Chapters 11-12 英国文学简史ppt(English Literature)

Charles Dickens (1812-1870)
Works Little Dorrit David Copperfield The Pickwick Papers Nicholas Nickleby The Old Curiosity Shop Oliver Twist Great Expectations
middle class. They exhibit a strong sense of history, and see home and
marriage as sacred. All great Victorian novels follows the moral standard. Social realism remains the Victorian novelists’ predominant
✓ Introduction ✓ Vanity Fair
The Victorian Fiction
Three Phases of the Period First Phase: 1830s to the middle of the century
Life had not become totally impossible. Writers who wrote then such as Dickens were basically
optimistic.
Second Phase or High Victorian Phase: the 1870s
The country had changed from an agriculture to an industrial nation.
This was a period of dichotomy and high complexity. Writers such as George Eliot dealt with it with subtle
He is a social historian.
The archetypal Dickensian hero or heroine is often an orphan or a child whose parents, though still alive, are as well as dead to them.
Charles Dickens
(1812-1870)
Introduction I
Dickens came from a poor background.
In the first period of his writing, Dickens is seen smiling through the pages.
Great Expectations It has been seen by some people to be Dickens’
masterpiece. Major characters: Pip, Magwitch, Havisham, Joe,
Estella
William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863)
In terms of narrative strategies, its basic features include the omniscient third-person point of view, the authorial comments, and the smooth prose of a retrospective soliloquy.
Whereas Dickens often employs the grotesque and the melodramatic and appears sentimental, Thackeray firmly keeps to social realism and takes upon himself to paint the immense panorama of real life.
✓ Three Phases of the Period ✓ Some Salient Features of
Victorian Novels
Charles Dickens
✓ Introduction ✓ Works ✓ Great Expectations
William Makepeace Thackeray
The Victorian Period
Time Range The Victorian period spans well over half a
century (1837-1901).
John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)
Mill was a well-known utilitarian philosopher.
English Literature Chapters 11-12
Key Points in Chapter 11
The Victorian Period
✓ Time Range ✓ Social, Cultural and Political Life
Thomas Carlyle John Stuart Mill
his comic narratives is his adroitness at creating the grotesque effect. The melodramatic is another notable feature of his humorous narratives. Social criticism is a hallmark of all his works.
mode of presentation of life. The main point of view employed in Victorian novels is the
third-person omniscient, the unlimited vision of which helps to paint the broad canvas of life.
Hard Times A Tale of Two Cities Bleak House Dombey and Son Our Mutual Friend Martin Chuzzlewit Edwin Drood A Christmas Carol
Charles Dickens (1812-1870)
The latter phase of his career sees him painting a social picture disconcertingly dismal and agonizing.
London is the locale for many of Dickens’ works.
Introduction
He was one of the two outstanding early Victorian novelists, second only as he was to Dickens.
He wrote mainly about the upper and upper middle society. He has been valued as a great social realist, moralist, and satirist.
Wi1-1863)
Vanity Fair
Major characters: Rebecca (Becky) Sharp, Amelia Sedley
Vanity Fair censures the philistine hypocrisy and sham of the Victorian society, its snobbishness and vanity, and its ruthless social climbing.
dexterity.
Third Phase: from the late 1880s onward
Dramatic changes had occurred. The age of naturalism had arrived
The Victorian Fiction
Some Salient Features of Victorian Novels They all try to teach as well as to entertain. They are essentially urban, reflecting the values of the
He has been seen as a champion of women’s liberation and explains his position in his famous essay: On Women.
Key Points in Chapter 12
The Victorian Fiction
Charles Dickens
(1812-1870)
Introduction II His protagonists come close in type to the modern
existentialist hero except for their happy ending. Spontaneity was his trade mark. Dickens’ genius is basically comic. One notable feature of
His revision of utilitarianism is mainly recorded in one of his most significant works, Utilitarianism.
His emphasis on individual freedom constituted an important part of 19th-century English liberalism.