the places where men inhabit”. The romantic poets lead the reader to the strange areas of human experience, but seldom welcome him in the language of ordinary conversation, or even with the currency of normality.

Drama did not flourish during the Romantic Age. The main type of drama produced at that period was simplistic, in which all the poor are good and all the rich are evil. Some of the leading Romantic poets wrote so called closet drama, poetic drama written to be read rather than produced. Shelley's tragedy “The Cenci”, Byron's “Manfred”, and Coleridge's “Remorse” are among the better known plays of this type.

Prose in the romantic age included essays, literary criticism, jour-nals, and novels. The two greatest novelists of the romantic period were Jane Austen (1775-1817) and Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832). Their novels drastically differed from each other. Though Jane Austen wrote during the height of the period, she remained remarkably unaffected by Romantic literary influences. Her plots concerned domestic situations. Austen wrote about middle-class life in small towns and in the famous resort city Bath. More than anyone since Fielding, she regarded the novel as a form of art which required a close and exacting discipline. The resulting narratives were so inevitable in their movement, so precise in their realism, that they gave the impression of ease, but the facility was a gift to the reader, exacted from the fundamental brainwork of the author. Her integrity as an artist was shown by the fact that she had continued to write and to revise novels even when her work seemed unlikely to find acceptance from the publishers. The women in Austen's novels as “Pride and Prejudice”(1813) and “Emma” (1816) are known for their independence and wit. Her novels, including “Mansfield Park” (1814), “Persuasion” (1818) are realistic in tone. These later novels lack the continuous comedy and the semblance of spontaneity. In compensation, they have a more complex portrayal of characters, a more subtle irony, a deeper, warmer-hearted attitude to the players of her scene. Jane Austen respected the novel as a great art. In “Northanger Abbey” (1818) she had satirized the “terror” novel, and in her own work she substituted her cleverly worked realism and comedy. Her letters show how conscious she was of what she was doing, and of her own limitations: “I must keep to my own style and go on in my own way; and though I may never succeed again in that, I am convinced that I should totally fail in any other”. The complete control of her world gives her work a Shakespearian quality, though the world she controlled was smaller. She is considered to be more representative of the neoclassical tradition of eighteenth century literature than of the Romanticism. Although she received little public recognition during her lifetime, Austen is now one of the best-loved English novelists who helped to develop a modern novel.

Sir Walter Scott wrote novels of adventure. He was immensely popular during his lifetime and is now considered the father of the historical novel. Reflecting the Romantic interest in the past, he set many of his novels in old England and Scotland. Scott is considered to be a true product of the Romantic Age. Scott's death in 1832 marked the end of the romantic period.

George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788 -1824)

Byron was a real fighter; he struggled for the liberty of the nations with both pen and sword. Freedom was the cause that he served all his life. Byron hated wars, sympathized with the oppressed people. Nevertheless, definite limitations of the poet's world outlook caused deep contradictions in his works. Many of his verses are touched with disappointment and skepticism. The philosophy of “world sorrow” becomes the leading theme of his works. Romantic individualism and a pessimistic attitude to life combine in Byron's art with his firm belief in reason: realistic tendencies prevail in his works of the later period. In spite of his pessimism, Byron's verse embodies the aspirations of the English workers, Irish peasants, Spanish partisans, Italian Carbonari, Albanian and Greek patriots.

George Gordon Byron was born in London, on January 22, 1788, in an impoverished aristocratic family. His mother, Catherine Gordon, was a Scottish Lady of honourable birth and respectable fortune. After having run through his own and most of his wife's fortune, his father an army officer, died when the boy was only 3 years old. His mother was a woman of quick feelings and strong passions. Now she kissed him, now she scolded him. These contradictive emotions affected his life, character and poetry. Byron was lame from birth and sensitive about it all his life. But, thanks to his strong will and regular training, he became an excellent rider, a champion swimmer, a boxer and took part in athletic exercises.

Byron spent the first ten years of his life in Scotland. His admiration of natural scenery of the country was reflected in many of his poems. He attended grammar school in Aberdeen. In 1798, when George was at the age of ten, his grand-uncle died and the boy inherited the title of Lord and the family estate of the Byrons, Newstead Abbey, in Nottinghamshire. Now he was sent to Harrow School. At the age of seventeen he entered the Cambridge University and in 1808 graduated from it. George was sixteen when he fell in love with his distant relative Mary Chaworth, and his youthful imagination seemed to have found the ideal of womanly perfection. But she did not return his affection. Byron had never forgotten his love to Mary and it coloured much of his writing. In the first canto of “Childe Harold's Pilgrimage” the poet says that Harold “sighed to many, though he loved but one” and it is a hint to the poet's own life.

While a student, Byron published his first collection of poems “Hours of Idleness” (1807). It was mercilessly attacked by a well known critic in the magazine “Edinburgh Review”. In a reply to it Byron wrote his satirical poem “English Bards and Scotch Reviewers”. In that poem Byron criticized the contemporary literary life. In 1809, next year after graduating from the University, the poet took his hereditary seat in the House of Lords. The same year he left England on a long journey and visited Portugal, Spain, Albania, Greece and Turkey, and during his travels wrote the first two cantos of “Childe Harold's Pilgrimage”.

After an absence of two years the poet returned to England. On February 27, 1812, Byron made his first speech in the House of Lords. He spoke in defense of the English workers and blamed the government for the unbearable conditions of the life of the working people. Later the poet again raised his voice in defense of the oppressed workers, encouraging them to fight for freedom in his “Song for the Luddites”. (1816)

In 1812 the first two cantos of ”Childe Harold's Pilgrimage” were published. Walter Scott declared that for more than a century no work had produced a greater effect. The author himself remarked: “I awoke one morning and found myself famous”. Between 1813 and 1816 Byron composed his “Oriental Tales”: “The Giaour”, “The Corsair”, “Lara”, Pari-sina” and others. These tales embody the poet's romantic individualism. The hero of each poem is a rebel against society. He is a man of strong will and passion. Proud and independent, he rises against tyranny and injustice to gain his personal freedom and happiness. But his revolt is too individualistic, and therefore it is doomed to failure. A collection of lyrical verses, which appeared in 1815, “Hebrew Melodies”, confirmed Byron's popularity. One of the most beautiful poems of the cycle is “My Soul is Dark”

My Soul is Dark

My soul is dark - oh! quickly string

The harp I yet can brook to hear;

And let thy gentle fingers fling

Its melting murmurs o'er mine ear.

If in this heart a hope be dear,

That sound shall charm it forth again:

If in these eyes there lurk a tear,

`Twill flow, and cease to burn my brain.

But bid the strain be wild and deep,

Nor let notes of joy be first:

I tell thee, minstrel, I must weep,

Or else this heavy heart will burst,

For it hath been by sorrow nursed,

And ached in sleepless silence long;

And now `tis doom'd to know the worst,

And break at once - or yield to song.

In 1815 Byron married Miss Isabella Milbanke, but it was an unlucky match. Though Byron was fond of their only child Augusta Ada, and did not want to break up the family, separation was inevitable. The scandal around the divorce was enormous. Byron's enemies found their opportunity, and used it to the utmost against him.

On April 25, 1816, the poet left England for Switzerland. Here he made the acquaintance of Shelley, the two poets became close friends. While in Switzerland, Byron wrote the third canto of “Childe Harold's Pilgrimage”, “The Prisoner of Chillon”, the dramatic poem “Manfred” and many lyrics. “The Prisoner of Chillon” describes the tragic fate of the Swiss revolutionary Bonnivard, who spent many years of his life in prison together with his brothers.

In 1817 Byron left Switzerland for Italy. The Italian period (1817- 1823) is considered to be the summit of Byron's poetical career. In Italy he wrote “Beppo”(1818), a humorous poem in a Venetian setting, and his greatest work “Don Juan”, the fourth canto of “Childe Harold's Pilgrimage”, “The Prophecy of Dante”, the dramas “Marino Faliero”, “Cain”. At the same period he wrote his satirical masterpieces “The Vision of Judgement” and “The Age of Bronze”. Unfortunately, the prudery of Victorian critics obscured these poems from the public, and they have never received their due esteem. Special words should be said about “Don Juan”, one of his great poems, a performance of rare artistic skill. Humor, sentiment, adventure, and pathos were thrown together with that same disconcerting incongruity as they were to be found in life. The style is a clever imitation of idiom and phrasing of ordinary conversation, used with great cunning for satiric and comic effects.

The war of Greece against the Turks had been going on that time. Byron longed for action and went to Greece to take part in the struggle for national independence. There he was seized with fever and died at Missolonghi on April 18, 1824, at the age of 36. The Greeks desired that his remains should be buried in the country for which he had spent his life, but his friends wanted him to be buried in Westminster Abbey. The English authorities refused it, and the poet's body, already transported from Greece to England, was buried in the family vault near Newstead. His spirit might have flourished better in some world other than the heavy Georgian society in which he grew up. The last episode in Greece showed that he had leadership and courage.

Sir Walter Scott (1771 - 1832)

Sir Walter Scott was a Scottish romantic writer, the first great writer of historical novels. He was born in Edinburgh on August 15, 1771. His father was an Edinburgh lawyer and had a large family. Walter, the future writer, was the ninth of his twelve children. When not yet two years old, the boy fell ill with a disease that left him lame. His parents thought country air would be good for him and sent him to his grandparents' farm. It was a place with hills, crags and ruined tower. Walter soon became a strong boy. In spite of his lameness he climbed the hills and rode his pony at a gallop. Walter's grandparents told him thrilling Scottish tales. He learned to love the solemn history of Scotland and liked to recite Scottish ballads and poems.

Scott enjoyed taking trips into the Scottish countryside. These trips gave him profound knowledge of the life of rural people, and provided material for his first major publication, “Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border” (1802-1803). This book was a collection of popular songs and ballads and consisted of three volumes.

At the suggestion of his father, Scott became a lawyer and practiced for fourteen years. During his business trips he visited the places of famous battles and collected old ballads. Like many writers belonging to the Romantic trend, Scott, too, felt that all the good days were gone. He wished to record all the historical facts he knew before they were forgotten.

At the age of 26 Scott married, and bought a large estate not far from Edinburgh. There Scott built a fine house in the style of a castle. His house became a sort of museum of Scottish history and culture.

In 1805 he began to publish his own romantic poems, which attracted the attention of the reading public. The best were “The Lay of the Last Minstrel” (1805), “Marmion” (1808) and “The Lady of the Lake” (1810). These poems reproduce old legends and combine them with historical material. They were written with great poetic skill and poet became very famous. But when Byron's wonderful poems appeared, Scott, to quote his own words, “left the field of poetry to his rival ” who by that time was already a friend of his. He took to writing novels. It marked a new period in Scott's creative work. He declined the honour of poet-laureate in 1813 because he understood that writing official verses and odes on the birthdays of members of the royal family would interfere with his creative work.

In 1814 Scott published his “Waverley, or `Tis Sixty Years Since”. This novel describes a Scottish rebellian against England in 1745. As he had an established reputation as a poet, Scott decided to print his first novel anonymously. The book was a great success, and everybody wanted to know who the author was. Scott published many of his novels under the name of “The Author of Waverley”. During the next seventeen years (1815 - 1832) Scott wrote more than 27 other novels, four plays and many stories and tales besides. All of his novels were referred to as part of the Waverley series, because the author was identified on the title page as “The Author of Waverley”. Scott's authorship was officially revealed in 1827, but it had been known for years.

Despite his success and fame, Scott's last years were sad. They were marked by illness and financial difficulties brought on by the failure of a publishing company in which he had an interest. At that time his health was broken down. His doctors sent him to Italy; but it was too late. Before reaching Italy he had to turn back, and on his arrival at his estate he died.

Literary critics divide Scott's works into three groups:

The first group of novels are those devoted to Scottish history: ”Waverley, or “'Tis Sixty Years Since” (1814), “Guy Mannering, or the Astrologer” (1815), “The Autiquary” (1816), “Black Dwarf” (1816), “Old Mortality” (1816), “Rob Roy” (1817), “The Heart of Midlothian” (1818), “The Bride of Lammermoor” (1819), “A Legend of Montrose” (1819), “Redgauntlet” (1824), “The Fair Maid of Perth” (1828

The second group of novels refer to English history: “Ivanhoe” (1819), the best of this series; “The Monastery” (1820), “The Abbot” (1820), “Kenilworth” (1821), “The Pirate” (1822), “The Fortunes of Nigel” (1822), “Peveril of the Peak” (1822), ''Woodstock” (1826).

The third group comprises novels based on the history of Europe: “Quentin Durward” (1823), “The Talisman” (1825), “Count Robert of Paris” (1832), “Anne of Geierstein” (1829), “Castle Dangerous” (1832).

The novel “St. Ronan's Well” (1824) stands in a class by itself. The story is laid at a fashionable health-resort somewhere near the border between England and Scotland. It is the only novel written by Scott about his own time and shows his attitude to contemporary society. It is a precursor of the critical realism of the 19th century.

Scott wrote frequently about the conflicts between different cultures. For example, “Ivanhoe” deals with the struggle between Normans and Saxons, and the “Talisman” describes the conflict between Christians and Muslims. The novels dealing with Scottish history are probably considered to be his best works. They deal with clashes between the new commercial English culture and older Scottish culture. Many critics regard “Old Mortality”, “The Heart of Midlothian”, and “St. Ronan's Well” as Scott's best novels.

“Ivanhoe”

The action of the novel takes place in medieval England during the Crusades. The central conflict of the novel lies in the struggle of the Anglo-Saxon landowners against the Norman barons, who cannot come to an understanding.

There is no peace among the Norman conquerors either. They struggle for power. Prince John tries to usurp the throne of his brother Richard, who was engaged in a Crusade at that time. These two brothers back different tendencies concerning their relations with Anglo-Saxons. John wishes to seize all the land and subdue the Anglo-Saxons completely, while Richard supports those, who tend to cooperate with the remaining Anglo-Saxon land-owners. The latter tendency was progressive, because it led to peace and the birth of a new nation.

At the head of the remaining Anglo-Saxon knights is a thane, Cedric the Saxon. He hopes to restore their independence by putting a Saxon king and queen on the throne. He wants to see lady Rovena, who has been descended from Alfred the Great, as the queen and Athelstane of Coningsburgh as a king. But Cedric has a son, Wilfred of Ivenhoe, who destroys his father's plan by falling in love with Rowena. Cedric becomes angry and disinherits his son. Ivanhoe goes on a Crusade where he meets King Richard, and they become friends. On their return to England, Richard with the help of the Saxons and archers of Robin Hood, fights against Prince John for his crown and wins. At last Cedric understands the impossibility of the restoration of the Saxon power and becomes reconciled to the Normans.

The book is written with the great descriptive skill for which Scott is famous. He was a master of painting wonderfully individualized expressive and vivid characters.

The main idea of the book is to call for peace and compromise. Scott wanted to reconcile the hostile classes. He believed that social harmony possible if the best representatives of all classes would unite in a struggle against evil. This idea is expressed in the novel “Ivanhoe” in the episode when the Norman king Richard, together with Robin Hood and his merry men, attack the castle of the Norman baron to set the Saxon thanes free. This incident shows how the allied forces of honest men, though from hostile classes, conquer evil.

UNIT 7. THE VICTORIAN AGE (1837-1901)

General Background

Victoria became queen of Great Britain in 1837. Her reign, the longest in English history, lasted until 1901. This period is called Victorian Age.

The Victorian Age was characterized by sharp contradictions. In many ways it was an age of progress. The Victorian era marks the climax of England's rise to economic and military supremacy. Nineteenth-century England became the first modern, industrialized nation. It ruled the most widespread empire in world history, embracing all of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, Pakistan, and many smaller countries in Asia, and the Caribbean. But internally England was not stable. There was too much poverty, too much injustice and fierce exploitation of man by man.

The workers fought for their rights. Their political demands were ex-pressed in the People's Charter in 1833. The Chartist movement was a revolutionary movement of the English workers, which lasted till 1848. The Chartists introduced their own literature. The Chartist writers tried their hand at different genres. They wrote articles, short stories, songs, epigrams, poems. Chartists (for example Ernest Jones “The Song of the Lower Classes”; Thomas Hood “The Song of the Shirt”) described the struggle of the workers for their rights, they showed the ruthless exploitation and the miserable fate of the poor.

The ideas of Chartism attracted the attention of many progressive-minded people of the time. Many prominent writers became aware of the social injustice around them and tried to picture them in their works. The greatest novelists of the age were Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray, Charlotte Bronte, Elizabeth Gaskell, George Eliot. These writers used the novel as a tool to protest against the evils in contemporary social and economic life and to picture the world in a realistic way. They expressed deep sympathy for the working people; described the unbearable conditions of their life and work. Criticism in their works was very strong, so some scholars called them Critical Realists, and the trend to which they belonged - Critical Realism. “Hard Times” by Charles Dickens and “Mary Barton” by Elizabeth Gaskell are the bright examples of that literature, in which the Chartist movement is described. The contribution of the writers belonging to the trend of realism in world literature is enormous. They created a broad picture of social life, exposed and attacked the vices of the contemporary society, sided with the common people in their passionate protest against unbearable exploitation, and expressed their hopes for a better future.

As for the poetry of that time, English and American critics consider Alfred Tennyson, and Robert Browning to be the two great pillars on which Victorian poetry rested. Unlike the poetry of the Romantic Age, their poetry demonstrated the conservatism, optimism, and self-assurance that marked the poetry of the Victorian age.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, was the most revered of the Victorian poets. He was a poet-laureate and his poems found their way into almost every home of that time. In his art and outlook Tennyson was deeply influenced by the English Romantic poets, particularly by William Wordsworth and John Keats.

He was one of twelve children of a country minister and grew up in the quiet village of Somersby in Lincolnshire, eastern England. His father had an excellent library and the young Tennyson began his study of the English classics there. He began writing poetry at a very early age. While preparing for the university Tennyson learned classical and modern languages from his gifted father. Tennyson entered Cambridge University and made a promising debut as a young poet there with the publication of “Poems, Chiefly Lyrical” (1830).

Then calamity struck their family. His father's fatal illness forced Tennyson to leave Cambridge without finishing his degree. His next work, “Poems”, was published in 1833. In the same year the poet lost his dearest and nearest friend Henry Hallam. Hallam's death threw Tennyson into a long depression. He was silent for nearly a decade.

He broke “ten years of silence”, as he called them later, in 1842 by publishing new work that soon made him a leading poet of his time. In 1850 he published his great elegy to Hallam. “In Memoriam A.H.H.” “In Memoriam” is the poem of the poet himself, and, since it is so genuinely his, it becomes at the same time the great poem of his age. He records the death of his friend Arthur Hallam and his thoughts on the problem of life and death, his religious anxieties, and hard-won faith in an eternal life. The same year he married and was named a poet laureate.

Tennyson's life was long and productive. He experimented with a great variety of poetic forms. One of his most popular works is “The Idylls of the King”, a series of poems on the legend of King Arthur, which are picturesque, romantic, but allegorical and didactic as well. Tennyson has reduced the plan of the Arthurian stories to the necessities of Victorian morality.

Toward the end of his career, Tennyson was knighted by Queen Victoria. This honor, that never before was given to a writer, indicates the great esteem in which Tennyson was held by the people of his time and country.

Robert Browning (1812-1889)

Robert Browning, one of the leading Victorian poets, was born in London. His father was a bank official and pursued scholarship as a hobby, collecting a rich library. Robert Browning developed broad knowledge in the classics, painting, poetry, and the theatre.

First he wrote lyrical verse imitating Byron and Shelley, but later found his own poetic voice. In 1835 he published his dramatic psychological “Paracelsus”, in 1837 the drama “Strafford”. Then he spent two years in Italy and wrote his long, difficult “Sordello” in 1840. All these works did not bring him fame, though he had developed an independence of style, with an assumption of unusual rhythms, grotesque rhymes, and abrupt, broken phrasing. At its best this gave to his verses a virility which contrasts pleasantly with the over-melodious movement of much nineteenth-century poetry. That he was a master of verse can be seen from the easy movements of his lyrics, but his special effects, though they gave realism to his poems, were in danger of becoming a mannerism.

When he was still largely unknown, the poet came across a volume of poetry. Its author was the popular Elizabeth Barrett (1806-1861), a semi-invalid who was six years older than Robert Browning. He fell in love with her poems and then with the poet herself. Despite her father's disapproval, Robert and Elithabeth eloped in 1846. They lived a happy life together in Italy and it revived Mrs. Browning. There, for several years, Elizabeth Barrett-Browning wrote a series of sonnets expressing her love for her husband. Her sonnet “How Do I Love Thee “, addressed to Robert Browning is the most-quoted love poem in the English language.

How Do I Love Thee

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight

For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.

I love thee to the level of everyday's,

Most quiet need, by sun and candle light.

I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;

I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.

I love thee with the passion put to use

In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.

I love thee with a love I seemed to lose

With my lost saints - I love thee with the breath,

Smiles, tears, of all my life! - and, if God choose,

I shall but love thee better after death.

During their life together Elizabeth remained much more famous than her husband.

Elizabeth Barrett-Browning (1806-1861)

After his wife's death in 1861, Robert Browning returned to England with their son. It was only then, in his fifties, that Browning established his own reputation as a poet with the collections of dramatic monologues such as “Dramatis Personae” (1866), and “The Ring and the Book” (1869). Now Browning became famous and Tennyson's equal among Victorian readers. But these two great poets were absolutely different in their manner of writing and behaviour. The biographers and critics write that Tennyson was introverted, withdrawn, and often melancholy. Browning was open, social, and optimistic. Tennyson's poetry is melodic and beautifully polished; Browning's is intentionally harsh and “unpoetic”, and reflects the language of lively conversation.

Browning has generally been called a difficult writer, so much that societies were formed to interpret his poetry. But sometimes he wrote simply, when he thought it consistent with his subject. One of his such not-too-difficult-to understand lyrical poems is “The Lost Mistress”.

The Lost Mistress

1

All's over, then - does truth sound bitter

As one at first believes?

Hark, `tis the sparrows' good-night twitter

About your cottage eaves!

2

And the leaf-buds on the vine are woolly,

I noticed that, to-day;

One day more bursts them open fully

- You know the red turns gray.

3

To-morrow we meet the same then, dearest?

May I take your hand in mine?

Mere friends are we, - well, friends the merest

Keep much that I'll resign:

4

For each glance of that eye so bright and black,

Though I keep with heart's endeavour, -

Your voice, when you wish the snowdrops back,

Though it stays in my soul for ever! -

5

- Yet I will but say what mere friends say

Or only a thought stronger;

I will hold your hand but as long as all may,

Or so very little longer.

This poem belongs to the collection of short poems called “Dramatic Romances and Lyrics” (1845).

Browning's best-known work is “The Ring and the Book” (1868-1869). He based the poem on an Italian murder case of 1698. Twelve characters discuss the case, and each does it from his or her own point of view.

Browning strikes our contemporary readers as the more modern poet, because of his colloquial and quirky diction, and because of his interest in human psychology.

Charles Dickens (1812 - 1870)

Charles Dickens, the first novelist of the trend of Critical Realism, was born in 1812 near Portsmouth on the southern coast of England. His father was a clerk and the family lived on his small salary. They belonged to the lower middle class. The father was often transferred from place to place. First they moved to the ancient town of Rochester, then, in 1822 to London. In Rochester Charles began to attend school. He continued his studies in London as well. But soon his father lost his job and was imprisoned for debt. Charles had to begin to work in a factory. Inabout a year the Dickenses received a small sum of money after the death of a relative, so all the debts were paid. Charles got a chance to go to school again. Dickens left school when he was twelve. He had to continue his education by himself. His father sent him to a lawyer's office to study law. He did not stay there long, but he learned the ways and manners of lawyers, as many of his books show.

In 1832 Dickens became a parliamentary reporter. Dickens's first efforts at writing were little stories about the ordinary Londoners he saw. He signed them Boz (the nickname given to him by his youngest brother. At the age of 24 Dickens married Catherine Hogarth. Later he discovered his ability as a novelist and devoted himself to literary work. Twice he visited the USA. Besides Dickens was a master of reading. He had invented the theatre for one actor. From 1858 to 1868 he had given dramatic readings of his novels in England and America. An audience to Dickens was like a potent wine, he delighted in the applause. Dickens knew more than he revealed. His own nature was involved in a high emotionalism, which prevented him from reaching the sense of tragedy of Dostoyevsky, or that full vision of life, which makes Tolstoy supreme among novelists of the world. Short of this he had everything. In 1867-1868 Dickens made a triumphant reading tour in the United States during his second visit, which was a great strain on him and undermined his health. He died suddenly on June 9, 1870. Dickens was buried in Westminster Abbey. When Dickens died something had gone out of English life that was irreplaceable, a bright light that had shone upon the drab commercialism of the century, calling men back to laughter and kindliness, and the disruption of the cruelties in which they were entangling themselves. Like all great artists he saw the world as if it was an entirely fresh experience seen for the first time, and he had an extraordinary range of language, from comic invention to great eloquence. He invented character and situation with a range that had been unequalled since Shakespeare. So deeply had he affect his audiences that the view of life behind his novels has entered into the English tradition. Reason and theory he distrusted, but compassion and cheerfulness of heart he elevated into the supreme virtues. He knew in his more reflective moments that cheerfulness alone will not destroy the Coketowns of the world. This reflection he kept mainly to himself, and his intense emotionalism helped him to obscure it.

Dickens's Creative Work

Dickens was the greatest novelist of his age. He wrote a tremendous number of works. He created a new type of novel - a social novel. The great contrast between rich and poor Dickens considered abnormal in a civilized society. Dickens put all his hopes in the good qualities of human nature. To the end of his life he hoped to find means to better the world he lived in. But while painting hard reality, Dickens changed his attitude as years went by, as to the causes of poverty and exploitation. His creative work has been divided into four periods.

I. The works written between the years 1833 - 1841 belong to the first period. They are: “Sketches by Boz” (1833 - 1836), “The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club”, “Oliver Twist”, “Nicholas Nickleby”, “Barnaby Rudge”, “The Old Curiosity Shop”. Dickens's heroes and heroines of the first period are remarkable for their fortitude. They never hesitate to take the wisest way and remain true to the principles of honour. They prefer to live in poverty and work hard. Finally virtue conquers evil. Humour and optimism are characteristic of the first period in Dickens's writings.

II. The following books, written between the years 1842 -1848, belong to the second period in the writers creative work: ”American Notes”, “Martin Chuzzlewit”, “The Christmas Books”, “Dombey and Son”. In the works of the second period Dickens begins to describe the crimes that arise from the existing system itself.

III. During the third period (1850-1859) he wrote “David Copperfield”, “Bleak House”, “Hard Times”, “Little Dorrit”, “A Tale of Two Cities”. These novels are the strongest for the social criticism expressed in them. Dickens describes in detail the social institutions of the day and draws a vivid picture of the English people life.

IY. The fourth period in Dickens's creative work was the sixties. During these years he wrote only 2 novels: “Great Expectations”, and “Our Mutual Friend”. These works are written in a spirit of disillusionment. Now he feels that a better future is too far off and he only allows himself, as a writer, to dream of that future. His heroes show the moral strength and patience of the common people.

“Dombey and Son”

In this novel, the writer turns away for the first time from the world of little people to that of the high bourgeoisie.