Name of candidate – Deepa Rani

Father - Mr. Sompal

Professor - Dr. Alka Bansal
Course - Twentieth Century British Fiction and Drama
Class - M.A IIIrd Sem. P.G. XI

Bennett is excellent of the “popular” novelists who are scorned by critics,

but who win much larger audiences than do novelists whom the critics highly

recommend. He was earning a scant living as clerk in a lawyer’s office when a

newspaper offered 20 for the best condensation of a novel that many were then

reading. Carelessly he tried for the prize, and won it and was off to a running

start on a literary career. He accepted frankly the fact that multitudes who read

fiction “ Just to pass the time” regard novelty as the chief literary virtue, and for

them he produced an incredible amount of what he called “ frolics, fantasies and

diversions”. Setting himself a stint of a thousand words a day, he wrote books to

make money, as another man manufactures a patent medicine, and succeedes so

well that at the height of his fame he was paid at the rate of two shillings for

every word. The resultant old wives tale (1908) portiraying the contrasting

destinies of two sisters, one of whom eloped and the other stayed at home, won

an instant and well-deserved success. His next work, Clayhanger (1910) was an

even better portrayal of five towns characters; but Hilda lessways was inferior,

and the light that Bennett had seen went out like a candle flame in these twain.

In a scoure more novels he produced nothing but trash mingled with

sensationalism. To read his truth about an Author (1903). To his read

clayhanger is to conclude, sadly, might have been a great novelist.

Admirers of Teodor Jozef konrad korzenioweski, who adapted the

simpler name on becoming a British citizen, are of the kind called “few but

select” many of whom regard him as the most artistic of modern novelists.

Uncritical readers as puzzled by such high praise until they learn that, more than

any other story – teller’s , his work is largly a reflection of his own personality.

He belongs to the twentieth century. He holds a significant place in the history

of English literature. One quality of conrad’s work has been strangely

misunderstood by those who place him-among the realists of modern fiction. Of

it he said, as recorded by James Maddox Ford in Return to Yesterday 19032, “

My task is, by the power of the written word, to make you hear, to make you

feel above all to make you see”. So he became a master of impressionism,

which is poles apart from realism. To compare his descriptions of the sea with

those of cooper, who also was a sailarman, is to note the interesting difference.

Conrad, in The Nigger of the Narcissus, looks- within to portray of effect of the

lonely sea on his characters Cooper, In The Red Rover, looks out with the ever

youthful eyes of a sailor to portray the sea itself.

His major works is represented by the novels: Lord Jim (1900)

Nostromo, the Secret Agent (1907) and Under western Eyes (1911) and Heart of

Darkness(1902); Typhoon (1903) and The Shadow line (1917) Conrad’s earlier

novels, Almayer’s Folly And an Outcast of the Islands (1896). His later work
includes chance(1914), the first to bring him a big public; the rescue (1920). His

other works are a number of volumes of the short Stories and essays, including

tales of unrest and notes on life and lettes.

The Mirror of the sea and A personal Record are autobiographical.

Conrad co operated with Ford Madox Ford in the writing of two novels; The

first three valumes of his collected letters were published in 1983, 1986 and

1988.

George Bernard Shaw was a man of many qualities. He was not only a

drama tist but also a pamphleteer, critic, political thinker, orator and

philosopher, and an inspired Jester. During his active literary life of about 70

years he took part in the work of the Fabian Society, reviewed books, wrote

controversial pamphlets, served as art critic, popularised Ibsen, won the Nobel

prize for literature, went on a round the warld tour, collected a huge amount of

wealth, and was the most talked of person of his age. Show was himself a

paradox. Show also wrote as a critic of art literature, music and drama for

several magazines. He wrote for the world on the role of music in everyday life.

In 1898 he criticised Shakespeare in Saturday Review. Dramatic opinions and

Essays, published in 1907, won him great game as a dramatic critic. He has an

impressive list of plays. Starting from Widowers’ Houses (1892), we have a

long succession- The philanderer, Mrs. Warren’s profession, Arms and The

Man, Candida, The Man of Destiny, You Never Can Tell, the Devil’s Disciple,

Casar and Cleopatra, Captain Brassbound’s Conversion, Man and Superman,

Major Barbara, The Doctors’s Dilemma, Pygmalion, Back to Methuselah, Saint

Joan, The Apple Cart, In good King Charles’ Golden Days, Buoyant Billios and

several others. For his great contribution to literature, in 1925 he was awarded

the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Mulk Raj Anand in one of the three great Indian novelists writing novels

in English, the other two bing Raja Rao and R.K.Narayan. He has to his credit

more than a dozen novels, about for score shart stories, and a number of essays

and articless on a number of subjects. Anand Joined Khalsa College in Amritsar

in 1912. He participated in the freedom movement and suffered brief

imprisonment. He wrote poetry in Urdu. Thus Anand went to Landon in 1925,

on a scholarship to obtain a Doctorate degree. Anand wrote his first novel

Untouchable in 1935. Anand was a prolific novelist. He was fully active upto

his last breath. He had produced fifteen novels After Untouchaple (1935), there

came coolie in 1936. In 1937, his two leaves and a Bud was published. Then

lament on the death of a master of arts was published in 1938, the village came

in 1939 and Across the Black waters in 1940. The sword and the Sickle 1942.

The Death of a Hero in 1963. His short stories deals with the theme of hunger,

poverty, human degradation and social injustice to which the underdogs of

society are subject.