lecture8_TheLate Victorian Literature

1. The Late Victorian Literature

LECTURE 8
The Late Victorian
Literature

2.

USA
- began to recover economically
Britain
– lost a lot of its international
commerce
- ceased to be the “workshop of the
world
-survived as the world’s banker

3.

Trade-unions sprang up – workers with no
qualifications could join them
The trade-union officials were no longer
the bourgeois liberal party: the leaders
originated from the working class
1833 - the Fabian Society (independent
socialists)

4.

the name was taken from the Roman
general Quintus Fabius (3rd century B.C.)
He was nicknamed Delayer because of
his delaying tactics
(never attacked, but kept near the
enemy, frightening them)
Fabian became the term for a waiting
policy

5.

The Fabians:
believed that the rosy future will depend
on a careful scientific reorganization of
society what is sure to lead them to
state capitalism
investigated different systems of labour
examined thoroughly the housing
conditions in working-class districts

6.

The 2nd half of the 19th century
is characterized by a crisis
in bourgeois culture

7.

It was criticized by
artists
poets
novelists
musicians
who promoted the idea of the
development of human personality

8.

the novels of the period can be
characterized by:
a deep psychological analysis of the
characters in their works
a detailed description of their inner
world
social panorama of life which is
considered to be somewhat narrowed

9.

the novels of the period can be
characterized by:
a deep psychological analysis of the
characters in their works
a detailed description of their inner
world
social panorama of life which is
considered to be somewhat narrowed

10.

1880s
The Aesthetic Movement blossomed

11.

the Aesthetic Movement (Aestheticism) –
an art movement
supporting the emphasis of aesthetic
values more than social-political themes
for literature, fine art, music and other
arts

12.

The Aesthetes
developed a cult of beauty, which they
considered the basic factor of art
Life should copy Art
considered nature as crude and lacking in
design when compared to art

13.

The main characteristics of the style
were:
suggestion rather than statement
sensuality
great use of symbols
synaesthetic effects (correspondence
between words, colours and music)

14.

Predecessors of the Aesthetics:
John Keats
Percy Bysshe Shelley
some of the Pre-Raphaelites

15.

the best representatives:
Oscar Wilde
Algernon Charles Swinburne
James McNeill Whistler
Dante Gabriel Rossetti

16.

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

17.

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)

18.

T. Hardy is sometimes thought of as
the last of the Victorians and
the first of the moderns

19.

was born in the English village of
Higher Bockhampton

20.

21.

22.

father
was a builder, and played violin in the local
church and for local dances
mother
was brought up in poverty and had only a
basic education, but read widely, and
encouraged Hardy to do the same

23.

From his family, Hardy gained the
interests that would influence his life
and appear in his novels:
architecture
music
the lifestyles of the country folk
literature

24.

8-16 y.old
attended Julia Martin's school
in Bockhampton
However, most of his
education came from the
books he found in
Dorchester

25.

He taught himself
French
German
Latin

26.

17 y.old
Hardy's father apprenticed his son to a local
architect, John Hicks.
Under Hicks's tutelage,
Hardy learned about
architectural drawing
and the restoration of
old houses and
churches.

27.

1862
Hardy was sent to
London to work with
the architect
Arthur Blomfield

28.

The Royal College of Music

29.

St.Peter's in Eastgate

30.

1862-1867
During his five years in
London, Hardy
immersed himself in
the cultural scene by
visiting museums and
theaters, and studying
classic literature

31.

He even began to write his own poetry
he did not remain in London,
returned to Dorchester as a church restorer
BUT
maintained his newfound talent for writing

32.

from 1867
Hardy wrote poetry
and novels,
though the 1st part of
his career was devoted
mostly to novels

33.

At first, he published
anonymously,
but after people
became interested in
his work, he began to
use his own name.

34.

Hardy's novels were published serially in
magazines, and they became popular in
both England and America

35.

1st popular novel –
“Under the Greenwood
Tree”
(p.1872)

36.

next great novel
“Far from the Madding
Crowd” (1874),
was so popular that the
profits allowed Hardy to
give up architecture and
marry Emma Gifford

37.

Other popular novels followed in quick
succession:
“The Return of the Native” (1878)
“The Mayor of Casterbridge” (1886)
“The Woodlanders” (1887)
“Tess of the D'Urbervilles” (1891)
“Jude the Obscure” (1895)

38.

In addition to these long works,
Hardy published
3 collections of short stories
and
5 shorter novels
all moderately successful

39.

BUT
many critics were offended by the violence
and sexual content of
“Tess of the D'Urbervilles”, “Jude the
Obscure”

40.

AFTER THAT
Hardy decided to stop writing novels and
return to his first great love, poetry

41.

POETRY
In his later years, he remained in Dorchester
to focus completely on his poetry.
In 1898, his dream of becoming a poet was
realized with the publication of
“Wessex Poems”

42.

PERSONAL LIFE
His first wife, Emma, died in 1912.
Although their marriage had not been happy,
Hardy grieved at her sudden death.

43.

PERSONAL LIFE
In 1914, he married
Florence Dugdale, and
she was extremely
devoted to him.

44.

!!!!!!!
By the last two decades of Hardy's life,
he had achieved a level of fame equal to
that of Dickens

45.

After a long and
highly successful
career, Thomas Hardy
died on January 11,
1928, at the age of
87

46.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930)

47.

was born on May 22, 1859,
in Edinburgh, Scotland

48.

49.

Although Doyle's family
was well-respected in the
art world,
his father, Charles, who
was a life-long alcoholic,
had few accomplishments
to speak of.

50.

Doyle's mother, Mary
was a very strong woman
who instilled in Arthur
love of history
pride in his own heritage
vivid storytelling

51.

About his mother:
"In my early childhood, as far as I can
remember anything at all, the vivid stories
she would tell me stand out so clearly that
they obscure the real facts of my life."

52.

1868-1870
Doyle bid a tearful goodbye to his parents
and was shipped off to England, where he
would attend Hodder Place, Stonyhurst—a
Jesuit preparatory school

53.

Doyle then went on to study at Stonyhurst
College for the next five years.
For Doyle, the boarding-school experience
was brutal: many of his classmates bullied
him, and the school practiced ruthless
corporal punishment against its students.

54.

55.

56.

When Doyle graduated from Stonyhurst
College in 1876, his parents expected that
he would follow in his family's footsteps
and study art,
so they were surprised when he decided to
pursue a medical degree at the University
of Edinburgh instead

57.

At med school, Doyle
met his mentor,
Professor Dr. Joseph
Bell, whose keen
powers of observation
would later inspire
Doyle to create his
famed fictional
detective character,
Sherlock Holmes.

58.

At the University of Edinburgh, Doyle also
had the good fortune to meet classmates
and future fellow authors
James Barrie and
Robert Louis Stevenson.

59.

1886
Doyle started writing the mystery novel “A
Tangled Skein”.
1888
the novel was renamed “A Study in Scarlet”
and published in Beeton's Christmas Annual

60.

It was the first of
60 stories that
Doyle would pen
about Sherlock
Holmes over the
course of his
writing career