English Literature 10

Literary context


From Classic to Romantic Romantic Within the confines of XVIII century society we witness not only the culmination of a neoneoclassical literature, which had its roots in postpostRestoration England, but also the challenges of a new Romanticism.

The reading public



The reading public was changing quite rapidly spreading. and the taste for reading was spreading. Female readers became numerous and in addition to the fine ladies who had much leisure time on their hands, another market was made up of the huge number of household servants who had access to their mastersbooks.

Circulating Libraries


 

It should be noted tht novels were far too expensive for the average lower-class worker. The price of a book would be lowermore than the weekly wage* of a labourer. Although the establishment of circulating libraries* helped to relieve the situation. *Wage: salario *Circulating libraries in the 18th and 19th century were associated with leisure, and were found in cities and towns with a population of 2,000 and upward. They were as much of an attraction in wealthy resorts*, where people came to relax and look after their health, as in cities and small towns. Circulating libraries made books accessible to many more people at an affordable price. *resort: luogo di vacanza

The coffee houses



During the 18th century a new active culture evolved. Coffee Houses sprang up all over London and attracted a variety of patrons. The crowd at coffee houses included doctors, merchants, writers, and politicians. Besides* taverns, coffee houses were the first place for people to meet and talk about different issues. Runners were sent from coffee house to coffee house in order to relay information on major events of the day. *besides: in aggiunta a

Poetry and drama



In contrast to prose, both poetry and drama take a secondary role in XVIII century literature. The literature. Augustan poet was a social being whose private feelings were considered inappropriate material for public confession and the conflict between the intellect and the emotions was drawing to a climax. climax. As for drama, this was a particularly barren* period: not a single tragedy of any worth was written during this time. As regards comedy, the tone was frequently comedy, moralizing and there were often strong elements of didactics.

Prose


Essays, journalism and above all the novel were the most important aspects of literary production in an age dominated by prose. The abolition of the Licensing Act* in 1694 marked the end of cencorship and heralded a new perios of freedom for the modern press.
*The Licensing Act (1643) introduced: pre-publication licensing; preregistration of all printing materials with the names of author, printer and publisher in the Register at Stationers Hall; search, seizure (cattura) and destruction of any books offensive to the government; arrest and imprisonment of any offensive writers, printers and publishers.

Newspapers and periodicals



Many accomplished writers of the age (Defoe, Swift and Johnson for example) were encouraged to write articles or essays for the growing number of newspapers and periodicals. Journalism became a new trade and depending on the periodical concerned, the subject dealt with current affairs, politics, literature, fashion, gossip, entertainment and contemporary manners, fads* and morals. It was aprose frequentely characterized by refind simplicity and convesational tone, so as to reach the largest number of readers as possible. *fad: tendenza.

The eighteenth century novel can be defined as a prose narrative of considerable lenght dealinh more or less imaginatively and in varying degrees of complexity with a world of actual human experience. experience. The novel took individual experience as its most important criterion and the plots that had forrmed the backbone of English literature for many centuries (history, legend, mythology, etc) were largely abandoned by the new novelists.

Time and realism



The rejection of classical literary conventions meant that instead of the general human types, characters usually differ greatly one form one other. The fact that characters were often given contemporary names and surnames was something new and served to reinforce the impression of realism. In contrast to earlier fictional works where notions of specific time were usually considered irrelevant, the XVIII century novel reveals a much greater concern with the exactness of time. Thre is a sense of temporal sequencing which encourages us to believe there is some kind of causal relation between events.

Physical background or setting



Where the action occurred became a question of great importance and was the logical complement to the question of time. In previous fiction (for example in Sidney or Bunyan) the idea of place had usually been vague and fragmentary. In the new novel specific references to names of streets or towns, together with detailed descriptions of objects helped the creation of a solid idea of setting.

Denotative language


There was a general movement away from rthetorical and figurative language towards a more descriptive and denotative form of language. In its desire to present things with an air of complete authenticity prose gained in realism even if it lacked much of the elegance that had characterised it in former times.

Daniel Defoe


Defoe was born in London in 1660. His father was a prosperous but dissenting and nonnonconformist tradesman and this meant that he could not send his son to Oxford or Cambridge. Instead, Daniel had a sound education at the hughly reputable Presbyterian Academy of Newington Green, where the BIble and Bunyan featured prominently. He left the Academy with a practicalpracticalminded temperament and was fluent in five languages (which did not include Latin and Greek).

He followed a career in trade in the early 1680s. On becoming a merchant he travelled widely both at home and abroad. Following a series of rash speculations he went bankrupt in 1692 and spent much of his time hiding from his creditors. In order to pay back his considerable debts, Defoe turned to writing. He also carried out intelligence work as a spy and government agent adapting himself to the views of whichever party was in power. In 1719 Defoe turned from journalism (he had edited the periodical The Review from 1704-1713), to a new form of 1704extebded prose fiction and he produced his most famous work, Robinson Crusoe (1719). He died alone and in misery in 1731.

Works


Defoes claim to literary fame rests largely on his novels and by many critics he is considered to be the father of the English novel. Although the novel was thought as lying and something untrue, he insisted that what he wrote was a history of fact and that in each of his works there was a moral or didactic purpose which may serve as an example to others.

 -

His most important novels are: Robinson Crusoe (1719) Captain Singleton (1720) Moll Flanders (1722) Colonel Jack (1722) Lady Roxana (1724) Many of his pamphlets have become legendary, including The Shortest Way With the Dissenters (1702) Himself a Dissenter he mimicked the bloodthirsty rhetoric of High Anglican Tories and pretended to argue for the extermination of all Dissenters. Nobody was amused, Defoe was Dissenters. arrested in May 1703

He also wrote some higly successful satirical verse, including The True Born Englishman (1701), an attack on xenophobia and intolerance of immigrants.

Robinson Crusoe
 

Plot overview R obinson Crusoe is an Englishman from the town of York in the seventeenth century, the youngest son of a merchant of German origin. Encouraged by his father to study law, Crusoe expresses his wish to go to sea instead. His family is against Crusoe going out to sea, and his father explains that it is better to seek a modest, secure life for oneself. Initially, Robinson is committed to obeying his father, but he eventually succumbs to temptation and embarks on a ship bound for London with a friend. When a storm causes the near deaths of Crusoe and his friend, the friend is dissuaded from sea travel, but Crusoe still goes on to set himself up as merchant on a ship leaving London. The following trips are not so successful.

In Brazil, Crusoe establishes himself as a plantation owner and soon becomes successful. Eager for slave labor and its economic advantages, he embarks on a slave-gathering slaveexpedition to West Africa but ends up shipwrecked off of the coast of Trinidad. Crusoe soon learns he is the sole survivor of the expedition and seeks shelter and food for himself. He returns to the wrecks remains twelve times to salvage guns, powder, food, and other items. He erects a cross that he inscribes with the date of his arrival, September 1, 1659, and 1659, makes a notch every day in order never to lose track of time. In June 1660, he falls ill and hallucinates that an angel visits, 1660, warning him to repent. After recovering, Crusoe makes a survey of the area and discovers he is on an island and he begins to feel more optimistic about being on the island, describing himself as its king.

One day Crusoe is shocked to discover a mans footprint on the beach. He first assumes the footprint is the devils, then decides it must belong to one of the cannibals said to live in the region. Later Crusoe catches sight of thirty cannibals heading for shore with their victims. One of the victims is killed. Another one, waiting to be slaughtered, suddenly breaks free and runs toward Crusoes dwelling. Crusoe protects him, killing one of the pursuers and injuring the other. Crusoe defeats most of the cannibals onshore. The victim vows total submission to Crusoe in gratitude for his liberation. Crusoe names him Friday, to commemorate the day on which his life was saved, and takes him as his servant. The two men share lots of adventures against cannibals and On December 19, 1686, Crusoe boards the ship to return to 19, 1686, England

Themes
1)The Ambivalence of Mastery  Crusoes success in mastering his situation, overcoming his obstacles, and controlling his environment shows the condition of mastery in a positive light, at least at the beginning of the novel. Moreover, Crusoes mastery over nature makes him a master of his fate and of himself. But this theme of mastery becomes more himself. complex and less positive after Fridays arrival, when the idea of arrival, mastery comes to apply more to unfair relationships between humans. In Chapter XXIII, Crusoe teaches Friday the word [m]aster even before teaching him yes and no, and indeed he lets him know that was to be [Crusoes] name. Crusoe never entertains the idea of considering Friday a friend or equal.  In this way Defoe explores the link between the two in his depiction of the colonial mind.

2) The Necessity of Repentance  Crusoes experiences constitute not simply an adventure story in which thrilling things happen, but also a moral tale illustrating the right and wrong ways to live ones life. Crusoe believes that his major sin is his rebellious behavior toward his father, which he refers to as his original sin, akin to Adam and Eves first disobedience of God. This biblical reference also suggests that Crusoes exile from civilization represents Adam and Eves expulsion from Eden.  For Crusoe, repentance consists of acknowledging his wretchedness and his absolute dependence on the Lord. After repentance, he complains much less about his sad fate and views the island more positively

 

3) The Importance of Self-Awareness SelfThe idea that the individual must keep a careful reckoning* of the state of his own soul is a key point in the Presbyterian doctrine that Defoe took seriously all his life. Crusoes arrival on the island does not make him revert to a brute existence controlled by animal instincts, and, unlike animals, he remains conscious of himself at all times

*reckoning: computo

Lady Roxana
Roxana or The Fortunate Mistress was published in 1724. It is supposed to be a biography of one Madamoselle Beleau, the lovely daughter of French Protestant refugees, brought up in England and married to a good-for-nothing son of an English good-forbrewer*

*brewer: birraio

Plot overview


Roxana's husband squanders his property and abandons his wife and five children. She enters upon a career of a mistress, first to the landlord in whose house she and her husband were renting, and then to a series of wealthy aristocrats and businessmen in three countries, England, France and Holland. She acquires her name of "Roxana," traditionally given to stage actresses, after she had returned to London from Europe, and become a famous courtesan. She is accompanied in her adventures by a faithful maid, Amy, a very lively, attractive and intelligent woman. After many adventures with many men and women, most of whom amazingly, are good decent people who do not take advantage of a beautiful abandoned woman in distress (hence the title of the story"The story Fortunate Mistress"), she finally marries a Dutch merchant who has been her long time lover and friend and even the father to one of her sons. However, in a rather a hurried end to the story, the husband discovers the immoral life his wife has led and dies shortly after leaving a her a small sum of money.

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) (1667

Born of English parents in Dublin, Swift was educated in Ireland before moving to England in 1689. here he was to enjoy the patronage of Sir William Temple, a Whig politician and enlightened patron of the arts, for ten years. In 1710 he turned to the Tories, he collaborated with the Tory periodical The Examiner, and fiercely criticized many Whigh ministers. However, after the death of Qeen Anne in 1714 the Tory ministry fell and left many of its leaders in disgrace. He spent much of the remaining time in Ireland writing works of a satirical nature.

The often caustic strain to be found in these works has earned Swift an undortunate and undeserved reputation as a misanthrope. In 1730s his health deteriorated considerably and he died in 1745 declared insane and succumbing to complete madness.

Works
He was a great pamphleteer and one of the most astute commentators of the XVIII century. His prose is characterized by precision and clarity and by, as the critic Robert Adams wrote, the nervous energy of his sentences.

Apart from some attempts with verse he became very famous for his prose satire: The Battle of the Books A Tale of the Tub*, a satire against the numerous corruptions in religion Tub*, and learning. The Drapier* Letters, a well disguised and successful attack on some of the Letters, English governments negative policies toward Ireland and these letters earned Swift the love of the Irish nation Gullivers Travels (1726) A Modest Proposal (1729), one of the most enjoyable satires of all time in (1729), which Swift pretends to be a cool and political economist who shows with scientific precision how to solve the problem of poverty inIreland: Irish babies should be raised as food to placed in the tables of the rich in England.

*tub: vasca/bagnarola *drapier: fabbricatore di tende

Samuel Richardson (1689-1761) (1689

Samuel Richardson was born into relative poverty as one of nine children in the midland country of Derbyshire (a county in the East Midlands) in England. The Richardson family moved to East London in 1700, and around this time, Samuel received a brief grammar-school education. Richardsons personal life was not without considerable emotional hardship. He married his masters daughter, Martha Wilde but she died ten years later having given birth to siv children, none of whom was to reach adulthood. Richardson second wife, Elizabeth Leake, also gave birth to six children of these only four daughters managed to survive their father who died in 1761.

 

By the age of 13, Richardson already displayed a gift fo story telling and letter writing. His printing career was more uniformly successful than were his efforts of begetting* offspring. The model of the industrious Puritan bourgeois businessman (rising at five in the morning and turning in at eleven at night), he rose to become official printer for the House of Commons and printer of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (essentially Englands Academy of Sciences). As a printer, Richardson naturally had extensive contact with the book-selling world. His bookdemonstrated familiarity with the literary marketplace caused many booksellers to consult him on the literary quality of their works. He was also a prolific writer of letters, and his reputation as such led two booksellers to approach him in 1739, asking him to produce a volume of model letters. Called a letter-writer, the genre comprised exemplary letters that, letterin their form, provided the semiliterate with adaptable epistolary templates* and, in their content, offered practical, social, or moral advice about common predicaments. In Letters Written to and for Particular Friends, on the Most Important Occasions (1741), Richardson addressed a number of fictional situations, including that of attractive servant-girls subject to servantplots against their virtue. Basing himself upon the real case of a serving maid whose virtue had been unsuccessfully attacked by an unscupulous man, he started writing Pamela, his first epistolary novel, at the Pamela, age of 50. It was a great success. *to beget: procreare, generare *templates: modelli

 

Works


Together wit that of Defoe, Richardsons name i most commonly mentioned when referring to the paterfamilias of the eighteenth-century novel. eighteenthBoth authors played an important role in the creation and the development of the novel. Richardson wrote three important novels which won considerable success ansd were later imitated all over Europe.: Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded (1740-41) (1740Clarissa Harlowe (1747-48) (1747Sir Charles Grandison (1753-54) (1753-

A moralizing tendency?
 

Set in a domestic middle-class environment, all three novels proved middleimmensely popular with the reading public and especially among women. There is a heavy moralizing tendency within the novels, reflecting the authors concern about religion and virtue. Indeed, in his preface to Clarissa, Richardsnon remarks as follows:

What will be found to be more particularly aimed at in the following work is: - to caution parents against undue exercise of their natural authority over their children in the great article of marriage - to warn children against preferring a man of pleasure to a man of probity, - to investigate the highest and most importat doctrines not onlt of morality but of Christianity, by showing them thrown into action in the conduct of the worthy characters, while the unworthy, who set those doctrines at defiance* are consequentially, punished. *defiance: sfida

Individual development


If in his didactic concerns of plot and psychological characterization he represents a step forward. Indeed, in Richardson there is a strong element of psychological analysis which had been lacking in most other prose fiction. We are taken inside the minds of Richardsons characters and we are invited to share their innermost thoughts and feelings. There is a great sense of individual development within the confines of the story: characters are far from static and the reader is almost a privileged witness of their sharply* detailed evolution. *sharply: fortemente, nettamente, duramente, severamente.

To believe in fiction as something true



The three novel were written in the form of letetrs exchanged between the main characters. This epistolary technique was largely a reflection of the fashion for letter writing of the period. Just as Defoe had avoided the dilemma of fiction as something immoral by insisting on its authenticity, so Richardsons technique allows a mainly middle-class Puritan public to middlebelieve that a series of letters had been chanced upon*, collected and edited by a scrupulous author.

*to chance upon: imbattersi in

The epistolary form allows differing inddividual viewpoints of the same events to be fully explored within the text without any loss of authenticity (and in this sense Rich. Anticipated the workings* of the moderd psychological novel with its multiple viewpoints). Another aspect of this form is its immediacy, as Richardson remarks in his preface to Clarissa: Clarissa: all the letters are written while the hearts of the writers must be supposed to be wholly engaged in their subjectsso they aboubd not only with critical situations, nut with what may be called instantaneous descriptions and reflections The less positive aspect of this technique is that the reader feels bound* to ask himself if it was possible for someone to write so many letters often of such gret lenght and detail, and under psychologically demanding circumstances.

 

*workings: ingranaggi *bound: costretto

Pamela 1739/1740


Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded* is an epistolary novel centering on the relationship between a beautiful servant girl and her aristocratic master. An epistolary novel is one in which a character (or characters) tells the story through letters (epistles) sent to a friend, relative, etc., and/or through journal entries. *reward: ricompensare

Plot summary


Fifteen-yearFifteen-year-old Pamela Andrews is a servant at an estate* in the county of Bedfordshire, England. She keeps a journal and frequently writes home to her impoverished parents, John and Elizabeth Andrews. In her latest letter, she reports news of the death of her elderly employer, Lady B., but says her son, Squire* B., plans to retain her and the rest of the staff. She encloses in the letter four guineas the young man gave her as a gesture of good faith. All he asks is that she remain a good and diligent employee. Before she has a chance to seal and send the letter, which she wrote in the deceased womans dressing room, the squire enters and reads it. Pamela is embarrassed. However, he compliments her on her generosity toward her parents. Sometime later, she receives a letter from her parents thanking her for the money but warning her never to compromise her virtue for material gain. When the the squires sister, Lady Davers, comes to Bedforshire to visit her brother, she tells him it is improper for so pretty a girl as Pamela to be living under the roof of a bachelor. Instead, Lady Davers says, Pamela should live with her. The squire agrees to the arrangement. However, the squire delays relocating Pamela. Pamela tells her in another letter that the squire has given her more garments and exquisite shoes. After Mrs. Andrews writes back to remind her daughter to keep on her guard, Pamela replies that the squire has decided to keep her at Bedfordshire, for he fears that the nephew of Lady Davers might make advances toward her.

 

*estate: tenuta *squire: signorotto

One day in the summer house of his estate, he puts his arm around her without warning and kisses her. When she protests strongly, he becomes very angry but then offers her gold to keep the incident a secret. She refuses the money and later writes to her parents about the incident. The housekeeper sympathizes with her but says the squire probably wont bother her again. Sometime later, the squire angrily scolds Pamela after he learns that she has informed her parents and Mrs. Jervis of his behavior. Now, he says, his reputation is compromised. When Pamela breaks away and runs to another room, he rips off a piece of her dress. However, she closes and locks the door before he can continue his pursuit. Then she faints

Later, in front of Pamela and Mrs. Jervis, the squire attempts to downplay the incident, claiming that Pamela exaggerated the details. When he asks Mrs. Jervis for her opinion, she sympathizes with Pamela but is afraid to accuse her master of wrongdoing. At this point, Pamela has made up her mind to leave Bedfordshire and return home. However, she decides to remain at Bedfordshire to complete a waistcoat* she has been fashioning for the squire. One day the squire proposes to give Pamelas parents fifty guineas a year if she pledges to marry the Rev. Arthur Williams, the squires chaplain at Lincolnshire. (The proposal is, of course, a ploy to keep her within reach.) When Pamela refuses the offer, he decrees that she may return home the next morning and will order a carriage to await her. However, after the carriage driver takes her five miles on the road toward her home, he turns off and takes her to the squires Lincolnshire estate instead. At this point in the story, the reader learns that John, the footman charged with delivering Pamela's letters, has first diverted all of them to the attention of the squire. The latter has read each of them and has held back recent ones *waiscoat: gilet/panciotto

At Lincolnshire, Pamela is a virtual prisoner under the watchful eye of the housekeeper, Mrs. Jewkes. Not long after Pamelas arrival, she meets the Rev. Williams. He is sensible and sober, and he sympathizes with the deeply distressed Pamela. However, there is little he can do to liberate her, for he depends on the squire for his livelihood. .......Mrs. Jewkes follows Pamela everywhere, even when she goes for walks on the grounds alone or with Williams. However, Pamela and the minister communicate in secret via messages left between rocks in the flower garden. Moreover, because Squire B. seems to have eyes and ears everywhere he learns of Pamela's desire to escape with the assistance of Williams. Oddly, though, in spite of the squires treatment of her, she cannot bring herself to hate him. When she learns that he almost drowned while crossing a creek during a hunting expedition, she writes in a letter to her parents, "When I heard his danger, which was very great, I could not in my heart forbear rejoicing for his safety; though his death would have ended my afflictions . . . O what an angel would he be in my eyes yet, if he would cease his attempts, and reform!"

.......Finally, the squire gives up and grants her wish to her return to her parents. On her way home the travelers stop at an inn. There, Pamela sits down to eat just as a messenger from the squire delivers a letter to her. In it, the squire says he has read part of a journal she left behind and was touched to learn that she was concerned for his safety when he almost drowned. Furthermore, he says, he now knows how poorly Mrs. Jewkes treated her. He also admits that he himself treated her badly. Then he declares that he truly loves her and begs her to return to Lincolnshire. However, he says, he will understand if she wishes to continue on to her home. Pamela also learns that the squire is ill. Sometime later, Pamela and the squire marry in a private ceremony in a chapel at the Lincolnshire estate

themes
 

LOVE The novel is of course a love story, and Pamela is the fulcrum on which the story turns. One day, the story centers on familial love, which Pamela exchanges with her parents; the next day, on false love, or lust, which the squire attempts to inflict on Pamela; another day, on brotherly love, which Pamela exchanges with Mrs. Jervis

 

Preservation of virtue In the face of the squire's attempts to seduce her, Pamela never once gives in to him, Although she discovers after a time that she loves him, she refuses to bed with him outside of marriage.

 

Class and Gender Distinctions In protecting herself from the clutches of her male employer, Pamela is at a considerable disadvantage. The European culture of the 1700s gave every advantage to males, especially upper-class males. upperPamela, of course, is a lower-class female servant. A lowerpretty servant girl was easy prey for a wealthy master who took a fancy to her, for he could use his money and power to entice her or sexually harass her. After the squire begins treating Pamela as a young woman instead of a sexual object, he declares his love for her.