If you’re caught on the hoof,
Whilst doing The Fringe,
Why not come into our Tea Room,
Embark on a binge
We’ve Shortbread and Haggis
And Clootie Dumpling too,
If you're not sure what they are,
You should try a fair few.
The name of Sir Walter Scott is commemorated by his relief profile on the north wall of the Writers` Museum in Edinburgh. More than that, the quotation from his "The Lay of the Last Minstrel” is inscribed in stone and set in the paving which leads to the door of the Writers` Museum:
Breathes there the man, with soul so dead,
Who never to himself hath said,
This is my own, my native land!
The Museum has a unique collection of relics and manuscripts relating to Walter Scott: the rocking horse he used as a boy, his dining table from 39, Castle Street, the printing press on which Scott's Waverley Novels were printed and his chess set.
In Glasgow the tourists can enjoy the monument to Sir Walter Scott in the middle of the city square where there are many other monuments to great men of Scotland.
Ivanhoe is a historical fiction novel by Sir Walter Scott written in 1819, and set in 12th-century England. Ivanhoe is the story of one of the remaining Saxon noble families at a time when the English nobility was overwhelmingly Norman. It follows the Saxon protagonist, Wilfred of Ivanhoe, who is out of favour with his father for his allegiance to the Norman king, Richard I of England. The story is set in 1194, after the failure of the Third Crusade, when many of the Crusaders were still returning to Europe. King Richard, who had been captured by the Duke of Saxony on his way back, was believed to still be in the arms of his captors. The legendary Robin Hood, initially under the name of Locksley, is also a character in the story, as are his "merry men." The character that Scott gave to Robin Hood in Ivanhoe helped shape the modern notion of this figure as a cheery noble outlaw.
Other major characters include Ivanhoe's intractable Saxon father, Cedric, a descendant of the Saxon King Harold Godwinson; various Knights Templar and churchmen; the loyal serfs Gurth the swineherd and the jester Wamba, whose observations punctuate much of the action; and the Jewish moneylender, Isaac of York, who is equally passionate about money and his daughter, Rebecca. The book was written and published during a period of increasing struggle for emancipation of the Jews in England, and there are frequent references to injustice against them.
Rob Roy -The story takes place just before the 1715 Jacobite Rising, with much of Scotland in turmoil.
Frank Osbaldistone, the narrator, quarrels with his father and is sent to stay with an uncle, Sir Hildebrand Osbaldistone, in Northumberland. Frank falls in love with Diana Vernon, Sir Hildebrand's niece, whose father has been forced to go into hiding because of his Jacobite sympathies. Frank's cousin, Rashleigh, steals important documents vital to the honour and economic solvency of Frank's father, William, and Frank pursues Rashleigh to Scotland. Several times his path crosses the mysterious and powerful figure Robert Roy MacGregor, known as Rob Roy, an associate of Diana's uncle Sir Hildebrand. There is much confusion as the action shifts to the beautiful mountains and valleys around Loch Lomond. A British army detachment is ambushed and there is bloodshed. All Sir Hildebrand's sons but Rashleigh are killed in the Jacobite Rising, and Rashleigh too meets a bloody end. Following this, Frank inherits Sir Hildebrand's property and marries Diana. The plot has been criticised as disjointed.[citation needed] Robert Louis Stevenson, however, who loved it from childhood, regarded Rob Roy as the best novel of the greatest of all novelists.[1]
The novel is a brutally realistic depiction of the social conditions in Highland and Lowland Scotland in the early 18th century. The Highlanders were compared with American Indians, as regards to their primitive, isolated lifestyle.[citation needed] Some of the dialogue is in broad Scottish, and the novel includes a glossary of Scottish words.
Romanticism. The poetry of P. B.Shelley, J. Keats.
Percy Bysshe Shelley ( /ˈpɜrsi ˈbɪʃ ˈʃɛli/;[2] 4 August 1792 – 8 July 1822) was one of the major English Romantic poets and is critically regarded as among the finest lyric poets in the English language. Shelley was famous for his association with John Keats and Lord Byron. The novelist Mary Shelley (née Godwin) was his second wife.
He is most famous for such classic anthology verse works as Ozymandias, Ode to the West Wind, To a Skylark, Music, When Soft Voices Die, The Cloud and The Masque of Anarchy, which are among the most popular and critically acclaimed poems in the English language. His major works, however, are long visionary poems which included Queen Mab (later reworked as The Daemon of the World),Alastor, The Revolt of Islam, Adonaïs and the unfinished work The Triumph of Life. The Cenci (1819) and Prometheus Unbound (1820) were dramatic plays in five and four acts respectively. Although he has typically been figured as a "reluctant dramatist", he was passionate about the theatre, and his plays continue to be performed today. He wrote the Gothic novels Zastrozzi (1810) and St. Irvyne (1811) and the short prose works "The Assassins" (1814), "The Coliseum" (1817) and "Una Favola" (1819).
John Keats ( /ˈkiːts/; 31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English Romantic poet. Along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, he was one of the key figures in the second generation of the Romantic movement, despite the fact that his work had been in publication for only four years before his death.[1] One of England’s greatest poets, Keats was a key element in the Romantic Movement. Known especially for his love of the country and sensuous descriptions of the beauty of nature, his poetry also resonated with deep philosophic questions. "Ode to a Nightingale" "Ode on a Grecian Urn" and "Ode on Melancholy"
Realism as a literary trend. Ch. Dickens and the peculiarities of Dickens’ realism. The analysis of one of the novels. (“The Posthumous Papers o the Pickwick Club”, “Oliver Twist”)
Realism - in literature, an approach that attempts to describe life without idealization or romantic subjectivity. Although realism is not limited to any one century or group of writers, it is most often associated with the literary movement in 19th-century France, specifically with the French novelists Flaubert and Balzac. George Eliot introduced realism into England, and William Dean Howells introduced it into the United States. Realism has been chiefly concerned with the commonplaces of everyday life among the middle and lower classes, where character is a product of social factors and environment is the integral element in the dramatic complications (see naturalism). In the drama, realism is most closely associated with Ibsen's social plays. Later writers felt that realism laid too much emphasis on external reality. Many, notably Henry James, turned to a psychological realism that closely examined the complex workings of the mind (see stream of consciousness). Charles John Huffam Dickens ( /ˈtʃɑːlz ˈdɪkɪnz/; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic novels and characters.[1] Dickens loved the style of the 18th century picturesque or Gothic romance novels,[citation needed] although it had already become a target for parody.[44] One "character" vividly drawn throughout his novels is London itself. From the coaching inns on the outskirts of the city to the lower reaches of the Thames, all aspects of the capital are described over the course of his body of work.
His writing style is florid and poetic, with a strong comic touch. His satires of British aristocratic snobbery—he calls one character the "Noble Refrigerator"—are often popular. Comparing orphans to stocks and shares, people to tug boats, or dinner-party guests to furniture are just some of Dickens's acclaimed flights of fancy. Many of his characters' names provide the reader with a hint as to the roles played in advancing the storyline, such as Mr. Murdstone in the novel David Copperfield, which is clearly a combination of "murder" and stony coldness. His literary style is also a mixture of fantasy and realism.
L. Carroll and the peculiarities of his book “Alice in Wonderland”
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson was born on Jan. 27, 1832. His early years were happy with his nine sisters and two brothers to whom he frequently made up games and wrote stories. His school years at Rugby (1846-1849) were not so happy because he was shy and often sick. But he was still recognized as a good scholar, and in 1850 he was admitted to Christ Church College in Oxford. He graduated in 1854, and was appointed a mathematical lecturer at the college the following year. This appointment was permanent and recognized his academic superiority which also brought him financial security. The appointment meant that Dodgson had to take orders from the Anglican Church and not get married. In 1861 he was ordained a deacon.Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is written by the English author and mathematician Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who used a pseudonym Lewis Carroll. The book is commonly referred to by the abbreviated title Alice in Wonderland. It has become one of the most famous children's books of all time, one that appeals to children as well as adults. The story tells what happens to a girl named Alice who falls down a rabbit-hole into a fantasy world which is populated by peculiar imaginary creatures and objects that come alive and have a personality, like talking playing cards.Alice in Wonderland does not contain obvious moralizing tales like so many children's books nowadays do. It is a delightful adventure story in which a normal, healthy, little girl reacts to the reality of the adult world.
The general characteristics of W. M. Thackeray’s literary work. The theme of snobbery. The novel “Vanity Fair” (the meaning of the title and subtitle, the main theme, the peculiar features of narration.).
Thackeray, William Makepeace
Born July 18, 1811, in Calcutta; died Dec. 24,1863, in London. English author.Thackeray is the major representative of what K. Marx called the “brilliant pleiad” of 19th-century English novelists (K. Marx and F. Engels, Soch., 2nd ed., vol. 10, p. 648). The son of a wealthy colonial official, Thackeray studied at Cambridge University from 1829 to 1830. He traveled extensively and worked as a journalist for Punch and other publications. He was also a talented cartoonist.Thackeray’s work, while varied in genre (including novels, comic novellas, humoresques, fairy tales, parodies, sketches, and ballads), has a consistent ideology and artistic method. His best works include The Yellowplush Correspondence (1837), the novella Catherine (1840), the cycle of parodies The Snobs of England (1846-47; republished in 1848 as The Book of Snobs;Russian title, Novels of Celebrities), and the novels Vanity Fair (1848), Pendennis (1850), The History of Henry Esmond, Esq. (1852), The Newcomes (1855), and The Virginians (1857). Thackeray’s essays in literary criticism (The English Humorists of the 18th Century, 1853) and his letters are remarkable examples of English prose.Thackeray’s work is critical of the Victorian bourgeois era, combining an understanding of sociohistorical patterns with a vision of life as an unending masquerade. He saw history as a cycle, full of the tragicomic and grotesque (see the letter to his mother of Mar. 10, 1848). His philosophical views were close to those of Montaigne and Hume.Thackeray created a new type of satirical novel. While drawing on European literary traditions (as represented by Aristophanes, Petronius, Rabelais, Cervantes, Swift, Fielding, Sterne, and W. Scott), he used special techniques that played with literary conventions yet established a realistic framework. He also used the entire range of devices from folk literature, including motifs from mythology, fairy tales, fables, and the English Christmas pantomimes. In this way, he expanded the possibilities of social satire and deepened the realism of representation. Thackeray’s broadly satirized characters (Yellowplush, Barry Lyndon, Becky Sharp, Lord Steyne, and Barnes Newcome) reveal the depth of man’s alienation in a class-structured society. They are at once socially conditioned and eternal types. In depicting his characters, Thackeray used symbolism, ironic implication, alogism, and parodie stylization, among other devices. He devoted particular attention to developing the semblance of a first-person author, using various pseudonyms (Ike Solomons, Michael Angelo Tit-marsh, and Pendennis). Thackeray’s work enjoyed wide popularity in Russia in the early 1850’s and was supported by the revolutionary-democratic school of criticism.
A snob is someone who believes that some people are inherently inferior to him or her for any one of a variety of reasons, including real or supposed intellect , wealth , education , ancestry , taste , beauty , nationality , etcetera.
The subtitle, A Novel without a Hero, is apt because the characters are all flawed to a greater or lesser degree; even the most sympathetic have weaknesses, for example Captain Dobbin, who is prone to vanity and melancholy. The human weaknesses Thackeray illustrates are mostly to do with greed, idleness, and snobbery, and the scheming, deceit andhypocrisy which mask them. None of the characters are wholly evil, although Becky's psychopathic tendencies make her come pretty close. However, even Becky, who is amoral and cunning, is thrown on her own resources by poverty and its stigma. (She is the orphaned daughter of a poor artist.) Thackeray's tendency to highlight faults in all of his characters displays his desire for a greater level of realism in his fiction compared to the rather unlikely or idealised people in many contemporary novels.
The novel is a satire of society as a whole, characterised by hypocrisy and opportunism, but it is not a reforming novel; there is no suggestion that social or political changes, or greater piety and moral reformism could improve the nature of society. It thus paints a fairly bleak view of the human condition. This bleak portrait is continued with Thackeray's own role as anomniscient narrator, one of the writers best known for using the technique. He continually offers asides about his characters and compares them to actors and puppets, but his scorn goes even as far as his readers; accusing all who may be interested in such "Vanity Fairs" as being either "of a lazy, or a benevolent, or a sarcastic mood".
The work is often compared to the other great historical novel which covered the Napoleonic wars: Tolstoy's War and Peace. While Tolstoy's work has a greater emphasis on the historical detail and the effect the war has upon his protagonists, Thackeray instead uses the conflict as more of a backdrop to the lives of his characters. The momentous events on the continent do not always have an equally important influence on the behaviors of Thackeray's characters. Rather their faults tend to compound over time. This is in contrast to the redemptive power conflict has on the characters in War and Peace. For Thackeray, the Napoleonic wars as a whole can be thought of as one more of the vanities expressed in the title.
Women writers of the 19th century realism. J. Austen “Pride and Prejudice”/ Sh. Bronte “Jane Eyre”.
The nineteenth century was an amazing period for literature. Many of the novels that we now call “The Classics” were written by women. Many wrote under male pen names because women’s work was not taken seriously in Victorian England. There are many great female authors of the nineteenth century. The writers listed below are but a few of the women who wrote some of the greatest books in English Literature.
Pride and Prejudice is a novel by Jane Austen, first published in 1813. The story follows the main character Elizabeth Bennet as she deals with issues of manners, upbringing, morality, education and marriage in the society of the landed gentry of early 19th-century England. Elizabeth is the second of five daughters of a country gentleman, living near the fictional town of Meryton in Hertfordshire, near London.
Though the story is set at the turn of the 19th century, it retains a fascination for modern readers, continuing near the top of lists of 'most loved books' such as The Big Read.[1] It has become one of the most popular novels in English literature, and receives considerable attention from literary scholars. Modern interest in the book has resulted in a number of dramatic adaptations and an abundance of novels and stories imitating Austen's memorable characters or themes.
A major theme in much of Austen's work is the importance of environment and upbringing on the development of young people's character and morality.[6] Social standing and wealth are not necessarily advantages in her world, and a further theme common to Jane Austen's work is ineffectual parents. In Pride and Prejudice, the failure of Mr and Mrs Bennet (particularly the latter) as parents is blamed for Lydia's lack of moral judgment; Darcy, on the other hand, has been taught to be principled and scrupulously honourable, but is also proud and overbearing.[6] Kitty, rescued from Lydia's bad influence and spending more time with her older sisters after they marry, is said to improve greatly in their superior society.
Jane Eyre is a novel by English writer Charlotte Brontë. It was published in London, England, in 1847 by Smith, Elder & Co. with the titleJane Eyre. An Autobiography under the pen name "Currer Bell." A central theme in Jane Eyre is that of the clash between conscience and passion- which one is to adhere to, and how to find a middle ground between the two. Jane, extremely passionate yet also dedicated to a close personal relationship with God, struggles between either extreme for much of the novel. An instance of her leaning towards conscience over passion can be seen after it has been revealed that Mr. Rochester already has a wife, when Jane is begged to run away with Mr. Rochester and become his mistress. Up until that moment, Jane had been riding on a wave of emotion, forgetting all thoughts of reason and logic, replacing God with Mr. Rochester in her eyes, and allowing herself to be swept away in the moment. However, once the harsh reality of the situation sets in, Jane does everything in her power to refuse Mr. Rochester, despite almost every part of her rejecting the idea and urging her to just give into Mr. Rochester's appeal. In the moment Jane experiences an epiphany in regards to conscience, realizing that “laws and principles are not for times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this.” Jane finally comes to understand that all passion, as she had been living her life up until then, and all conscience, as she had leaned towards during her time at Lowood, is neither good nor preferable. In this case, Jane had allowed herself to lean too far in the direction of passion, and she is in danger of giving up all logic and reason in favour of temptation. However, Jane finally asserts that in times of true moral trial, such as the one she is in with Mr. Rochester at the moment, to forgo one's principles, to violate the “law given by God,” would be too easy- and not something she is willing to do. Jane's struggles to find a middle ground between her passionate and conscience driven sides frequently go back and forth throughout the novel, but in this case, she has drawn the line as to where passion is taking too great a role in her life, and where she will not allow herself to forgo her moral and religious principles. Jane Eyre uses many motifs from Gothic fiction, such as the Gothic manor (Thornfield), the Byronic hero (Mr. Rochester) and The Madwoman in the Attic (Bertha), whom Jane perceives as resembling "the foul German spectre—the Vampyre" (Chapter XXV) and who attacks her own brother in a distinctly vampiric way. The mystery of Thornfield manor with its dark secrets creates a typically Gothic atmosphere of suspense. Jane Eyre also combines Gothicism with romanticism to create a distinctive Victorian novel. Jane and Rochester are attracted to each other, but there are impediments to their love. The conflicting personalities of the two lead characters and the norms of society are an obstacle to their love, as often occurs in romance novels, but so also is Rochester's secret marriage to Bertha, the main Gothic element of the story.
The poetry of 1840-1870. R. Browning, A. Tennyson.
The novels of Th. Hardy as a new period in the development of English realism. Naturalism and symbolism in the novels. The author’s outlook in his novels. (“Tess of the D’Urbervilles”)
Thomas Hardy, OM (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. While his works typically belong to the Naturalism movement, several poems display elements of the previous Romantic and Enlightenment periods of literature, such as his fascination with the supernatural.
While he regarded himself primarily as a poet who composed novels mainly for financial gain, he became and continues to be widely regarded for his novels, such as Tess of the d'Urbervilles and Far from the Madding Crowd. The bulk of his fictional works, initially published as serials in magazines, were set in the semi-fictional county of Wessex (based on the Dorchester region where he grew up) and explored tragic characters struggling against their passions and social circumstances.
Hardy's poetry, first published in his fifties, has come to be as well regarded as his novels and has had a significant influence over modern English poetry, especially after The Movement poets of the 1950s and 1960s cited Hardy as a major figure.
The development of English literature at the edge of the 19th and 20th centuries. Neo-romanticism and R. L. Stevenson’s adventure novels. (“Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
The neo-romanticism was often written in I-form. The authors portrayed the subjective and accidental in a mood or emotional outburst. The neo-romanticism did not explain or attack, because the purpose was to promote a mood, and the form was more free and modern. All genres were practised, but mostly poems and novels were published.
The authors now focused on mood and the state of mind. They distanced themselves from social problems, and went back to write about the untouched nature. It became a reaction against realism and naturalism, where they wrote about the grey, problem filled world. It was also a reaction against the new society, the break through of the great capitalism, industrialisation and development of the cities. The literature became more individualised and lyrical, and they wrote more about young love and infatuations, like Hamsun’s “Victoria”. The use of adjectives increased, to appeal to our senses. Religious and mystic questions were again interesting, and the belief in humans and our capability of sorting out crisis was rising. The poets wanted to describe the oblivious life of senses and the inner human being. The neo-romanticists glorified the country life, and were interested in personal problems instead of political, and liked mystic, dreams and longing. The poets wrote about erotic power and its impact on our senses.
R. L. Stevenson Scottish essayist, poet, and author of fiction and travel books, known especially for his novels of adventure. Stevenson's characters often prefer unknown hazards to everyday life of the Victorian society. His most famous examination of the split personality is THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (1886). Many of Stevenson's stories are set in colorful locations, they have also horror and supernatural elements. Arguing against realism, Stevenson underlined the "nameless longings of the reader", the desire for experience. His best-known books include Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. The adventure novel is a genre of novels that has adventure, an exciting undertaking involving risk and physical danger, as its main theme. Adventure has been a common theme since the earliest days of written fiction. Indeed, the standard plot of Medieval romances was a series of adventures.
The development of English literature at the edge of the 19th and 20th centuries. J. K. Jerome “Three Men in a Boat”, A. C. Doyle’s stories.
Jerome Klapka Jerome had a very difficult childhood, since he spent it in poverty and misery. Still, the obstacles in his life didn’t manage to decrease his talent and love for literature. In spite of all problems, he has managed to become a bright writer and to be recognized by the society. He has now become a classic of English literature.
His most famous work is, doubtlessly, the novel “Three men in a boat”, published in 1889. The plot of this book has been based on the author’s honeymoon on the Thames. However, the action is certainly not a romantic one.
The characters are not imaginary, as it might have been expected. They are absolutely real: the author (J.), and two of his existing friends, George and Harris. Additionally, there is a marvelous fictional dog, named Montmorency. They have decided to go on a trip on the river Thames, and so they did. The novel describes all the adventures and the funny details of this journey. The author uses rather simple language, and the action is based on regular life situations.
This, however, only increases the value and the beauty of the novel. It is a literary work full of charm and wisdom, but also full of relaxing humor and familiar atmosphere.
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle DL (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930[1]) is the creator Sherlock Holmes, the best-known detective in literature and the embodiment of scientific thinking. Doyle himself was not a good example of rational personality: he believed in fairies and was interested in occultism. Sherlock Holmes stories have been translated into more than fifty languages, and made into plays, films, radio and television series, a musical comedy, a ballet, cartoons, comic books, and advertisement. By 1920 Doyle was one of the most highly paid writers in the world. Doyle was born on May 22, 1859 at Picardy Place, Edinburgh, as the son of Charles Altamont Doyle, a civil servant in the Edinburgh Office of Works, and Mary (Foley) Doyle. Both of Doyle’s parents were Roman Catholics. His father suffered from epilepsy and alcoholism and was eventually institutionalized. Charles Altamont died in an asylum in 1893. In the same year Doyle decided to finish permanently the adventures of his master detective. Because of financial problems, Doyle’s mother kept a boarding house. Dr. Tsukasa Kobayashi has suspected in an article, that Doyle’s mother had a long affair with Bryan Charles Waller, a lodger and a student of pathology, who had a deep impact to Conan Doyle.
Doyle was educated in Jesuit schools. He studied at Edinburgh University and in 1884 he married Louise Hawkins. Doyle qualified as doctor in 1885. After graduation Doyle practiced medicine as an eye specialist at Southsea near Porsmouth in Hampshire until 1891 when he became a full time writer.
First story about Holmes, A STUDY IN SCARLET, was published in 1887 in ‘Beeton Christmas Annual.’. The novel was written in three weeks in 1886. It introduced the detective and his associate and friend, Dr. Watson, and made famous Holmes’s address at Mrs. Hudson’s house, 221B Baker Street, London. Their major opponent was the malevolent Moriarty, the classic evil genius who was a kind of doppelgänger of Holmes. Also the beautiful opera singer Irene Adler caused much trouble to Holmes.
The second Sherlock Holmes story, THE SIGN OF FOUR, was written for the Lippincott’s Magazine in 1890. The story collects a colorful group of people together, among them Jonathan Small who has a wooden leg and a dwarf from Tonga islands. In the Strand Magazine started to appear ‘The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.’
In 1893 Doyle was so wearied of his famous detective that he devised his death in the Final Problem (published in the Strand). In the story Holmes meets Moriarty at the fall of the Reichenbach in Switzerland and disappears. Watson finds a letter from Homes, stating “I have already explained to you, however, that my career had in any case reached its crisis, and that no possible conclusion to it could be more congenial to me than this.”
In THE HOUND OF BASKERVILLES (1902) Doyle narrated an early case of the dead detective. The murder weapon in the story is an animal.
He was knighted (“Sir Arthur”) in 1902 for his work in Boer War propaganda (particularly the pamphlet The War in South Africa: Its Cause and Conduct) — and, some said, because of the publication of THE HOUND OF BASKERVILLES.( Sherlock Holmes stories
A Study in Scarlet (1887)
The Sign of Four (1890)
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892)
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1894)
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902)
The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1904)
The Valley of Fear (1914)
His Last Bow (1917)
The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes (1927)
List of additional Sherlock Holmes Literature
Professor Challenger stories
The Lost World (1912)
The Poison Belt (1913)
The Land of Mists (1926)
The Disintegration Machine (1927)
When the World Screamed (1928)
Historical novels
The White Company (1891)
Micah Clarke (1888)
The Great Shadow (1892)
The Refugees (publ. 1893, written 1892)
Rodney Stone (1896)
Uncle Bernac (1897)
Sir Nigel (1906)
Other works
"J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement" (1883), a story about the fate of the ship Mary Celeste
Mystery of Cloomber (1889)
The Captain of the Polestar, and other tales (1890)
The Doings Of Raffles Haw (1891)
Beyond the City (1892)
Jane Annie, or the Good Conduct Prize (1893)
Round The Red Lamp (1894)
The Parasite (1894)
The Stark Munro Letters (1895)
Songs of Action (1898)
The Tragedy of The Korosko (1898)
A Duet (1899)
The Great Boer War (1900)
The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard (1903)
Through the Magic Door (1907)
The Crime of the Congo (1909)
The New Revelation (1918)
The Vital Message (1919)
Tales of Terror & Mystery (1923)
The History of Spiritualism (1926)
The Maracot Deep (1929)
“Action literature”. R. Kipling’s works: his poetry (“If”) and novels (“The Jungle Book”, “Kim”)
In literature, action is the principle subject or story. This is as distinguished from an incidental episode. In other words, action is what a character does in a play, short story, or a fiction prose.
Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( /ˈrʌdjəd ˈkɪplɪŋ/ rud-yəd kip-ling; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)[1] was an English poet, short-story writer, and novelist chiefly remembered for his celebration of British imperialism, tales and poems of British soldiers in India, and his tales for children. Kipling is best known for his works of fiction, including The Jungle Book(a collection of stories which includes "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi"), Just So Stories (1902) (1894), Kim (1901) (a tale of adventure), many short stories, including "The Man Who Would Be King" (1888); and his poems, including Mandalay (1890), Gunga Din (1890), The White Man's Burden (1899) and If— (1910).
The Jungle Book (1894) is a collection of stories by British Nobel laureate Rudyard Kipling. The stories were first published in magazines in 1893–94. The original publications contain illustrations, some by Rudyard's father, John Lockwood Kipling. Kipling was born in India and spent the first six years of his childhood there. After about ten years in England, he went back to India and worked there for about six-and-half years. These stories were written when Kipling lived in Vermont.[1]
The tales in the book (and also those in The Second Jungle Book which followed in 1895, and which includes five further stories about Mowgli) are fables, using animals in an anthropomorphic manner to give moral lessons. The verses of The Law of the Jungle, for example, lay down rules for the safety of individuals, families and communities. Kipling put in them nearly everything he knew or "heard or dreamed about the Indian jungle."[2] Other readers have interpreted the work as allegories of the politics and society of the time.[3] The best-known of them are the three stories revolving around the adventures of an abandoned "man cub" Mowgli who is raised by wolves in the Indian jungle. The most famous of the other stories are probably "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi", the story of a heroic mongoose, and "Toomai of the Elephants", the tale of a young elephant-handler. As with much of Kipling's work, each of the stories is preceded by a piece of verse, and succeeded by another.
The Jungle Book, because of its moral tone, came to be used as a motivational book by the Cub Scouts, a junior element of the Scouting movement. This use of the book's universe was approved by Kipling after a direct petition of Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Scouting movement, who had originally asked for the author's permission for the use of the Memory Game from Kim in his scheme to develop the morale and fitness of working-class youths in cities. Akela, the head wolf in The Jungle Book, has become a senior figure in the movement, the name being traditionally adopted by the leader of each Cub Scout pack.
Kim is a picaresque novel by Rudyard Kipling. It was first published serially in McClure's Magazine from December 1900 to October 1901 as well as in Cassell's Magazine from January to November 1901, and first published in book form by Macmillan & Co. Ltd in October 1901. The story unfolds against the backdrop of The Great Game, the political conflict between Russia and Britain in Central Asia. It is set after the Second Afghan War which ended in 1881, but before the Third, probably in the period 1893–98.[1] The novel is notable for its detailed portrait of the people, culture, and varied religions of India. "The book presents a vivid picture of India, its teeming populations, religions, and superstitions, and the life of the bazaars and the road."[2]
"If—" is a poem written in 1895[1] by British Nobel laureate Rudyard Kipling. It was first published in the "Brother Square Toes" chapter ofRewards and Fairies, Kipling's 1910 collection of short stories and poems. Like William Ernest Henley's "Invictus", it is a memorable evocation of Victorian stoicism and the "stiff upper lip" that popular culture has made into a traditional British virtue.[2] Its status is confirmed both by the number of parodies it has inspired, and by the widespread popularity it still enjoys amongst Britons. It is often voted Britain's favourite poem.[3][4] The poem's line, "If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster and treat those two impostors just the same" is written on the wall of the Centre Court players' entrance at the British tennis tournament, Wimbledon, and the entire poem was read in a promotional video for the Wimbledon 2008 gentleman's final by Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal
Aestheticism. O. Wilde’s stories “The Happy Prince and other stories” and the novel “The Picture of Dorian Grey”. The embodiment of paradox in O. Wilde’s works.
The British decadent writers were much influenced by the Oxford professor Walter Pater and his essays published during 1867–68, in which he stated that life had to be lived intensely, with an ideal of beauty. His text Studies in the History of the Renaissance (1873) was very well regarded by art-oriented young men of the late 19th century. Writers of the Decadent movement writers used the slogan "Art for Art's Sake" (L'art pour l'art), the origin of which is debated. Some claim that it was invented by the philosopher Victor Cousin, although Angela Leighton in the publication On Form: Poetry, Aestheticism and the Legacy of a Word (2007) notes that the phrase was used by Benjamin Constant as early as 1804.[3] It is generally accepted to have been promoted by Théophile Gautier in France, who interpreted the phrase to suggest that there was not any real association between art and morality.
The artists and writers of Aesthetic style tended to profess that the Arts should provide refined sensuous pleasure, rather than convey moral or sentimental messages. As a consequence, they did not accept John Ruskin and Matthew Arnold's utilitarian conception of art as something moral or useful.[citation needed] Instead, they believed that Art did not have any didactic purpose; it need only be beautiful. The Aesthetes developed a cult of beauty, which they considered the basic factor of art. Life should copy Art, they asserted. They considered nature as crude and lacking in design when compared to art. The main characteristics of the style were: suggestion rather than statement, sensuality, great use of symbols, and synaesthetic effects—that is, correspondence between words, colours and music. Music was used to establish mood.[citation needed]
Predecessors of the Aesthetics included John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley, and some of the Pre-Raphaelites. In Britain the best representatives were Oscar Wilde and Algernon Charles Swinburne, both influenced by the French Symbolists, and James McNeill Whistler and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. The style and these poets were satirised by Gilbert and Sullivan's comic operaPatience and other works, such as F. C. Burnand's drama The Colonel, and in comic magazines such as Punch.
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900) was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s. The Picture of Dorian Gray is considered a work of classic gothic fiction with a strong Faustian theme.[
После публикации романа в обществе разразился скандал. Вся английская критика осудила его как аморальное произведение, а некоторые критики требовали подвергнуть его запрету, а автора романа — судебному наказанию. Уайльда обвиняли в оскорблении общественной морали. Однако обычными читателями роман был принят восторженно. По жанру — это философский роман, написанный в декадентском стиле.
В Дориане Грее, главном герое романа, угадываются черты нового Фауста. В роли Мефистофеля выступает лорд Генри, именно он на протяжении всего романа соблазняет Дориана Грея идеями нового гедонизма, превращает невинного и талантливого юношу в порочное чудовище. Под роль Маргариты попадает Сибилла Вейн, новый Валентин — Джеймс Вейн. Интересно, что в сюжете романа есть значительные сходства с легендой о Фаусте. Например, Фауст также получил от Мефистофеля вечную молодость. Есть аллюзии и на другие произведения мировой литературы.
The Happy Prince and Other Tales (sometimes called The Happy Prince and Other Stories) is a collection of stories for children by Oscar Wilde first published in May 1888. It contains five stories, "The Happy Prince", "The Nightingale and the Rose", "The Selfish Giant", "The Devoted Friend", and "The Remarkable Rocket". It is most famous for its title story, "The Happy Prince".
The drama of the beginning of the 20th century. B. Shaw. “Pygmalion”.
In Pygmalion by B. Shaw it is Professor Higgins who creates a new person. But he does not make it of ivory. He takes an ordinary poor girl from the gutter, and makes her look like a duchess, act like a duchess, and, what is more important, speak like a duchess.He is a professor of phonetics and made his living teaching English people how to speak English. Some people make money and become rich. They can wear expensive cloths, have limousines, and eat in famous restaurants. But they can't enter the Society because of their accent. Low class accent betray them. So Professor Higgins teaches them speak proper English, English of high society.Eliza Doolittle is a cockney girl. It means that she lives in the poor part of London where working people live. She sells flowers in the street and wants to be an assistant in a flower shop. But she knows that it is impossible because of her cockney accent. She can't pay for lessons: they are too expensive for her.But things happen. One rainy night the professor and the poor girl come for shelter under the portico of St. Paul's church in Covent Garden.
The play is about a professor of Phonetics, his companion, a colonel who is also interested in language, and a flower girl.
Higgins A quite rude professor of phonetics. He can not behave himself in the company of other people and is still single. He does not care much about marriage and falls only in love with woman over forty-five. He is very intelligent and knows how to place a person in a part of London when he hears him speak.
Pickering He is a Colonel and also a specialist of phonetics. He comes from India to meet Mr. Higgins. He is amazed about what Higgins can do and makes a bet with him that he can not teach a flower girl how to speak properly English in six months. Pickering is a polite and very gentle person who has respect to everybody, even for the flower girl. He is very rich and he can pay for the expensive lessons Higgins is giving to the flower girl.
Liza Doolittle She is the flower girl who gets lessons of Higgins. She first wanted to pay for them, but she did not know that they would cost more than a shilling. For her luck Pickering and Higgins make a bet that Higgins would not be able to teach her speak like a lady and she gets free lessons.
Higgins occurs to be a rude person and is treating her like if she were his property.
Father Doolittle comes to visit Mr. Higgins and asks him five shilling for his being father of the girl and goes away.
In the meanwhile Liza gets very nasty lessons and is not at all pleased about it.
Higgins takes Liza to his mother to test if she already is on that big level of pronunciation that she can have a civilized talk to other people. But Liza is still uncivilized and talks about the death of her mother, that she was murdered for her hat and that her father is a drunk. She also uses words that are used by the lower classes. She frightens the two ladies: Clara and Mrs. Eynsford Hill, but charms Freddy who falls completely in love with her. Mrs. Higgins likes Liza to and thinks it is a pitty Higgins is not married yet.
(…)And then it is time to go to the ambassador’s garden party where the King is also. Liza behaves like a real duchess. She walks in to the house in company of Higgins and Pickering and talks to some people. Nepomuck is also present at the party and tries to find out if Liza is a fake or not. He says he is paid by everybody at the party to make them look better than they really are. But he can not find Liza’s real identity and says she is a Hungarian princess of royal blood.
When Pickering, Higgins and Liza get back home, Liza and Higgins quarrel with each other and Liza throws Higgins his slippers in his face. She says she will leave him and no longer being treated like air.
Higgins does not seem to care about what Liza says and Liza goes away in the middle of the night. On the street Freddy is awaiting her. He says he spends all his nights on the street in front of Higgins house just to see a glimpse of her. They kiss and Liza tells him that she wanted to commit suicide. Two times the police disturb them and they take a taxi in which Liza tells Freddy everything that happened.
The next day Mrs. Higgins gets visit of her son and Pickering. They say they have lost Liza and that they have sent the police to find her. Mrs. Higgins tells them to calm down and that Liza is upstairs and that she will come down and talk to them if they promise to behave.
Liza comes down and says she has no bad feelings for Pickering, but for Higgins.
Mr. Doolittle comes. He has gone through a metamorphose. He is a rich person. For that he accuses Higgins (he does not like it to be rich!), because he had sent a letter to a rich American, who died and gave him a very lot of money if he would lecture for his Wannafeller Moral Reform World League six times a year. Mr. Doolittle also says that he is going to marry and that he invites everybody to come on his wedding.
Liza talks to Higgins. He can not come to the wedding, because he would misbehave himself. He quarrels with Liza and suggests her to stay with him like a friend. Higgins likes her more now, when he notices that she is a smart female, which can painfully quarrel back. But Liza does not want that. She wants to be with Freddy who loves her. Higgins thinks it is ridiculous to do so, but he is shocked when he hears that Liza wants to start teaching phonetics by her own.
Liza leaves Higgins and with that the play ends.
After the real play Shaw explains what happened afterwards.
Liza married Freddy (he has no money and no occupation) and started a flower shop with the help of the money of Pickering. It was not an immense success. She also took lessons in calligraphy from Higgins, which was a great humiliation, but necessary to keep the shop. The flower-shop flourished and they even started another shop with vegetables. Liza didn’t married Higgins, because she would never be more important than his work. She didn’t married Pickering because he was too old.
The peculiarities of science fiction in G. H. Well’s novels. The analysis of one of the novels. (“The Time Machine”, “The Invisible Man”)
Herbert George "H.G." Wells (21 September 1866 – 13 August 1946)[1] was an English author, now best known for his work in thescience fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books and rules for war games. Together with Jules Verne and Hugo Gernsback, Wells has been referred to as "The Father of Science Fiction".[2] His early novels, called "scientific romances", invented a number of themes now classic in science fiction in such works as The Time Machine, The Island of Doctor Moreau, The Invisible Man, The War of the Worlds, When the Sleeper Wakes, and The First Men in the Moon.
Modernism in English literature. “The stream of consciousness” technique in the novels of J. Joyce (“Ulysses”).
Modernism in English literature. The Bloomsbury group. V. Woolfe “Mrs. Dalloway”. Poetry of modernism: T.S. Eliot.
The Bloomsbury Group or Bloomsbury Set was a group of writers, intellectuals, philosophers and artists who held informal discussions in Bloomsbury throughout the 20th century.[1] This English collective of friends and relatives lived, worked or studied near Bloomsbury in London during the first half of the twentieth century. "Although its members denied being a group in any formal sense, they were united by an abiding belief in the importance of the arts".[2] Their work deeply influenced literature, aesthetics, criticism, andeconomics as well as modern attitudes towards feminism, pacifism, and sexuality.[3] Its best known members were Virginia Woolf, John Maynard Keynes, E. M. Forster and Lytton Strachey. The lives and works of the group members show an overlapping, interconnected similarity of ideas and attitudes that helped to keep the friends and relatives together
Modernism. D. H. Lawrence and the theme of people’s relations. The analysis of any novel (“The Rainbow”, “Lady Chatterley’s Lover”)
Critical realism. J. Galsworthy “The Forsyte Saga”. The social position of the author. The conflict between beauty and the sense of property in the novel “The Man of Property”. The embodiment of all typical features of Forsytism in Soames Forsyte.
Critical realism. W. S. Maugham. The author’s outlook in his novels. (““The Moon and Sixpence”).
Действительно, реализм XIX века примечателен прежде всего правдивым изображением существующего строя. «Реализмом именуется правдивое, неприкрашенное изображение людей и условий их жизни», – писал Горький М. в статье «О литературе». Представители критического реализма, давая правдивое изображение жизни, неизбежно превращали его в критику буржуазной действительности. Говорить о буржуазном обществе правду – значило разоблачать это общество. Если художник слова отказывался от критики существующего строя, он переставал быть реалистом. В сравнении с романтизмом критический реализм значительно расширил сферу искусства. Если романтики сосредоточивали внимание на духовных устремлениях человека, то критические реалисты избирают объектом изображения человеческую жизнь во всех ее проявлениях. В их творчестве находит отражение не только идеальная, духовная, но и вся конкретная деятельность людей (их служебные, семейные, общественные дела и т.п.). В связи с этим границы литературы широко раздвинулись. В нее мощным потоком хлынула проза жизни. Житейские бытовые мотивы стали обязательным спутником реалистических произведений. В повествовательных и даже лирических жанрах главное место заняли обыкновенные заурядные личности, которые пришли на смену необыкновенным романтическим героям, жившим в мире высоких духовных и моральных интересов. Романтических мечтателей и бунтарей вытеснил реальный исторический человек.
William Somerset Maugham (pronounced /ˈmɔːm/ mawm), CH (25 January 1874 – 16 December 1965) was an English playwright, novelist and short story writer. He was among the most popular writers of his era and reputedly the highest paid author during the 1930s. The Moon and Sixpence is a novel by W. Somerset Maugham, told in episodic form by the first-person narrator as a series of glimpses into the mind and soul of the central character, Charles Strickland, a middle-aged English stockbroker who abandons his wife and children abruptly to pursue his desire to become an artist. The story is said to be loosely based on the life of the painter Paul Gauguin.
Postmodernism. J. Fowles.