The Development of English Literature

The full title of the novel is: “Dealings with the Firm of Dombey and Son, Wholesale, Retail and for Exportation.” It tells the story of a rich family, the Dombeys. Mr Dombey is a merchant and his only interest in life is the prosperity of his family firm.

Mrs. Dombey dies at the close of Chapter 1, after giving birth to her only son, and thereafter the house, which is depicted as glacial and cavernous, resolves round the hopes founded by Mr. Dombey on his heir. Little Paul Dombey is a sickly, sensitive child, whose father adopts toward him the attitude of the prince consort to an eldest son; he must be made “the most perfect man”, and to that end he is starved of the affection he needs, and sent, at the age of five, to Mrs. Pipchin's establishment in Brighton. If he has received little, his sister Florence, older than he by six years, gets even less. As a daughter, she is of no consequence to her father, or to anyone else except her faithful and outspoken attendant, Susan Nipper.

The machinery of the plot is comparatively simple in contrast to the richness of its orchestration. Dombey, distressed by the death of his son and the foundering of his hopes, increasingly rejects his daughter Florence, in spite of her attempts to win his affection. Dombey marries again, this time choosing a beauty of superior social standing to his own. Edith Dombey is instantly drawn to Florence, who in her teens, not only takes warmly to her stepmother but counts on her help to overcome her father's hostility. However, Edith has her own kind of pride. She sets up in flat opposition to her husband, whom her one aim is to humiliate. For Florence's sake, she begins to keep the little girl at arm's length until, after a final scene, she leaves for France with Dombey's trusted manager.

Dickens considers all blows that have fallen upon Mr. Dombey as punishment deserved. Mr. Dombey is the symbol of all that was cruel and unhuman in the upper middle class in Dickens's time.

But the character of Mr. Dombey changes unexpectedly at the end of the novel. Misfortunes soften his character and he becomes a good man. Old Mr. Dombey lives in the happy home of Florence, who is now married to Walter Gay. Now Mr. Dombey loves his daughter and grandchildren.

The author of the book, Charles Dickens, always wanted to reconcile people with one another, and the end of the book is a vivid example of it.

William Makepeace Thackeray (1811- 1863)

M. Thackeray was one of the greatest representatives of the English Victorian age. Thackeray's novels focus on a vivid description of his contemporary society, the mode of life, manners and tastes of aristocracy. Revealing their pride and tyranny, snobbishness, and selfishness, he demonstrates his broad and analytical knowledge of human nature.

W.M. Thackeray was born in Calcutta, India, where his father was a well-to-do English official. At the age of six he was sent to England to be educated. He studied at the Charterhouse school, then he passed on to Cambridge University.

While a student, William displayed his skill of drawing cartoons and writing verses, most of them were parodies. But being an ambitious person he wanted to achieve more and become an artist, so without graduating the University and went to Germany, Italy and France to study art. In Germany he was introduced to Goethe, who deeply impressed him.

Thackeray returned to London in 1833, with the aim to complete his education, and began a law course. Unfortunately, at that time the Indian bank went bankrupt, and Thackeray lost the money invested by his father to him. Not being able to continue his regular education he had to earn a living. He was equally talented in art and literature. Journalism became the most attractive occupation for him, and throughout his whole life Thackeray was a journalist. Up to 1854 he was a regular contributor to “Punch”, and later he was the editor of “The Cornhill”. In 1836 Thackeray married Isabella Shawe, they had three daughters. Thackeray's married life was unhappy as his wife became ill after giving birth to the third child. To the end of his life Thackeray did all he could to make her life comfortable working hard and bringing himself down. Isabella outlived her husband by many years. Like Dickens he drove himself to give readings of his novels in London and in America. Moreover, his lectures on “The English Humourists” and “The Four Georges” show him a master.

Literary Work

W.M. Thackeray was an author of many articles, essays, reviews and stories. But his first notable work was “The Book of Snobs”, published in 1848. It was a collection of his magazine writings, where the author criticized social pretentiousness. The book may be regarded as a prelude to the author's masterpiece “Vanity Fair”, which showed him at his best in a clear-sighted realism, a deep detestation of insincerity, and a broad and powerful development of narrative. For one brilliant decade the bright yellow shilling numbers in which his novels were published became a feature of English life. In those years he published “The History of Pendennis” (1850), “Henry Esmond” (1852), “The Newcomes” (1854), “The Virginians” (1859) and “Denis Duwal”. Thackeray wrote in a colorful, lively style. His vocabulary is simple and sentences clearly structured.

The novels “The History of Pendinnes” and “The Newcomes” are realistic, they show gradual reconciliation of the author with reality. In the other novels “Henry Esmond” and “The Virginians” Thackeray turned to historical themes, which he treated with a realistic approach. Thackeray's last novel “Denis Duval” remained unfinished, for Thackeray died in 1863.

Thackeray's literary work shows that he did not like people who were impressed by their birth or rank. He hated cruelty and greed, and admired kindness.

“Vanity Fair (a novel without a hero)”

The subtitle of the book shows the author's intention not to describe separate individuals, but the society as a whole. The author believed that most people are a mixture of the good and evil, of the heroic and ridiculous. He knew that a human being is complex and avoided oversimplifying it. The interest of the novel centers on the characters than on the plot. The author shows various people, and their thoughts and actions in different situations. There is no definite hero in the book. In Thackeray's opinion there can be no hero in a society where the cult of money rules the world. He is less concerned to present a moral solution than to evoke an image of life as he has seen it.

Thackeray's satire reaches its climax when he describes Sir Pitt Crawley , a typical snob of Vanity Fair. “...Here was a man, who could not spell, and did not care to read - who had the habits and the cunning of a boor; whose aim in life was pettifogging; who never had a taste, or emotion or enjoyment, but what was sordid and foul; and yet he had rank, and honours, and power, somehow; and was a dignitary of the land, and pillar of the state. He was high sheriff, and rode in a golden coach. Great ministers and statesmen courted him; and in Vanity Fair he had a higher place than the most brilliant genius of spotless virtue”.

The novel focuses on the fate of two girls with sharply contrasting characters - Rebecca (Becky) Sharp and Amelia Sedley. Both characters are depicted with great skill. Becky is good looking, clever and gifted. She possesses a keen sense of humour and a deep understanding of human nature. At the same time she embodies the very spirit of Vanity Fair, as her only aim in life is at all costs to find her way into high society. Becky believes neither in love nor in friendship. She is selfish, cunning, and cynical, and ready to marry any man who can give her wealth and a title.

In contrast to Rebecca, Amelia is honest, generous and kind to all the people she comes in touch with and is loved by all. But she, too, cannot be regarded as the heroine of the novel. She is not clever enough to understand the real qualities of the people who surround her. She is too intelligent, naive and simple-hearted to understand all the dirty machinations of the clever and sly Rebecca. Thackeray writes about Amelia Sedley as a kind and gentle being, but at the same time calls her “a silly little thing”.

The most virtuous person in the novel is Captain William Dobbin. He worships Amelia , and his only aim in life is to see her happy. He does not think of his own happiness. Knowing that Amelia loves George Osborne, Dobbin persuades him to marry the girl. He knows that his own life will be a complete disappointment, but he does not care. His personal feelings are of no importance for him in comparison with those of Amelia. Though Dobbin, like Amelia, is an exception in Vanity Fair, he is too simple-minded and one-sided to be admired by the author.

Though nothing in the early nineteenth century approaches Dickens and Thackeray, the novel in that period showed great variety. Fiction had become the dominant form in literature, and the problem of recording even its main types becomes difficult.

Charlotte Bront¸ (1816-1855)

Charlotte Bront¸'s father, Patric Bront¸ was a poor Irishman who became a clergyman in the small, isolated town of Haworth, Yorkshire. Charlotte's mother died in 1821, when the girl was only five and her aunt, mother's sister, brought up the family conscientiously, but with little affection or understand-in. Together with her two younger sisters, Emily and Anne, Charlotte went to several boarding schools where they received a better education than was usual for girls at that time, but in harsh atmosphere.

At that time few jobs were available for women, and the Bront¸ sisters, except for occasional jobs as governesses or schoolteachers, lived their entire lives at home. The sisters were poor, shy, lonely, and occupied themselves with drawing, music, reading and writing. Their isolation led to the early development of their imaginations. In 1846, under the masculine pen-names of Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell, the sisters published a joint volume of poems. Soon after all three sisters published their first novels.

This portrait of the Bront¸ sisters was painted by their brother Patrick Branwell Bront¸. The picture shows Anne (left), Emily (center) and Charlotte (right).

Emily Bront¸ (1818-1848) is the author of the novel “Wuthering Heights” (1847). Anne Bront¸ (1820-1849) wrote two novels: “Agnes Grey” (1847) and “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall”(1848).

Charlotte Bront¸'s famous novel “Jane Eyre” was published in 1847 under her pen-name Currer Bell. It is a novel of social criticism. In this novel particular attention is given to the system of education of which Charlotte Bront¸ had a thorough knowledge, being a schoolteacher herself. Like Dickens, she believed that education was the key to all social problems, and that by the improvement of the school system and teaching, most of the evils could be removed. This novel is autobiographical. Through the heroine, the author relived the hated boarding school life and her experiences as a governess in a large house. Rochester, the hero of the book and the master of the house described in it, is fictional. “Jane Eyre” was enormously successful.

Charlotte Bront¸ wrote three other novels. The first of them, “The Professor”, was published after her death, in 1857. The second one, “Shirley” was published in 1849. The most popular of these three novels, “Villette” was published in 1853. It is based on Charlotte's unhappy experiences as a governess in Brussels, with the far richer and more romantic experiences which she had imagined. Thus her work is grounded in realism, but goes beyond into a wish-fulfillment. She had the courage to explore human life with greater fidelity than was common in her age, though the reticence of her period prevents her from following her themes to their logical conclusion.

George Eliot (1819-1880)

George Eliot is the pen-name of Mary Ann Evans, one of the most distinguished English novelists of the Victorian period. Mary Ann Evans was born in Warwickshire in 1819. She received an excellent education in private schools and from tutors. After her father's death in 1849, she traveled in Europe and settled in London. There she wrote for important journals. British intellectuals regarded her as one of the leading thinkers of her day. Before she wrote fiction she had translated several philosophical works from German into English.

When Mary Ann Evans began to publish fiction in 1858, she took the pen name George Eliot; this change was an emblem of the seriousness with which she addressed her new career. There were many successful women novelists in Victorian England who wrote under their own names, but there existed a general assumption that they wrote “women's novels”. When Evans began to publish her novels under an assumed name she was implicitly asserting her intention to rival the greatest novelists of her day. Of all the women novelists of the nineteenth century, she was the most learned and, in her creative achievement, the most adult.

Much of her fiction reflects the middle-class rural background of her chidhood and youth. George Eliot wrote with sympathy, wisdom and realism about English country people and small towns. She wrote seriously about moral and social problems.

Her first novel “Adam Bede”, published in 1859, is a tragic love story. Her works “The Mill on he Floss” (1860) and “Silas Marner “ are set against country background. Her “Ramola” is a historical novel set in Renaissance Florence. George Eliot's only political novel is “Felix Holt, Radical” written in 1866 is considered one of her poorer works.

George Eliot's masterpiece “Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life” (1871-1872) is a long story of many complex characters, and their influence on and reaction to each other. Her last novel “Daniel Deronda” (1876) displays the author's knowledge of and sensitivity to Jewish culture.

Her intellect was sufficiently employed in the difficult problem of structure not to impede her imagination. She had achieved the nearest approach in English to Balzac. In George Elliot's work, one is aware of her desire to enlarge the possibilities of the novel as a form of expression: she wishes to include new themes, to penetrate more deeply into character.

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)

R.L. Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, essayist, and poet who became one of the world's most popular writers. He was born on November 13, 1850, in Edinburgh, Scotland. He was a sickly boy who suffered from a lung disease that later developed into tuberculosis. Young Stevenson loved the open air, the sea, adventure, and, especially, reading. He was a man of a strong will. He fought illness constantly and wrote many of his books in a sickbed. He traveled widely for his health and to learn about people.

Stevenson's father was a Scottish engineer, and the boy was expected to follow in his father's footsteps, but he preferred literature and history. When he was 17, Stevenson entered Edinburgh University to study engineering, his father's profession. But this profession was not appealing for him and as a compromise he agreed to study law. He graduated from the University in 1875, but he did not enjoy law and never practiced it. His real love was writing. By the time of his graduation from the University he had already begun writing for magazines. He began publishing short stories and essays in the mid-1870s.

The writer's first book “An Inland Voyage” appeared in 1878. This work relates his experiences during a canoeing trip through France and Belgium. In his next book “Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes”, written in 1879, Stevenson describes a walking tour through France.

In 1879 he followed Mrs. Fanny Osbourne, an American whom he later married, to the American continent. In America his health began to fail and made him a tubercular invalid for the rest of his life. He spent his last nine years on the Pacific island of Samoa.

Stevenson's first and most famous novel “Treasure Island” was published in 1883. The characters of the book, the boy hero Jim Hawkins, the two villains Long John Silver and blind Pew, and their search for the buried treasure have become familiar to millions of readers.

The publication of Stevenson's second major novel “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr.Hyde” in 1886 assured his reputation. The story tells of a doctor who takes a drug that changes him into a new person, physically ugly and spiritually evil. The novel is one of the most fascinating horror stories ever written.

The same year Stevenson also published his long novel “Kidnapped”. The work is based on historical research and weaves an exciting fictional story around an actual Scottish murder committed in 1745. Because of its length, Stevenson ended “Kidnapped” before the plot was completed. He finally finished the story in 1893 in “Catriona”. Besides these he had written many other novels, short stories, essays and travel books.

Some of Stevenson's short stories were collected into “New Arabian Nights” (1882) and “More New Arabian Nights” (1885). His short stories are rich in imagination and fantasy.

Stevenson's last years were clouded by tragedy . At that time his wife suffered a nervous breakdown. This misfortune struck him deeply and affected his ability to complete his last books. Stevenson's life began to brighten when his wife recovered partially, but he died suddenly of a stroke on December 3, 1894. Local chiefs buried him on top of Mount Vaea in Samoa.

Stevenson in all that he wrote, in his essays, his letters, and his novels, remained an artist. He was in style self-conscious, exacting from himself perfection. Stevenson leads the novel back towards story-telling and to the romance. Stevenson is so consistent an artist that it is difficult at first to realize the phenomenon that had produced his success.

UNIT 8. ENGLISH LITERATURE AT THE END OF THE 19TH AND THE BEGINNING OF THE 20TH CENTURY

General Background

By 1880 England had become the first modern industrial empire. Its large, urban manufacturing centers produced goods that went by rail and then by steamship to consumers all over the world. British investments and energy were expanding and served for the defense of the Empire.

Queen Victoria lived until January 1901. Her son, Edward VII, was nearly sixty years old when he was crowned, and reigned only nine years. These nine years in the history of England are called the Edwardian period. Despite the brevity of the Edwardian period, it saw the deve-lopment of a national conscience that expressed itself in important social legislation (including the first old-age pensions). It laid the groundwork for the English welfare state.

On the other hand, the second half of the 19th century in England gave rise to a rapid growth of social contradictions. These contradictions found their reflection in literature, too. It was reflected in literature by the appearance of different trends. A great number of writers continued the realistic traditions of their predecessors. It was represented by such writers as George Meredith, Samuel Butler, Thomas Hardy. These novelists gave a truthful picture of the contemporary society.

The writers of another trend, by way of protest against severe reality, tried to lead the reader away from life into the world of dreams and fantasy, into the realm of beauty. They idealized the patriarchal way of life and criticized the existing society chiefly for its antiaesthetism. Russian literary critics called them decadents. ( English and American literary critics call them the writers belonging to the Aesthetic trend ). The decadent art, or the art belonging to the aesthetic trend appreciated the outer form of art more than the content.

Though the decadent writers saw the vices of the surrounding world, and in some of their works we find a truthful and critical description of contemporary life, on the whole their inner world lacks depth. They were firm in their opinion that it was impossible to better the world and conveyed the idea that everyone must strive for his own private happiness, avoid suffering and enjoy life at all costs. The decadent writers created their own cult of beauty and proclaimed the theory of “pure art”; their motto was “art for art's sake”. (Oscar Wilde, John Ruskin).

Besides, the end of the 19th century also created writers who were interested in human society as a whole (B.Shaw, J.Galsworthy), and a new type of writer who was preoccupied with the future of mankind (Herbert Wells).

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)

Thomas Hardy was born in southwestern England, western Dorsetshire. His father, a skilled stone-mason, taught his son to play violin and sent him to a country day school. At the age of fifteen Hardy began to study architecture, and in 1861 he went to London to begin a career. There he tried poetry, then a career as an actor, and finally decided to write fiction.

Hardy's home and the surrounding districts played an important role in his literary career. The region was agricultural, and there were monuments of the past, that is Saxon and Roman ruins and the great boulders of Stonehenge, which reminded of the prehistoric times. Before the Norman invasion of 1066

First, Hardy aimed his fiction at serial publication in magazines, where it would most quickly pay the bills. Not forgetting an earlier dream, he resolved to keep his tales “as near to poetry in their subject as the conditions would allow.” The emotional power of Hardy's fiction disturbed readers from the start. His first success, “Far from the Madding Crowd” (1874), was followed by “The Return of the Native” (1878), “The Mayor of Casterbridge”(1885), and “Tess of the D'Urbervilles” (1891). Hardy wrote about the Dorset country-side he knew well and called it Wessex (the name of the Anglo-Saxon kingdome once located there). He wrote about agrarian working people, milkmaids, stonecutters, and shepherds. Hardy's rejection of middle-class moral values disturbed and shocked some readers, but as time passed, his novels gained in popularity and prestige. An architect by profession, he gave to his novels a design that was architectural, employing each circumstance in the narrative to one accumulated effect. The final impression was one of a malign. Fate functioning in men's lives, corrupting their possibilities of happiness, and beckoning them towards tragedy. While he saw life thus as cruel and purposeless, he does not remain a detached spectator. He has pity for the puppets of Destiny, and it is a compassion that extends from man to the earth-worm, and the diseased leaves of the tree. Such a conception gave his novels a high seriousness which few of his contemporaries possessed.

No theory can in itself make a novelist, and Hardy's novels, whether they are great or not have appealed to successive generations of readers.

In 1874 he married and in 1885 built a remote country home in Dorset. From 1877 on he spent three to four months a year in fashionable society, while the rest of the time he lived in the country.

In 1895 his “Jude the Obscure” was so bitterly criticized, that Hardy decided to stop writing novels altogether and returned to an earlier dream. In 1898 he published his first volume of poetry. Over the next twenty-nine years Hardy completed over 900 lyrics. His verse was utterly independent of the taste of his day. He used to say: ”My poetry was revolutionary in the sense that I meant to avoid the jewelled line. ...” Instead, he strove for a rough, natural voice, with rustic diction and irregular meters expressing concrete, particularized impressions of life.

Thomas Hardy has been called the last of the great Victorians. He died in 1928. His ashes are buried in Westminster Abbey, but, because of his lasting relationship with his home district, his heart is buried in Wessex. His position as a novelist is difficult to asses with any certainty. At first he was condemned as a “second-rate romantic”, and in the year of his death he was elevated into one of the greatest figures of English literature. The first view is ill-informed and the second may well be excessive, but the sincerity and courage and the successful patience of his art leave him a great figure in English fiction. In the world war of 1914-18 he was read with pleasure as one who had the courage to portray life with the grimness that is possessed and in portraying if not to lose pity. Often in times of stress Hardy's art will function in a similar way and so enter into the permanent tradition of English literature.

Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900)

Oscar Wilde was regarded as the leader of the aesthetic movement, but many of his works do not follow his decadent theory “art for art's sake”, they sometimes even contradict it. In fact, the best of them are closer to Romanticism and Realism.

Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin on October 16, 1854. His father was a famous Irish surgeon. His mother was well known in Dublin as a writer. At school, and later at the Oxford University Oscar displayed a considerable gift for art and creative work. The young man received a number of classical prizes, and graduated with first-class honours. After graduating from the University, Wilde turned his attention to writing, travelling and lecturing. The Aesthetic Movement became popular, and Oscar Wilde earned the reputation of being the leader of the movement.

Oscar Wilde gained popularity in the genre of comedy of manners. The aim of social comedy, according to Wilde, is to mirror the manners, not to re-form the morals of its day. Art in general, Wilde stated, is in no way connected with the reality of life; real life incarnates neither social nor moral values. It is the artist's fantasy that produces the refined and the beautiful. So it is pointless to demand that there be any similarity between reality and its depiction in art. Thus, he was a supporter of the “art-for-art's sake” doctrine.

In his plays the author mainly dealt with the life of educated people of refined tastes. Belonging to the privileged layer of society they spent their time in entertainments. In “The Importance of Being Earnest” the author shows what useless lives his characters are leading. Some of them are obviously caricatures, but their outlook and mode of behaviour truely characterize London's upper crust. Wilde rebels against their limitedness, strongly opposes hypocrisy, but, being a representative of an upper class himself, was too closely connected with the society he made fun of; that is why his opposition bears no effective resistance.

The most popular works of the author are “The Happy Prince and Other Tales” (1888), “The Picture of Dorian Gray” (1891), and the come-dies “Lady Windermere's Fan” (1892). “A Woman of No Importance” (1893), “An Ideal Husband” (1895), “The Importance of Being Earnest” (1895). At the height of his popularity and success a tragedy struck. He was accused of immorality and sentenced to two years' imprisonment. When released from prison in 1897 he lived mainly on the Continent and later in Paris. In 1898 he published his powerful poem, “Ballad of Reading Gaol”. He died in Paris in 1900.

“The Picture of Dorian Gray” is the only novel written by Oscar Wilde. It is centered round problems of relationship between art and reality. In the novel the author describes the spiritual life of a young man and touches upon many important problems of contemporary life: morality, art and beauty. At the beginning of the novel we see an inexperienced youth, a kind and innocent young man. Dorian is influenced by two men with sharply contrasting characters: Basil Hallward and Lord Henry Wotton. The attitude of these two towards the young man shows their different approach to life, art and beauty. The author shows the gradual degradation of Dorian Gray. The end of the book is a contradiction to Wilde's decadent theory. The fact that the portrait acquired its former beauty and Dorian Gray “withered, wrinkled and loathsome of visage” lay on the floor with a knife in his heart, shows the triumph of real beauty - a piece of art created by an artist, a unity of beautiful form and content. Besides that, it conveys the idea that real beauty cannot accompany an immoral life.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930)

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is a British writer, who created Sherlock Hol-mes, the world's best known detective. Millions of readers are delighted in his ability to solve crimes by an amazing use of reason and observation.

Doyle was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. He was a doctor and began practicing medicine in 1882, but his practice was not successful. Sherlock Holmes came into being while the young doctor waited vainly for patients. Doyle amused himself during those long hours by writing stories about a “scientific” detective who solved cases by his amusing power of deduction. His early stories were not very popular, but he won great success with his first Holmes novel “”A Study in Scarlet” (1887).

The author modeled Holmes on a real person, a tall, wiry surgeon who had the reputation of being able to tell a person's occupation just by looking at him. Holmes appeared in 56 short stories, written by Doyle, and three other novels: “The Sign of Four” (1890), “The Hound of the Baskervilles”(1902), and ”The Valley of Fear” (1915). Later, growing tired of writing Holmes stories, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote a story in which the detective was killed by the Professor Mariarty mentioned at the beginning of “The Adventure of the Norwood Builder”. But Holmes was so popular that public demand forced the author to bring him back to life in “The Return of Sherlock Holmes”

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle also wrote historical novels, romances, and plays. At last he left fiction to study and lecture on spiritualism (communication with spirits).

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)

Rudyard Kipling was born in Bombay, India, on December 30, 1865, in the family of John Lockwood Kipling, a professor of architectural sculpture. At the age of six he was taken to England and educated at an English College in North Devon. In 1883 he returned to India and became sub-editor of the Lahore Civil and Military Gazette. At the age of 21 he published his first volume, a small book of verse “Departmental Ditties”. A year later his “Plain Tails from the Hills” introduced him to the public as a story-teller. Before he was twenty-four he had already published six small collections of stories, which showed his remarkable talent.

From 1887 to 1899 Kipling travelled around the world and visited China, Japan and America. During this period he wrote his most popular works: “The Jungle Book” (1894-1895), “Captain Courageous” (1897), “Kim” (1902), “Just so Stories”(1902), “Puck of Pook's Hill” (1906) and “Rewards and Fairies”(1910).

The best and most beloved of Kipling's prose works is “The Jungle Book”. It was intended for children. In it Kipling depicted the life of wild animals, showed their character and behaviour. Each chapter of this book began with a poem and ended with a song.

The main character of this work Mowgli is the child of an Indian wood-cutter. He gets lost in the jungle and creeps into a lair of a wolf. The mother wolf lets him feed together with her cubs and calls him Mowgli which means frog. Maugli has many adventures and finally returns to the society of men.

The Jungle Book shows that man is a curious animal. He is the weakest and at the same time the strongest animal in the world. Kipling wants to show that in an uncivilized society powerful animals triumph. The weak animals submit to the power of those who are stronger. This is the law of the Jungle, it is the law of the world. Kipling regrets that the same law of the Jungle exists in a civilized society too. He wants to see man as a good and noble being.

Rudyard Kipling was one of the rare writers who were equally strong in prose and in verse. His best-known volumes of verse are “Barrack-room Ballads” (1891), “The Seven Seas” (1896), “The Five Nations' (1903). One of his best poems “If” was dedicated to his son. The poem reads like a lesson in patience, self-possession and quiet fortitude:

IF

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,

Or being hated, don't give way to hating,

And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;

If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two imposters just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

And stoop and build `em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: `Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,

And - which is more- you'll be a Man, my son!

Kipling returned from America to England and lived in a little Sussex village. During the South African war (1899-1902) Kipling supported the policy of British expansion. His belief in empire and his admiration for force damaged his literary reputation. But still he was highly appreciated as a talented master of fiction and poetry. In 1907 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature; he was the first Englishman and the first writer who had received this prize.

The death of his son during World War I affected him strongly and made him almost silent. His works of later period “Mary Postage” (1915) and “The Gardener” (1926) evidently show his hatred of war.

A great artist and realist, Rudyard Kipling, died on January 17, 1936 when he was at work on a collection of autobiographical notes. These notes were published a year after his death under the title “Something of Myself”.

Hector Hugh Munro (Saki) (1870 - 1916)

Hector Hugh Munro was born in 1870 in Burma. When his mother died two years later, he went back to England to be reared by his grandmother and aunts. There he attended local schools and then boarded for two years at Bed-ford Grammar School. He never went to college. Instead, his father retired, returned to England and took his children to a tour of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. After the tour they settled in the English countryside.

In 1893, at the age of 22, Munro tried to follow his father's footsteps and enlisted in the Burmese Police. But he could not take the climate, and after a year he returned to England. Now Munro determined to try a different sort of career, and for the next several years did historical research at the British Museum for a book “The Rise of the Russian Empire”, published in 1900. But it did not impress critics and readers.

So in 1901 he decided to play another role and tried his pen in writing political satire. This time he was moor successful. Munro knew politics well and his political satires published in the “Westminster Gazette” delighted readers. To preserve has anonymity Munro took the penname “Saki” from the cupbearer in the Persian poem “The Rubaiyat” of Omar Khayyam.

In 1902 Munro left England to become a foreign correspondent for the “Morning Post”. During the next six years he reported from the Balkans, Po-land, Russia, and Paris. At the same time he was sending a series of comic short stories to English newspapers, and in 1904 published a book of them. His short stories contain a unique blend of horror and humor that has made them favorites with readers ever since they first appeared in print.

In 1908 Munro returned home, bought a house outside of London, and settled into a quiet life, writing and playing bridge.

But his quiet and productive life soon came to an end. On first hearing that England was at war with Germany, in August 1914, Munro joined the army. At that time he was 43 years old. After a year of brave service he was killed in combat.

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

George Bernard Show is an outstanding English playwright, one of the greatest satirists of the twentieth century. He was born in Dublin in an impoverished middle-class family. Until fourteen he attended a college, and from 1871 was employed in a land agent's office. In 1876 he went to London, where he became a journalist and wrote music and dramatic critics for various periodicals. He was always in the midst of political life in Britain and took an active part in solving human problems. As literary critics state, Shaw's manner of expression is based on real facts and ridicule. He exposes truth through satire and sarcasm.

The creative work of Bernard Shaw began with novels: “Immaturity” (1879), “The Irrational Knot” (1880), “Cashel Byron's Profession” ( 1882), “An Unsocial Socialist”(1883), “Love Among the Artists” ( 1888), but they had little success, and in 1892 the author turned to dramatic writing. His intellectual equipment was far greater than that of any of his contemporaries. He alone had understood the greatness of Norwegian dramatist Ibsen, and he was determined that his own plays should also be a vehicle for ideas. He had, from the first, accepted a burden in his dramas, beyond the presentation of plot and character. He had signed a contract with himself, and with the spirit of Ibsen, that each play should present a problem and discuss it thoroughly. His most important plays are: “Widowers' Houses” (1893), “Mrs. Warren's Profession” (1898), “Candida” (1898), “The Devil's Disciple” (1901), “Caesar and Cleopatra” (1901), “Man and Superman” (1903), “John Bull's Other Island” 1906), “Major Barbara”(1907), “Heartbreak House” (1917), “Pygmalion” (1919), “Saint Joan”(1923), “Back to Methuselah” (1921), “The Apple Cart” (1930), “Too Good to Be True” (1932), “On the Rocks” (1933). In these and other plays Shaw criticized the vices of the existing society. They also reveal human psychology as a product of this society.

Shaw was convinced that modern plays should contain, along with the traditional plot conflict and its resolution, what he called “the discussion”, a consideration of important problems and suggestions for their resolution.

“Pygmalion”

One of Shaw's best comedies is “Pygmalion”, written in 1912 and first produced in England in 1914. It was adapted into the musical “My Fair Lady” in 1956. The title “Pygmalion” comes from a Greek myth. Pygmalion, a sculptor, carved a statue out of ivory. It was the statue of a beautiful young woman whom he called Galatea. He fell in love with his own handiwork, so the goddess of love Aphrodite breathed life into the statue and transformed it into a really alive woman. The fable was chosen to allow him to discuss the theme he had set himself.

The principal characters of the play are Eliza Doolittle and Henry Higgins. Eliza, a girl of eighteen, comes from the lowest social level and speaks with a strong Cockney (East End of London) accent, which is considered to be the most uncultured English. Eliza's father is a dustman. Eliza does not want to stay with her father and stepmother. She makes her own living by selling flowers in the streets of London.

Henry Higgins, another main character of the play, is a professor of phonetics. He studies the physiological aspects of a person's speech, the sounds of the language. One day he sees Eliza in the street and bets with his friend Colonel Pickering that he will change this girl. He will not only teach her to speak her native language correctly, but will teach her manners too. Higgins works hard and before six months are over, she is well prepared to be introduced into society. Higgins wins his bet. When the game is over the girl doesn't know where to go. She doesn't want to return to her previous life, but at the same time she is not admitted to the high society as she is poor.

Higgins and Eliza remain friends, but the play is without ending. The dramatist thought it best not to go on with the story. Higgins loves Eliza only as his pupil. But he loves his profession as an artist. He has created a new Eliza. She is the work of a Pygmalion.

“Pygmalion” shows the author's concern for the perfection of the English Language. Shaw was passionately interested in the English language and the varieties of ways in which people spoke and misspoke it. Shaw wished to simplify and reform English. He has pointed out that the rules of spelling in English are inconsistent and confusing. The text of “Pygmalion” reflects some of his efforts at simplifying the usage of letters and sounds in the English Language. The play also allowed Shaw to present ideas on other topics. For example, he touched the problems of social equality, male and female roles, and the relationship between the people.

Herbert George Wells (1866 - 1946)

The main current of fiction in the 20^th century reflected the influence of science on popular thinking. People in general wanted to learn the truth. Scientific facts formed a wonderland, which was introduced into fiction as a fresh source of interest. This direct influence of science is illustrated in the writing of H.G.Wells.

Herbert George Wells is often called the great English writer who looked into the future. He devoted more than fifty years of his life to literary work. He was the author of more than forty novels and many short stories, articles and social tracts. His novels are of three types: science fiction, realistic novels on contemporary problems and social tracts.

Wells belonged to the world of science. Science played an important part in his best works, but the principal theme, even in these works is not science but the social problems of the day. His creative work is divided into two periods:

The first period begins in 1895 and lasts up to the outbreak of World War I. His famous works of this period are: ”The Time Machine”, “The Invisible Man”, “The War of the Worlds”, “The First Men on the Moon”.

The second period comprises works written from 1914 up to the end of World War II. His most important works of the period are: “The War That Will End War”, ”Russia in the Shadows”, “The World of William Glissold”, “Mr. Blettsworthy on Rampole Island”, “Experiment in Autobiography”.

Well's best works are his science fiction. They give the reader from the very beginning a forward-looking habit, and that is exactly what the writer aimed at. He believed in the great liberation science could bring to man, but he blamed the existing system because it used scientific achievements for evil aims. His criticism goes along two lines:

1. Scientific progress is more advanced than the cultural level of the people and their moral understanding of how to make use of it. Such being the case, science will sooner be used for destruction than for the good of mankind.

2. The enormous economic breach between the upper classes and the working classes is widened by scientific progress. If this process goes on, it will lead to the degeneration of the human race. In the novels of the second period Wells combines the criticism of society as a whole with the life of an individual. Thus Wells keeps up the traditions of the Critical Realism in the English novel.

“The War of the Worlds”

“The War of the World's” is H.G.Wells' fourth science fiction novel. It was published in 1897. The events in the novel supposedly take place at the beginning of the 20^th century in London and its suburbs. The story of the war is told by a professor. He says that he was writing an article, when the first cylinder from Mars came down like a falling star onto the southern part of Britain. The inhabitants of the place were attracted by the unusual phenomena and watched the cylinder open. They saw a Martian came out, then another and another. Their bulky bodies, the size of a bear, moved very clumsily, because the gravity of the Earth had increased their weight three times. The public did not understand the danger until the Martians used their heat-ray, killing many people and burning down houses and woods.

The government decided to fight the Martians. When the second cylinder landed, government troops arrived. They hoped to destroy it by gun-fire before it opened. But the gun-fire was nothing for Martians. Eight more cylinders came down from Mars one after another. The Martians had monstrous fighting machines. These machines moved over the ground smashing everything on their way.

When the fifth cylinder landed, the people were already in a state of panic. The Martian fighting machines advanced on London, and in a few days Society, the State and Civilization disappeared. The people were frightened and became violent. They trampled one another in panic. Those who could not escape from the city hid like rats under the ruins of houses so as not to be killed by the Martians.

Wells ends the novel with the defeat of the Martians. They are infected by bacteria against which their constitution is helpless. The writer makes the people of the Earth win, because he loves them and wants them to be strong and better civilized. He does not portray the Martians as a better race. He believes in man and his better future.

John Galsworthy (1867 - 1933)

John Galsworthy is one of the most outstanding realistic writers of the 20th century English literature. His novels, plays and short stories give the most complete and critical picture of British society in the first part of the 20th century. Particularly, he is best known for his realistic depictions of contemporary British society upper-class.

Galsworthy was not young when he started writing. His first notable work was “The Island Pharisees” (1904) in which he criticized the stagnation of thought in the English privileged classes. The five works entitled “The Country House” (1907), “Fraternity” (1909), “The Patrician” (1911), “The Dark Flower” (1913), and “The Freelands” (1915) reveal a similar philosophy. In these works the author criticizes country squires, the aristocracy and artists, and shows his deep sympathy for strong passions, sincerity and true love.

The most popular and important novels written by Galsworthy are those of the Forsyte cycle (the trilogies “The Forsyte Saga” and “A Modern Comedy”). “The Forsyte Saga” consists of three novels and two interludes, as the author calls them: “The Man of Property” (1906), “In Chancery” (1920), “To Let” (1921), ”Awakening” (interlude), “Indian Summer of a Forsyte” (interlude).

“The Forsyte Saga” is followed by “A Modern Comedy”, also a trilogy, consisting of three novels and two interludes: ”The White Monkey” (1924), “The Silver Spoon” (1926), “The Swan Song” (1928), “A Silent Wooing” (interlude), “Passers-by” (interlude).

The trilogy called “End of the Charter”, written at a later period, is less critical. The three novels are: ”Maid in Waiting” (1931), “Flowering Wilderness” (1932), “Over the River” (1933).

In the first trilogy, which was written in the most mature period of his literary activity, Galsworthy describes the commercial world of the Forsytes, and in particular, the main character, Soames Forsyte, “the man of property”. The first part of “The Forsyte Saga” (“The Man of Property”) attains the highest point of social criticism. The central characters of the novel are the Forsytes of the first generation and the members of their families. They are shareholders and rich owners of apartment houses in the best parts of London. Their sole aim in life is accumulation of wealth. Their views on life are based fundamentally on a sense of property.

The most typical representative of the second generation of the Forsytes is James' son, Soames, whom old Jolyon called the man of proper-ty. In his nature, views, habits and aspiration he perfectly incarnated all the features of Forsytism. He is firmly convinced that property alone is the stable basis of life. His human relations and feelings are also subordinated to the sense of property. Having married Irene, Soames experiences the greatest pleasure and satisfaction at the thought that she is his property.

The main idea that runs through the novel is the conflict of the Forsytes with Art and Beauty. Irene personifies Beauty and the young architect, Bosinney who falls in love with her, impersonates Art. The conflict between Bosinney and Soames arose in connection with the building of a house at Robin Hill.

In the second part of “The Forsyte Saga” (“In Chancery”) the action refers to the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century.

In the concluding part of “The Forsyte Saga” (`To Let”) the action takes place after the First World War.

The Forsyte novels are highly valued for the truthful portrayal of the social and personal life. The cycle is considered to be the peak of the author's Critical Realism.

In his later works, “A Modern Comedy” and “The End of the Chapter”, written after the World War I, Galsworthy's criticism becomes less sharp. The old generation of the Forsytes does not seem so bad to the author as compared to the new one. During his progress through six novels and four interludes Soames becomes almost a positive character, in spite of the author's critical attitude towards him at the beginning of the Saga.

Galsworthy's humanitarian concerns also led him to write plays about the social problems of his time. From 1909 he produced in turn plays and novels. His plays deal with burning problems of life. The author describes the hard life of workers (''Strife''), attacks the cruel regime in English prisons (''Justice''), expresses his indignation towards wars (''The Mob''), rejects the colonial policy of Great Britain (“The Forest”), and presents some other aspects of evils and injustice. Galsworthy's plays were very popular. But it is not his dramatic works, but his novels and “The Forsyte Saga” in particular, that made him one of the greatest figures in world literature.