***

 

TYPES OF NOVEL:

Realistic Novel:

A fictional attempt to give the effect of realism. This sort of novel is sometimes called a novel of manner. A realistic novel can be characterized by its complex characters with mixed motives that are rooted in social class and operate according to highly developed social structure. The characters in realistic novel interact with other characters and undergo plausible and everyday experiences.

Examples: Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher, Looking for Alaska by John Green.

Picaresque Novel:

A picaresque novel relates the adventures of an eccentric or disreputable hero in episodic form. The genre gets its name from the Spanish word picaro, or "rogue."

Examples: Rudyard Kipling's Kim (1901), Henry Fielding’s The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (1749),

Historical Novel:

A Historical novel is a novel set in a period earlier than that of the writing.

Examples: Thackeray's Vanity Fair, Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities, George Eliot's Romola and Charles Kingsley's Westward Ho!

Epistolary Novel:

Epistolary fiction is a popular genre where the narrative is told via a series of documents. The word epistolary comes from Latin where ‘epistola’ means a letter. Letters are the most common basis for epistolary novels but diary entries are also popular

Examples: Samuel Richardson’s Pamela and Clarissa, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Alice Walker’s The Color Purple and Bridget Jones’ Diary.

Bildungsroman:

German terms that indicates a growth. This fictional autobiography concerned with the development of the protagonist’s mind, spirit, and characters from childhood to adulthood.

Examples: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann etc.

Gothic Novel:

Gothic novel includes terror, mystery, horror, thriller, supernatural, doom, death, decay, old haunted buildings with ghosts and so on.

Examples: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, John William Polidori’s The Vampyre, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole,

Autobiographical Novel:

An autobiographical novel is a novel based on the life of the author.

Examples: Charles Dickens’ David Coppefield, Great Expectations, D. H. Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers, Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, Ralph Ellison ‘s Invisible Man, Maya Angelou’ s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings , Virginia Wolfe’s The Light House etc.

Satirical Novel:

Satire is loosely defined as art that ridicules a specific topic in order to provoke readers into changing their opinion of it. By attacking what they see as human folly, satirists usually imply their own opinions on how the thing being attacked can be improved.

Examples: George Orwell’s Animal Farm, Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travel, Joseph Heller’s Catch 22, Mark Twin’s The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn,

Allegorical Novel:

An allegory is a story with two levels of meaning- surface meaning and symbolic meaning. The symbolic meaning of an allegory can be political or religious, historical or philosophical.

Examples: John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress , William Golding's The Lord of the Flies, Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene etc.

Regional Novel:

A religious novel is a novel that is set against the background of a particular area.

Examples: Novels of Charles Dickens George Eliot etc.

Novella:

A novella is a short, narrative, prose fiction. As a literary genre, the novella’s origin lay in the early Renaissance literary work of the Italians and the French. As the etymology suggests, novellas originally were news of town and country life worth repeating for amusement and edification.

Examples: Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness,

Detective Fiction:

Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator or a detective—either professional or amateur—investigates a crime, often murder.

Examples: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’ A Study in Scarlet ( Sherlock Holmes), Satyajit Roy’s Sonar Kella (Feluda), G. K. Chesterton’s The Blue Cross (Father Brown), Dr. Nihar Ranjan Gupta’s Kalo Bhramar (Kiriti)

The Intellectual Novel

:

These sort of novelists attempted to explore the intellectual responses of the intelligentia to the world. Characteristically, their novel displays the clash of ideas and intellectual verification of knowledge., value and response, a diminishing faith on the cosmic significance of existence, argument and counter argument in discussion, separation of concept of love and sex, conversation without communication, and a dehumanizing effect of disillusionment in the 20th century.

Examples: Graham Greene’s The Power and the Glory, The Heart of the Matter, Elizabeth Bowen’s The Hotel, The House in Paris.

Stream of Consciousness Novel or Psychological Novel:

Psychological novels are works of fiction that treat the internal life of the protagonist (or several or all characters) as much as (if not more than) the external forces that make up the plot. The phrase “Stream of Consciousness” was coined by William James in his Principles of Psychology (1890), to describe the flow of thought of the waking mind.

Examples: Virginia Wolfe’s To the Lighthouse, Mrs. Dolloway, James Joyce’s Ulysses, D. H. Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers, The Rainbow.

Roman á these/ Social Fiction/ Political Novel:

The genre focussed on possible development of societies, very often dominated by totalitarian governments. This type of novels must have social and political message. The term generally refers to fiction in Europe and the Soviet Union reacting to Communist rule.

Examples: George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, Huxley’s Brave New World etc.

Prose Romance:

This is a novel that is often set in the historical past with a plot that emphasizes adventure and an atmosphere removed from reality. The characters in a prose romance are either sharply drawn as villains or heroes, masters or victims; while the protagonist is isolated from the society.

Examples: The Story of the Pillow by Shen Jiji, and The Governor of the Southern Tributary State by LiGongzuo.

Novel of Incident:

In a novel of incident the narrative focuses on what the protagonist will do next and how the story will turn out.

Examples: The Wizard of Oz, Star Wars etc.

Novel of Character:

A novel of character focuses on the protagonist’s motives for what he/she does and how he/she turns out.

Examples: Jane Austen’s Emma.

Roman á clef:

French term for a novel with a key, imaginary events with real people disguised as fictional characters.

Examples: The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, Animal Farm by George Orwell, On the Road by Jack Kerouac etc.

Dime Novel:

Dime novels were short works of fiction, usually focused on the dramatic exploits of a single heroic character. As evidenced by their name, dime novels were sold for a dime (sometimes a nickel), and featured colourful cover illustrations. They were bound in paper, making them light, portable, and somewhat ephemeral.

Example: Dime novels are, at least in spirit, the antecedent of today's mass market paperbacks, comic books, and even television shows and movies based on the dime novel genres. Buffalo Ball.

Hypertext Novel:

Hypertext fiction is a genre of electronic literature, characterized by the use of hypertext links which provide a new context for non-linearity in literature and reader interaction. The reader typically chooses links to move from one node of text to the next, and in this fashion arranges a story from a deeper pool of potential stories. Its spirit can also be seen in interactive fiction.

Examples: James Joyce's Ulysses (1922), Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves (2000), Enrique Jardiel Poncela's La Tournée de Dios (1932), Jorge Luis Borges' The Garden of Forking Paths (1941), Vladimir Nabokov's Pale Fire (1962) and Julio Cortázar's Rayuela (1963; translated as Hopscotch) etc.

Sentimental Novel:

The sentimental novel or the novel of sensibility is an 18th-century literary genre which celebrates the emotional and intellectual concepts of sentiment, sentimentalism, and sensibility.

Examples: Samuel Richardson's Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded (1740), Oliver Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield (1766), Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy (1759–67), Sentimental Journey (1768), Henry Brooke's The Fool of Quality (1765–70), Henry Mackenzie's The Man of Feeling (1771). Continental example is Jean-Jacques Rousseau's novel Julie.

Utopian Novel:

A utopia is a community or society possessing highly desirable or perfect qualities. It is a common literary theme, especially in speculative fiction and science fiction.

Examples: Utopia by Thomas Moore, Laws (360 BC) by Plato, New Atlantis (1627) by Sir Francis Bacon, Robinson Crusoe (1719) by Daniel Defoe, Gulliver's Travels (1726) by Jonathan Swift.

Graphic Novel:

Graphic novels are, simply defined, book-length comics. Sometimes they tell a single, continuous narrative from first page to last; sometimes they are collections of shorter stories or individual comic strips. Comics are sequential visual art, usually with text, that are often told in a series of rectangular panels.1 Despite the name, not all comics are funny. Many comics and graphic novels emphasize drama, adventure, character development, striking visuals, politics, or romance over laugh-out-loud comedy.

Examples: Frank Miller’s Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, The Fantastic Four and X-Men etc.

Science Fiction (Sci-Fi):

Science fiction is a genre of speculative fiction dealing with imaginative concepts such as futuristic settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, time travel, faster than light travel, parallel universes and extraterrestrial life. Science fiction often explores the potential consequences of scientific and other innovations.

Examples: The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells, The Time Machine.

Cult or Coterie Novel:

Cult novels often come from the fringes, they often represent countercultural perspectives, they often experiment with form.

Examples: Speedboat by Renata Adler, Sddhartha by Herman Hesse,

Pulp Fiction:

Term originated from the magazines of the first half of the 20th century which were printed on cheap "pulp" paper and published fantastic, escapist fiction for the general entertainment of the mass audiences. The pulp fiction era provided a breeding ground for creative talent which would influence all forms of entertainment for decades to come. The hardboiled detective and science fiction genres were created by the freedom that the pulp fiction magazines provided.

Examples: The Spider, Doc Savage, Blood N Thunder etc.

Erotic Novel:

Erotic romance novels have romance as the main focus of the plot line, and they are characterized by strong, often explicit, sexual content.[2] The books can contain elements of any of the other romance subgenres, such as paranormal elements, chick lit, hen lit, historical fiction, etc. Erotic romance is classed as pornography .

Examples: His To Possess by Opal Carew, On Dublin Street by Samantha Young.

Roman fleuve:

A novel sequence is a set or series of novels which share common themes, characters, or settings, but where each novel has its own title and free-standing storyline, and can thus be read independently or out of sequence.

Examples: Honoré de Balzac’s Comédie humaine and Émile Zola’s Rougon-Macquart,

Anti-Novel:

An antinovel is any experimental work of fiction that avoids the familiar conventions of the novel, and instead establishes its own conventions.

Examples: Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy.

Interactive Novel:

The interactive novel is a form of interactive web fiction. In an interactive novel, the reader chooses where to go next in the novel by clicking on a piece of hyperlinked text, such as a page number, a character, or a direction.

Examples: J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter Series.

Fantasy Novel:

Stories involving paranormal magic and terrible monsters have existed in spoken forms before the advent of printed literature.

Examples: J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, C. S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia.

Adventure Novel:

Adventure fiction is a genre of fiction in which an adventure, an exciting undertaking involving risk and physical danger, forms the main storyline.

Examples: Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe.

Children’s Novel:

Children's novels are narrative fiction books written for children, distinct from collections of stories and picture books.

Examples: The Christmas Mystery, Charlotte's Web by E.B. White, James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl.

Dystopian Novel:

A dystopia is an unpleasant (typically repressive) society, often propagandized as being utopian.

Examples: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, The Giver by Lois Lowry etc.

Mystery Novel:

The mystery genre is a type of fiction in which a detective, or other professional, solves a crime or series of crimes. It can take the form of a novel or short story. This genre may also be called detective or crime novels.

***

 

Pickwick Papers

 by Charles Dickens

Summary

In May 1827, the Pickwick Club of London, headed by Samuel Pickwick, decides to establish a traveling society in which four members journey about England and make reports on their travels. The four members are Mr. Pickwick, a kindly retired businessman and philosopher whose thoughts never rise above the commonplace; Tracy Tupman, a ladies' man who never makes a conquest; Augustus Snodgrass, a poet who never writes a poem; and Nathaniel Winkle, a sportsman of tremendous ineptitude.

The Pickwickians meet to begin their first journey and get knocked about by an angry cabman, who thinks they are informers, while an angry crowd gathers. They are rescued by Alfred Jingle, who travels with them to Rochester. Jingle is an adventurer interested in wealthy women, and on this first trip he involves the innocent Winkle in a duel with Dr. Slammer, a hot-tempered army man.

At Chatham, the Pickwickians watch army maneuvers, get buffeted about, and meet Mr. Wardle, a country squire who invites them to his estate at Dingley Dell. After some mishaps with horses, Mr. Pickwick and his friends arrive at Mr. Wardle's Manor Farm, where they enjoy card games, flirting, storytelling, hunting, and a cricket match. Mr. Tupman falls in love with Mr. Wardle's spinster sister, Rachael; and Mr. Snodgrass falls in love with his daughter, Emily. However, Tupman is outsmarted by the vivacious, unscrupulous Jingle, who elopes with Rachael. Mr. Pickwick and Mr. Wardle pursue Jingle and Rachael to London, where, with the help of a lawyer, Mr. Perker, they buy off Jingle and save Rachael Wardle from an unhappy marriage.

In London Mr. Pickwick comes across Sam Weller, a boot cleaner and general handyman whom he takes on as a valet. Sam is a cockney man of the world: witty, intelligent, handy with his fists. When Mr. Pickwick tells his widowed landlady, Mrs. Bardell, that he has taken on a servant, she assumes from the ambiguous way he puts it that he intends to marry her. Mrs. Bardell faints in his arms just as Tupman, Snodgrass, and Winkle enter — a compromising circumstance.

Sam Weller's father, Tony, a coachman who had the misfortune to marry a widow, provides a running commentary through the novel on the dangers of matrimony. Tony's wife has taken up with a hypocritical, alcoholic evangelist and makes life miserable for her husband until her death. Both Tony Weller and Mr. Pickwick are prey for widows, because Mrs. Bardell soon starts a breach-of-promise suit against Mr. Pickwick.

Meanwhile, Mr. Pickwick and his friends go to Eatanswill to witness an election, which is both violent and nonsensical. Mr. Pickwick and Winkle stay with Mr. Pott, the editor of a partisan newspaper, and Winkle unwittingly becomes involved in Pott's domestic fights. During their visit to Eatanswill the Pickwickians are invited to a costume party given by the local literary lioness, Mrs. Leo Hunter, where several varieties of silliness are exhibited. At this party Mr. Pickwick sees Alfred Jingle, whom he pursues to a neighboring town. Jingle's servant tells Mr. Pickwick that Jingle has designs on a young lady at a boarding school, and Mr. Pickwick decides to prevent the elopement. However, this information is a ruse that leads to Mr. Pickwick's embarrassment and an attack of rheumatism. The Pickwickians assemble at Bury St. Edmunds, where Mr. Wardle is on a hunting trip, and Mr. Pickwick recovers enough to go along. There he learns that Mrs. Bardell has filed suit against him through Dodson and Fogg, a pair of rascally lawyers. So Mr. Pickwick returns to London to see about getting legal help.

In London, Mr. Pickwick learns that Jingle is in Ipswich and goes there to expose him. Because of a mix-up in bedrooms at an Ipswich Inn Mr. Pickwick is hauled before the justice, a local henpecked tyrant called Mr. Nupkins. Nupkins is visited frequently by Jingle, who is interested in the daughter. Mr. Pickwick extricates himself by proving that Jingle is an adventurer.

Eventually the Pickwickians return to the Wardle farm to celebrate Christmas and the wedding of Mr. Wardle's daughter, Isabella. Amid festivities Snodgrass continues his romance with Emily, and Winkle falls in love with Arabella Allen, a friend of Mr. Wardle's daughters.

On Valentine's Day, 1831, Mr. Pickwick is tried for breach of promise. Due to the rhetorical allegations of Serjeant Buzfuz and to the circumstantial evidence, Mr. Pickwick is found guilty and ordered to pay damages, which he refuses to do.

Since it is two months before Dodson and Fogg can have him jailed, the Pickwickians make a trip to Bath. There Winkle gets into more difficulties over a middle-aged woman and flees to Bristol, where he learns that his sweetheart, Arabella Allen, has been hidden by her brother. Sam Weller and Mr. Pickwick arrive in Bristol, where they help Winkle find Arabella in order to declare his intentions.

On returning to London, Mr. Pickwick is taken to the Fleet Prison for debtors because he will not pay damages. In prison he witnesses much misery, filth, and squalor and for a brief time he is victimized by two predatory inmates. There he finds Alfred Jingle and his servant in utter destitution and gives them some assistance. Mr. Pickwick tells Sam Weller to leave him, but Sam has himself jailed for debt to be with his kindly master. Dismayed by the misery of prison, Mr. Pickwick rents a cell by himself and comes out only in the evenings. When Mrs. Bardell is arrested and jailed because she cannot pay her lawyers, Mr. Pickwick begins to soften. Further, Winkle has married Arabella and needs Mr. Pickwick to intercede for them with her brother and his own father. Finally Mr. Pickwick decides to pay costs, which releases himself and Mrs. Bardell, and he also pays Jingle's debts.

Mr. Pickwick goes to Bristol to tell Ben Allen about Arabella's marriage, and Ben adjusts to the fact with the help of much liquor. Mr. Pickwick then goes to Birmingham to tell Winkle's father, who appears angry and disgusted by the news.

Back in London Mr. Pickwick pays Dodson and Fogg, sends Jingle and his servant to the West Indies to begin afresh, and learns that Emily Wardle is planning to elope with Snodgrass. Mr. Pickwick convinces Mr. Wardle that Snodgrass is a worthy gentleman, and the couple are married in Mr. Pickwick's newly purchased home. In the meantime Sam Weller has been courting a pretty housemaid named Mary, and under Mr. Pickwick's auspices they are married. And, though the London Pickwick Club has been dissolved, Samuel Pickwick lives to be godfather to many children.

***

 

Oliver Twist 

By Charles Dickens

SUMMARY

Oliver Twist is born in a workhouse in 1830s England. His mother, whose name no one knows, is found on the street and dies just after Oliver’s birth. Oliver spends the first nine years of his life in a badly run home for young orphans and then is transferred to a workhouse for adults. After the other boys bully Oliver into asking for more gruel at the end of a meal, Mr. Bumble, the parish beadle, offers five pounds to anyone who will take the boy away from the workhouse. Oliver narrowly escapes being apprenticed to a brutish chimney sweep and is eventually apprenticed to a local undertaker, Mr. Sowerberry. When the undertaker’s other apprentice, Noah Claypole, makes disparaging comments about Oliver’s mother, Oliver attacks him and incurs the Sowerberrys’ wrath. Desperate, Oliver runs away at dawn and travels toward London.

Outside London, Oliver, starved and exhausted, meets Jack Dawkins, a boy his own age. Jack offers him shelter in the London house of his benefactor, Fagin. It turns out that Fagin is a career criminal who trains orphan boys to pick pockets for him. After a few days of training, Oliver is sent on a pickpocketing mission with two other boys. When he sees them swipe a handkerchief from an elderly gentleman, Oliver is horrified and runs off. He is caught but narrowly escapes being convicted of the theft. Mr. Brownlow, the man whose handkerchief was stolen, takes the feverish Oliver to his home and nurses him back to health. Mr. Brownlow is struck by Oliver’s resemblance to a portrait of a young woman that hangs in his house. Oliver thrives in Mr. Brownlow’s home, but two young adults in Fagin’s gang, Bill Sikes and his lover Nancy, capture Oliver and return him to Fagin.

Fagin sends Oliver to assist Sikes in a burglary. Oliver is shot by a servant of the house and, after Sikes escapes, is taken in by the women who live there, Mrs. Maylie and her beautiful adopted niece Rose. They grow fond of Oliver, and he spends an idyllic summer with them in the countryside. But Fagin and a mysterious man named Monks are set on recapturing Oliver. Meanwhile, it is revealed that Oliver’s mother left behind a gold locket when she died. Monks obtains and destroys that locket. When the Maylies come to London, Nancy meets secretly with Rose and informs her of Fagin’s designs, but a member of Fagin’s gang overhears the conversation. When word of Nancy’s disclosure reaches Sikes, he brutally murders Nancy and flees London. Pursued by his guilty conscience and an angry mob, he inadvertently hangs himself while trying to escape.

Mr. Brownlow, with whom the Maylies have reunited Oliver, confronts Monks and wrings the truth about Oliver’s parentage from him. It is revealed that Monks is Oliver’s half brother. Their father, Mr. Leeford, was unhappily married to a wealthy woman and had an affair with Oliver’s mother, Agnes Fleming. Monks has been pursuing Oliver all along in the hopes of ensuring that his half-brother is deprived of his share of the family inheritance. Mr. Brownlow forces Monks to sign over Oliver’s share to Oliver. Moreover, it is discovered that Rose is Agnes’s younger sister, hence Oliver’s aunt. Fagin is hung for his crimes. Finally, Mr. Brownlow adopts Oliver, and they and the Maylies retire to a blissful existence in the countryside.

***

 

David Copperfield

By Charles Dickens

SUMMARY

Now a grown man, David Copperfield tells the story of his youth. As a young boy, he lives happily with his mother and his nurse, Peggotty. His father died before he was born. During David’s early childhood, his mother marries the violent Mr. Murdstone, who brings his strict sister, Miss Murdstone, into the house. The Murdstones treat David cruelly, and David bites Mr. Murdstone’s hand during one beating. The Murdstones send David away to school.

Peggotty takes David to visit her family in Yarmouth, where David meets Peggotty’s brother, Mr. Peggotty, and his two adopted children, Ham and Little Em’ly. Mr. Peggotty’s family lives in a boat turned upside down—a space they share with Mrs. Gummidge, the widowed wife of Mr. Peggotty’s brother. After this visit, David attends school at Salem House, which is run by a man named Mr. Creakle. David befriends and idolizes an egotistical young man named James Steerforth. David also befriends Tommy Traddles, an unfortunate, fat young boy who is beaten more than the others.

David’s mother dies, and David returns home, where the Murdstones neglect him. He works at Mr. Murdstone’s wine-bottling business and moves in with Mr. Micawber, who mismanages his finances. When Mr. Micawber leaves London to escape his creditors, David decides to search for his father’s sister, Miss Betsey Trotwood—his only living relative. He walks a long distance to Miss Betsey’s home, and she takes him in on the advice of her mentally unstable friend, Mr. Dick.

Miss Betsey sends David to a school run by a man named Doctor Strong. David moves in with Mr. Wickfield and his daughter, Agnes, while he attends school. Agnes and David become best friends. Among Wickfield’s boarders is Uriah Heep, a snakelike young man who often involves himself in matters that are none of his business. David graduates and goes to Yarmouth to visit Peggotty, who is now married to Mr. Barkis, the carrier. David reflects on what profession he should pursue.

On his way to Yarmouth, David encounters James Steerforth, and they take a detour to visit Steerforth’s mother. They arrive in Yarmouth, where Steerforth and the Peggottys become fond of one another. When they return from Yarmouth, Miss Betsey persuades David to pursue a career as a proctor, a kind of lawyer. David apprentices himself at the London firm of Spenlow and Jorkins and takes up lodgings with a woman named Mrs. Crupp. Mr. Spenlow invites David to his house for a weekend. There, David meets Spenlow’s daughter, Dora, and quickly falls in love with her.

Summary

Previous

Next

Now a grown man, David Copperfield tells the story of his youth. As a young boy, he lives happily with his mother and his nurse, Peggotty. His father died before he was born. During David’s early childhood, his mother marries the violent Mr. Murdstone, who brings his strict sister, Miss Murdstone, into the house. The Murdstones treat David cruelly, and David bites Mr. Murdstone’s hand during one beating. The Murdstones send David away to school.

Peggotty takes David to visit her family in Yarmouth, where David meets Peggotty’s brother, Mr. Peggotty, and his two adopted children, Ham and Little Em’ly. Mr. Peggotty’s family lives in a boat turned upside down—a space they share with Mrs. Gummidge, the widowed wife of Mr. Peggotty’s brother. After this visit, David attends school at Salem House, which is run by a man named Mr. Creakle. David befriends and idolizes an egotistical young man named James Steerforth. David also befriends Tommy Traddles, an unfortunate, fat young boy who is beaten more than the others.

David’s mother dies, and David returns home, where the Murdstones neglect him. He works at Mr. Murdstone’s wine-bottling business and moves in with Mr. Micawber, who mismanages his finances. When Mr. Micawber leaves London to escape his creditors, David decides to search for his father’s sister, Miss Betsey Trotwood—his only living relative. He walks a long distance to Miss Betsey’s home, and she takes him in on the advice of her mentally unstable friend, Mr. Dick.

Miss Betsey sends David to a school run by a man named Doctor Strong. David moves in with Mr. Wickfield and his daughter, Agnes, while he attends school. Agnes and David become best friends. Among Wickfield’s boarders is Uriah Heep, a snakelike young man who often involves himself in matters that are none of his business. David graduates and goes to Yarmouth to visit Peggotty, who is now married to Mr. Barkis, the carrier. David reflects on what profession he should pursue.

On his way to Yarmouth, David encounters James Steerforth, and they take a detour to visit Steerforth’s mother. They arrive in Yarmouth, where Steerforth and the Peggottys become fond of one another. When they return from Yarmouth, Miss Betsey persuades David to pursue a career as a proctor, a kind of lawyer. David apprentices himself at the London firm of Spenlow and Jorkins and takes up lodgings with a woman named Mrs. Crupp. Mr. Spenlow invites David to his house for a weekend. There, David meets Spenlow’s daughter, Dora, and quickly falls in love with her.

In London, David is reunited with Tommy Traddles and Mr. Micawber. Word reaches David, through Steerforth, that Mr. Barkis is terminally ill. David journeys to Yarmouth to visit Peggotty in her hour of need. Little Em’ly and Ham, now engaged, are to be married upon Mr. Barkis’s death. David, however, finds Little Em’ly upset over her impending marriage. When Mr. Barkis dies, Little Em’ly runs off with Steerforth, who she believes will make her a lady. Mr. Peggotty is devastated but vows to find Little Em’ly and bring her home.

Miss Betsey visits London to inform David that her financial security has been ruined because Mr. Wickfield has joined into a partnership with Uriah Heep. David, who has become increasingly infatuated with Dora, vows to work as hard as he can to make their life together possible. Mr. Spenlow, however, forbids Dora from marrying David. Mr. Spenlow dies in a carriage accident that night, and Dora goes to live with her two aunts. Meanwhile, Uriah Heep informs Doctor Strong that he suspects Doctor Strong’s wife, Annie, of having an affair with her young cousin, Jack Maldon.

David Copperfield Full Book Summary

David Copperfield Full Book Summary

Previous

Next

Now a grown man, David Copperfield tells the story of his youth. As a young boy, he lives happily with his mother and his nurse, Peggotty. His father died before he was born. During David’s early childhood, his mother marries the violent Mr. Murdstone, who brings his strict sister, Miss Murdstone, into the house. The Murdstones treat David cruelly, and David bites Mr. Murdstone’s hand during one beating. The Murdstones send David away to school.

Peggotty takes David to visit her family in Yarmouth, where David meets Peggotty’s brother, Mr. Peggotty, and his two adopted children, Ham and Little Em’ly. Mr. Peggotty’s family lives in a boat turned upside down—a space they share with Mrs. Gummidge, the widowed wife of Mr. Peggotty’s brother. After this visit, David attends school at Salem House, which is run by a man named Mr. Creakle. David befriends and idolizes an egotistical young man named James Steerforth. David also befriends Tommy Traddles, an unfortunate, fat young boy who is beaten more than the others.

David’s mother dies, and David returns home, where the Murdstones neglect him. He works at Mr. Murdstone’s wine-bottling business and moves in with Mr. Micawber, who mismanages his finances. When Mr. Micawber leaves London to escape his creditors, David decides to search for his father’s sister, Miss Betsey Trotwood—his only living relative. He walks a long distance to Miss Betsey’s home, and she takes him in on the advice of her mentally unstable friend, Mr. Dick.

Miss Betsey sends David to a school run by a man named Doctor Strong. David moves in with Mr. Wickfield and his daughter, Agnes, while he attends school. Agnes and David become best friends. Among Wickfield’s boarders is Uriah Heep, a snakelike young man who often involves himself in matters that are none of his business. David graduates and goes to Yarmouth to visit Peggotty, who is now married to Mr. Barkis, the carrier. David reflects on what profession he should pursue.

On his way to Yarmouth, David encounters James Steerforth, and they take a detour to visit Steerforth’s mother. They arrive in Yarmouth, where Steerforth and the Peggottys become fond of one another. When they return from Yarmouth, Miss Betsey persuades David to pursue a career as a proctor, a kind of lawyer. David apprentices himself at the London firm of Spenlow and Jorkins and takes up lodgings with a woman named Mrs. Crupp. Mr. Spenlow invites David to his house for a weekend. There, David meets Spenlow’s daughter, Dora, and quickly falls in love with her.

In London, David is reunited with Tommy Traddles and Mr. Micawber. Word reaches David, through Steerforth, that Mr. Barkis is terminally ill. David journeys to Yarmouth to visit Peggotty in her hour of need. Little Em’ly and Ham, now engaged, are to be married upon Mr. Barkis’s death. David, however, finds Little Em’ly upset over her impending marriage. When Mr. Barkis dies, Little Em’ly runs off with Steerforth, who she believes will make her a lady. Mr. Peggotty is devastated but vows to find Little Em’ly and bring her home.

Miss Betsey visits London to inform David that her financial security has been ruined because Mr. Wickfield has joined into a partnership with Uriah Heep. David, who has become increasingly infatuated with Dora, vows to work as hard as he can to make their life together possible. Mr. Spenlow, however, forbids Dora from marrying David. Mr. Spenlow dies in a carriage accident that night, and Dora goes to live with her two aunts. Meanwhile, Uriah Heep informs Doctor Strong that he suspects Doctor Strong’s wife, Annie, of having an affair with her young cousin, Jack Maldon.

Dora and David marry, and Dora proves a terrible housewife, incompetent in her chores. David loves her anyway and is generally happy. Mr. Dick facilitates a reconciliation between Doctor Strong and Annie, who was not, in fact, cheating on her husband. Miss Dartle, Mrs. Steerforth’s ward, summons David and informs him that Steerforth has left Little Em’ly. Miss Dartle adds that Steerforth’s servant, Littimer, has proposed to her and that Little Em’ly has run away. David and Mr. Peggotty enlist the help of Little Em’ly’s childhood friend Martha, who locates Little Em’ly and brings Mr. Peggotty to her. Little Em’ly and Mr. Peggotty decide to move to Australia, as do the Micawbers, who first save the day for Agnes and Miss Betsey by exposing Uriah Heep’s fraud against Mr. Wickfield.

A powerful storm hits Yarmouth and kills Ham while he attempts to rescue a shipwrecked sailor. The sailor turns out to be Steerforth. Meanwhile, Dora falls ill and dies. David leaves the country to travel abroad. His love for Agnes grows. When David returns, he and Agnes, who has long harbored a secret love for him, get married and have several children. David pursues his writing career with increasing commercial success.

***

 

Bleak House

By Charles Dickens

SUMMARY

Esther Summerson describes her childhood and says she is leaving for the home of a new guardian, Mr. Jarndyce, along with Ada Clare and Richard Carstone. On the way to the home, called Bleak House, they stop overnight at the Jellybys’ chaotic home. When they finally reach Bleak House, they meet Mr. Jarndyce and settle in. They meet Mr. Skimpole, a man who acts like a child.

The narrator describes a ghost that lurks around Chesney Wold, the home of Lady and Sir Leicester Dedlock.

Esther meets the overbearing charity worker Mrs. Pardiggle, who introduces her to a poor brickmaker’s wife named Jenny, whose baby is ill. Esther says she is sure that Ada and Richard are falling in love. She meets Mr. Boythorn, as well as Mr. Guppy, who proposes marriage. Esther refuses him.

At Chesney Wold, Tulkinghorn shows the Dedlocks some Jarndyce documents, and Lady Dedlock recognizes the handwriting. Tulkinghorn says he’ll find out who did it. He asks Mr. Snagsby, the law-stationer, who says a man named Nemo wrote the documents. Tulkinghorn visits Nemo, who lives above a shop run by a man named Krook, and finds him dead. At the coroner’s investigation, a street urchin named Jo is questioned and says that Nemo was nice to him. Later, Tulkinghorn tells Lady Dedlock what he’s learned.

Bleak House Full Book Summary

Bleak House Full Book Summary

Previous

Next

Esther Summerson describes her childhood and says she is leaving for the home of a new guardian, Mr. Jarndyce, along with Ada Clare and Richard Carstone. On the way to the home, called Bleak House, they stop overnight at the Jellybys’ chaotic home. When they finally reach Bleak House, they meet Mr. Jarndyce and settle in. They meet Mr. Skimpole, a man who acts like a child.

The narrator describes a ghost that lurks around Chesney Wold, the home of Lady and Sir Leicester Dedlock.

Esther meets the overbearing charity worker Mrs. Pardiggle, who introduces her to a poor brickmaker’s wife named Jenny, whose baby is ill. Esther says she is sure that Ada and Richard are falling in love. She meets Mr. Boythorn, as well as Mr. Guppy, who proposes marriage. Esther refuses him.

At Chesney Wold, Tulkinghorn shows the Dedlocks some Jarndyce documents, and Lady Dedlock recognizes the handwriting. Tulkinghorn says he’ll find out who did it. He asks Mr. Snagsby, the law-stationer, who says a man named Nemo wrote the documents. Tulkinghorn visits Nemo, who lives above a shop run by a man named Krook, and finds him dead. At the coroner’s investigation, a street urchin named Jo is questioned and says that Nemo was nice to him. Later, Tulkinghorn tells Lady Dedlock what he’s learned.

Richard struggles to find a suitable career, eventually deciding to pursue medicine. But he is more interested in the Jarndyce and Jarndyce lawsuit, which he believes will make him rich. Neither Esther nor the narrator ever fully explains the lawsuit, because nobody remembers what originally prompted the parties to begin the suit.

In London, Esther meets a young girl named Charlotte who is caring for her two young siblings. A lodger who lives in the same building, Mr. Gridley, helps care for the children as well.

A mysterious lady approaches Jo and asks him to show her where Nemo is buried.

Mr. Jarndyce tells Esther some details about her background. He reveals that the woman who raised Esther was her aunt. The next day, a doctor named Mr. Woodcourt visits before leaving on a trip to China and India. An unidentified person leaves a bouquet of flowers for Esther.

Richard begins working in the law. Esther, Ada, and others visit Mr. Boythorn, who lives near Chesney Wold. There, Esther meets Lady Dedlock for the first time and feels a strange connection to her. Lady Dedlock has a French maid, Mademoiselle Hortense, who is jealous that Lady Dedlock has a new young protégée named Rosa.

A man named Mr. Jobling, a friend of Mr. Guppy’s, moves into Nemo’s old room above Krook’s shop.

Two men, George and Grandfather Smallweed, talk about some money that George owes Smallweed. They reach an agreement, and George leaves.

Tulkinghorn introduces Bucket and Snagsby, and Snagsby introduces Bucket to Jo. Bucket figures out that the woman Jo led to the burial ground was disguised in Mademoiselle Hortense’s clothes. Mademoiselle Hortense soon quits her post at Chesney Wold.

Caddy Jellyby tells Esther she is engaged to Prince Turveydrop. Charley Neckett becomes Esther’s maid. Mr. Jarndyce warns Ada and Richard to end their romantic relationship since Richard is joining the army. Gridley dies.

Smallweed visits George and says that Captain Hawdon, a man he thought was dead, is actually alive, and that a lawyer was asking about some handwriting of his. He asks George if he has any handwriting to offer. George visits Tulkinghorn, who explains that George will be rewarded if he gives up some of Hawdon’s handwriting. George refuses.

Bleak House Full Book Summary

Previous

Next

Esther Summerson describes her childhood and says she is leaving for the home of a new guardian, Mr. Jarndyce, along with Ada Clare and Richard Carstone. On the way to the home, called Bleak House, they stop overnight at the Jellybys’ chaotic home. When they finally reach Bleak House, they meet Mr. Jarndyce and settle in. They meet Mr. Skimpole, a man who acts like a child.

The narrator describes a ghost that lurks around Chesney Wold, the home of Lady and Sir Leicester Dedlock.

Esther meets the overbearing charity worker Mrs. Pardiggle, who introduces her to a poor brickmaker’s wife named Jenny, whose baby is ill. Esther says she is sure that Ada and Richard are falling in love. She meets Mr. Boythorn, as well as Mr. Guppy, who proposes marriage. Esther refuses him.

At Chesney Wold, Tulkinghorn shows the Dedlocks some Jarndyce documents, and Lady Dedlock recognizes the handwriting. Tulkinghorn says he’ll find out who did it. He asks Mr. Snagsby, the law-stationer, who says a man named Nemo wrote the documents. Tulkinghorn visits Nemo, who lives above a shop run by a man named Krook, and finds him dead. At the coroner’s investigation, a street urchin named Jo is questioned and says that Nemo was nice to him. Later, Tulkinghorn tells Lady Dedlock what he’s learned.

Richard struggles to find a suitable career, eventually deciding to pursue medicine. But he is more interested in the Jarndyce and Jarndyce lawsuit, which he believes will make him rich. Neither Esther nor the narrator ever fully explains the lawsuit, because nobody remembers what originally prompted the parties to begin the suit.

In London, Esther meets a young girl named Charlotte who is caring for her two young siblings. A lodger who lives in the same building, Mr. Gridley, helps care for the children as well.

A mysterious lady approaches Jo and asks him to show her where Nemo is buried.

Mr. Jarndyce tells Esther some details about her background. He reveals that the woman who raised Esther was her aunt. The next day, a doctor named Mr. Woodcourt visits before leaving on a trip to China and India. An unidentified person leaves a bouquet of flowers for Esther.

Richard begins working in the law. Esther, Ada, and others visit Mr. Boythorn, who lives near Chesney Wold. There, Esther meets Lady Dedlock for the first time and feels a strange connection to her. Lady Dedlock has a French maid, Mademoiselle Hortense, who is jealous that Lady Dedlock has a new young protégée named Rosa.

A man named Mr. Jobling, a friend of Mr. Guppy’s, moves into Nemo’s old room above Krook’s shop.

Two men, George and Grandfather Smallweed, talk about some money that George owes Smallweed. They reach an agreement, and George leaves.

Tulkinghorn introduces Bucket and Snagsby, and Snagsby introduces Bucket to Jo. Bucket figures out that the woman Jo led to the burial ground was disguised in Mademoiselle Hortense’s clothes. Mademoiselle Hortense soon quits her post at Chesney Wold.

Caddy Jellyby tells Esther she is engaged to Prince Turveydrop. Charley Neckett becomes Esther’s maid. Mr. Jarndyce warns Ada and Richard to end their romantic relationship since Richard is joining the army. Gridley dies.

Smallweed visits George and says that Captain Hawdon, a man he thought was dead, is actually alive, and that a lawyer was asking about some handwriting of his. He asks George if he has any handwriting to offer. George visits Tulkinghorn, who explains that George will be rewarded if he gives up some of Hawdon’s handwriting. George refuses.

Guppy visits Lady Dedlock in London and tells her he thinks there is a connection between her and Esther. He says that Esther’s former guardian was someone named Miss Barbary and that Esther’s real name was Esther Hawdon. He says that Nemo was actually named Hawdon, and that he left some letters, which Guppy will get. When Guppy leaves, Lady Dedlock cries: Esther is her daughter, who her sister claimed had died at birth.

Charley and Esther visit Jenny and find Jo lying on the floor. He is sick, and Esther takes him back to Bleak House, putting him up in the stable. In the morning, he has disappeared. Charley gets very ill. Then Esther gets extremely ill.

Guppy and his friend Jobling want to get Hawdon’s letters from Krook. But when they go down to Krook’s shop, they find that he has spontaneously combusted. Later, Grandfather Smallweed arrives to take care of Krook’s property. Guppy eventually tells Lady Dedlock the letters were destroyed.

Smallweed demands payment from George and the Bagnets, on whose behalf he borrowed the money. Desperate, he tells Tulkinghorn he’ll turn over the Hawdon’s handwriting if he’ll leave the Bagnets alone.

Esther recovers slowly. Miss Flite visits her, telling her that a mysterious woman visited Jenny’s cottage, asking about Esther and taking away a handkerchief Esther had left. She also tells Esther that Mr. Woodcourt has returned. Esther goes to Mr. Boythorn’s house to recover fully. She looks in a mirror for the first time and sees that her face is terribly scarred from the smallpox. While there, Lady Dedlock confronts her and tells her she’s Esther’s mother. She orders Esther to never speak to her again, since this must remain a secret.

Richard pursues the Jarndyce lawsuit more earnestly, aided by a lawyer named Vholes. He no longer speaks to Mr. Jarndyce, who doesn’t want anything to do with the suit.

Esther visits Guppy and instructs him to stop investigating her.

Tulkinghorn visits Chesney Wold and hints that he knows Lady Dedlock’s secret. She confronts him and says she will leave Chesney Wold immediately because she knows her secret will destroy Rosa’s marriage prospects. Tulkinghorn convinces her to stay, since fleeing will make her secret known too fast. When Tulkinghorn is back home, he is visited by Mademoiselle Hortense, who demands he help her find a job. He threatens to arrest her if she keeps harassing him.

Esther tells Mr. Jarndyce about Lady Dedlock. He reveals that Boythorn was once in love with Miss Barbary, who left him when she decided to raise Esther in secret. Mr. Jarndyce gives Esther a letter that asks her to marry him. Esther accepts.

Esther tries to convince Richard to abandon the Jarndyce suit. While she is visiting him, he tells her he has left the army and devoted himself entirely to the lawsuit. Esther sees Mr. Woodcourt on the street. She asks Mr. Woodcourt to befriend Richard in London, and he agrees.

In London, Woodcourt runs into Jo on the street and gives him some food. He discovers that Jo once stayed with Esther. Jo tells him that a man forced him to leave and that he’s now scared of running into him. Woodcourt helps Jo find a hiding place at George’s Shooting Gallery. Jo soon dies.

Lady Dedlock dismisses Rosa with no explanation in order to protect her. Tulkinghorn is enraged and says he’ll reveal the secret. That night, Tulkinghorn is shot through the heart. The next day, Bucket arrests George for the murder.

Ada reveals to Esther that she and Richard have been secretly married.

Bucket investigates Tulkinghorn’s murder. He receives a few letters that say only “Lady Dedlock.” He confronts Sir Leicester and tells him what he knows about Lady Dedlock’s past. Instead of arresting Lady Dedlock, however, he arrests Mademoiselle Hortense, who killed Tulkinghorn and tried to frame Lady Dedlock.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Rouncewell, the housekeeper at Chesney Wold, finds out that George is her long-lost son. She begs Lady Dedlock to do anything she can to help him. Guppy arrives and tells Lady Dedlock that the letters were actually not destroyed. Lady Dedlock writes a note to Sir Leicester, saying she didn’t murder Tulkinghorn, and then she flees.

Sir Leicester collapses from a stroke. Mrs. Rouncewell gives him Lady Dedlock’s letter, and he orders Bucket to find her, saying he forgives her for everything. Bucket asks Esther to join him, and they set out in search of Lady Dedlock in the middle of the night. While Sir Leicester waits at home, unable to speak clearly, Esther and Bucket search. Eventually Bucket figures out where to find her. They finally find Lady Dedlock at the gate of the burial ground where Hawdon is buried. She is dead.

Richard is sick and still obsessed with Jarndyce and Jarndyce. Ada is pregnant and hopes the baby will distract Richard from his obsession with the lawsuit. After visiting Richard one night, Woodcourt walks Esther home and confesses he still loves her as he once did. She tells him she is engaged to Mr. Jarndyce.

Smallweed finds a Jarndyce will among Krook’s property and gives it to Vholes.

George moves to Chesney Wold, where he helps tend to Sir Leicester.

Esther begins to plan the wedding. Mr. Jarndyce goes to Yorkshire on business and then sends for her. When she arrives, she finds out that Mr. Jarndyce has bought a house for Woodcourt out of gratitude. He shows her the house, which is decorated in Esther’s style, and tells her that he’s named the house Bleak House. Then he reveals that he knows she loves Woodcourt and that they should be married. He says he will always be her guardian. Woodcourt appears, and he and Esther reunite.

The Jarndyce and Jarndyce case is finally dismissed. No one gets any money since the inheritance had been used up to pay the legal fees. Richard dies.

Esther says she and Woodcourt have two daughters and that Ada had a son. She is very happy.

***

 

WUTHERING HEIGHTS BY Emily Brontë

WUTHERING HIEIGHTS & ROMANTICISM

CRITICAL EVALUATION:

Wuthering Heights, Emily  Brontë's only novel, was published in 1847 under the pseudonym "Ellis Bell". It was written between October 1845 and June 1846. Wuthering Heights and Anne Brontë's Agnes Grey were accepted by publisher Thomas Newby before the success of their sister Charlotte's novel Jane Eyre. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë's only novel, was published in 1847 under the pseudonym "Ellis Bell". It was written between October 1845 and June 1846. Wuthering Heights and Anne Brontë's Agnes Grey were accepted by publisher Thomas Newby before the success of their sister Charlotte's novel Jane Eyre.

ROMANTICISM AND THE BRONTËS

Romanticism, the literary movement traditionally dated 1798 to 1832 in England, affected all the arts through the nineteenth century. The Brontës were familiar with the writings of the major romantic poets and the novels of Sir Walter Scott. When Charlotte Brontë, for instance, wanted an evaluation of her writing, she sent a sample to the romantic poet Southey. The romantic elements in the Brontës' writings are obvious. Walter Pater saw in Wuthering Heights the characteristic spirit of romanticism, particularly in "the figures of Hareton Earnshaw, of Catherine Linton, and of Heathcliff–tearing open Catherine's grave, removing one side of her coffin, that he may really lie beside her in death–figures so passionate, yet woven on a background of delicately beautiful, moorland scenery, being typical examples of that spirit."

As the details of their lives became generally known and as Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights received increasingly favorable critical attention, Charlotte, Emily, and Anne were cast in the role of Romantic Rebels. Contributing to the Romantic Rebels Myth was the association of Romanticism and early death; Shelley having died at 29, Byron at 36, and Keats at 24. Branwell died at the age of 31, Emily at 30, and Anne at 29; to add to the emotional impact, Branwell, Emily, and Anne died in the space of nine months. The Romantic predilection for early death appears in Wuthering Heights; Linton is 17 when he dies; Catherine, 18; Hindley, 27; Isabella, 31; Edgar, 39; Heathcliff, perhaps 37 or 38.

ROMANTIC ELEMENTS IN WUTHERING HEIGHTS

The major characteristics of Romanticism could be extrapolated from a reading of Wuthering Heights:

the imagination is unleashed to explore extreme states of being and experiences.

the love of nature is not presented just in its tranquil and smiling aspects but also appears in its wild, stormy moods, nature is a living, vitalizing force and offers a refuge from the constraints of civilization, the passion driving Catherine and Heathcliff and their obsessive love for each other are the center of their being and transcend death, so great a focus is placed on the individual that society is pushed to the periphery of the action and the reader's consciousness, the concern with identity and the creation of the self are a primary concern, childhood and the adult's developing from childhood experiences are presented realistically, Heathcliff is the Byronic hero; both are rebellious, passionate, misanthropic, isolated, and willful, have mysterious origins, lack family ties, reject external restrictions and control, and seek to resolve their isolation by fusing with a love object, Hareton is the noble savage and, depending on your reading of the novel, so is Heathcliff, Brontë experiments with the narrative structure (the Chinese-box structure in which Lockwood narrates what Nelly tells him, who repeats what others told her), the taste for local color shows in the portrayal of Yorkshire, its landscape, its folklore, and its people, the supernatural or the possibility of the supernatural appears repeatedly.

ROMANTIC LOVE IN WUTHERING HEIGHTS

Romantic love takes many forms in Wuthering Heights: the grand passion of Heathcliff and Catherine, the insipid sentimental languishing of Lockwood, the coupleism of Hindley and Frances, the tame indulgence of Edgar, the romantic infatuation of Isabella, the puppy love of Cathy and Linton, and the flirtatious sexual attraction of Cathy and Hareton. These lovers, with the possible exception of Hareton and Cathy, are ultimately self-centered and ignore the needs, feelings, and claims of others; what matters is the lovers' own feelings and needs.

Nevertheless, it is the passion of Heathcliff and Catherine that most readers respond to and remember and that has made this novel one of the great love stories not merely of English literature but of European literature as well. Simone de Beauvois cites Catherine's cry, "I am Heathcliff," in her discussion of romantic love, and movie adaptations of the novel include a Mexican and a French version. In addition, their love has passed into popular culture; Kate Bush and Pat Benetar both recorded "Wuthering Heights," a song which Bush wrote, and MTV showcased the lovers in a musical version.

The love-relationship of Heathcliff and Catherine, but not that of the other lovers, has become an archetype; it expresses the passionate longing to be whole, to give oneself unreservedly to another and gain a whole self or sense of identity back, to be all-in-all for each other, so that nothing else in the world matters, and to be loved in this way forever. This type of passion-love can be summed up in the phrase more--and still more , for it is insatiable, unfulfillable, and unrelenting in its demands upon both lovers.

----------------------------------------

CRITICAL GLANCE AT WUTHERING HEIGHTS

Initially Jane Eyre was regarded as the best of the Brontë sisters' novels, a judgment which continued nearly to the end of the century. By the 1880s critics began to place Emily's achievement above Charlotte's; a major factor in this shift was Mary Robinson's book-length biography of Emily (1883). In 1926, Charles Percy Sanger worked out the chronology of Wuthering Heights by closely examining the text; though other critics have since worked out alternate chronologies, his work affirmed Emily's literary craft and meticulous planning of the novel and disproved Charlotte's presentation of her sister as an  unconscious artist who "did not know what she had done." Critics are still arguing about the structure of Wuthering Heights:  for Mark Schorer it is one of the most carefully constructed novels in English, but for Albert J. Guerard it is a splendid, imperfect novel which Brontë loses control over occasionally.

Despite the increasing critical admiration for Wuthering Heights, Lord David Cecil could write, in 1935, that Emily Brontë was not properly appreciated; even her admirers saw her as an "unequal genius." He countered this view by identifying the operation of cosmic forces as the central impetus and controlling force in the novel. He was not the first critic to perceive cosmic forces in the novel; Virginia Woolf, for one, had earlier written of Emily Brontë and her novel that

She looked out upon a world cleft into gigantic disorder and felt within her the power to unite it in a book. That gigantic ambition is to be felt throughout the novel–a struggle, half thwarted but of superb conviction, to say something through the mouths of her characters which is not merely "I love" or "I hate," but "we, the whole human race" and "you, the eternal powers..." the sentence remains unfinished.

Nevertheless, Cecil's theory that a principle of calm and storm informed the novel was a critical milestone because it provided a comprehensive interpretation which presented the novel as a unified whole. He introduced a reading which later critics have generally responded to, whether to build on or to reject. Cecil premised that, because Emily was concerned with what life means, she focused on her characters' place in the cosmos, in which everything–alive or not, intellectual or physical–was animated by one of two spiritual principles: the principle of the storm, which was harsh, ruthless, wild, dynamic and wild, and the principle of calm , which was gentle, merciful, passive, and tame. The usual distinction between human being and nature did not exist for her; rather, for her, they were alive in the same way, an angry man and an angry sky both literally manifesting the same spiritual principle of storm. Cecil cautioned that in spite of their apparent opposition these principles are not conflicting. Either–Emily Brontë does not make clear which she thinks–each is the expression of a different aspect of a single pervading spirit; or they are the component parts of a harmony. They may not seem so to us. The world of our experience is, on the face of it, full of discord. But that is only because in the cramped condition of their earthly incarnation these principles are diverted from following the course that their nature dictates, and get in each other's way. They are changed from positive into negative forces; the calm becomes a source of weakness, not of harmony, in the natural scheme, the storm a source not of fruitful vigour, but of disturbance. But when they are free from fleshly bonds they flow unimpeded and unconflicting; and even in this world their discords are transitory. The single principle that ultimately directs them sooner or later imposes an equilibrium....

Because these principles were neither good nor evil but just were, the novel was not concerned with moral issues and judgments; rather, it presented, in Cecil's view, a pre-moral world.

Just as Brontë resolved the usual conflict between the principles of storm and calm into equilibrium, so she resolved the traditional opposition between life and death by allowing for the immorality of the soul in life as well as in the afterlife. Cecil extrapolated, "The spiritual principle of which the soul is a manifestation is active in this life: therefore, the disembodied soul continues to be active in this life. Its ruling preoccupations remain the same after death as before." In other words, the individual's nature and passions did not end with death; rather, death allowed their free expression and fulfillment and so held the promise of peace. This was why Catherine's spirit haunted Wutheirng Heights after her death.

Cecil's theory is one of the twentieth century outpourings of interpretations trying to prove the novel had a unified structure. Surveying these myriad efforts, J. Hillis Miller challenged the assumption that the novel presents a unified, coherent, single meaning: "The secret truth about Wuthering Heights, rather, is that there is no secret truth which criticism might formulate in this way... It leaves something important still unaccounted for... The text is over-rich." He suggests that readers and critics should push their reading of or theory about the novel as far as they can, until they can face the fact that their interpretation fails to account for all the elements in the novel, that the novel is not amenable to logical interpretation or to one interpretation which accounts for the entire novel.

Perhaps F.R. Leavis penned the most quoted (most infamous?) modern interpretation of Wuthering Heights when he excluded it from the great tradition of the English novel because it was a "sport," i.e., had no meaningful connection to fiction which preceded it or influence on fiction which followed it.

THE GOTHIC AND WUTHERING HEIGHTS

Whether or not Wuthering Heights should be classified as a Gothic novel (certainly it is not merleya Gothic novel), it undeniably contains Gothic elements.

In true Gothic fashion, boundaries are trespassed, specifically love crossing the boundary between life and death and Heathcliff's transgressing social class and family ties. Brontë follows Walpole and Radcliffe in portraying the tyrannies of the father and the cruelties of the patriarchal family and in reconstituting the family on non-patriarchal lines, even though no counterbalancing matriarch or matriarchal family is presented. Brontë has incorporated the Gothic trappings of imprisonment and escape, flight, the persecuted heroine, the heroine wooed by a dangerous and a good suitor, ghosts, necrophilia, a mysterious foundling, and revenge. The weather-buffeted Wuthering Heights is the traditional castle, and Catherine resembles Ann Radcliffe's heroines in her appreciation of nature. Like the conventional Gothic hero-villain, Heathcliff is a mysterious figure who destroys the beautiful woman he pursues and who usurps inheritances, and with typical Gothic excess he batters his head against a tree. There is the hint of necrophilia in Heathcliff's viewings of Catherine's corpse and his plans to be buried next to her and a hint of incest in their being raised as brother and sister or, as a few critics have suggested, in Heathcliff's being Catherine's illegitimate half-brother.

A FEMINIST THEORY OF THE GOTHIC AND WUTHERING HEIGHTS

Ellen Moers has propounded a feminist theory that related women writers in general and Emily Brontë in particular to the Gothic. Middle-class women who wanted to write were hampered by the conventional image of ladies as submissive, pious, gentle, loving, serene, domestic angels; they had to overcome the conventional patronizing, smug, unempowering, contemptuous sentimentalizing of women by reviewers like George Henry Lewes, who looked down on women writers: Women's proper sphere of activity is elsewhere [than writing]. Are there no husbands, lovers, brothers, friends to coddle and console? Are there no stockings to darn, no purses to make, no braces to embroider? My idea of a perfect woman is one who can write but won't.

What subversive values and taboo experiences does Emily Brontë express with her passionate heroine Catherine? Moers sees subversion in Brontë's acceptance of the cruel as a normal, almost an energizing part of life and in her portrayal of the erotic in childhood. The cruelty connects this novel to the Gothic tradition, which has been associated with women writers since Anne Radcliffe . The connection was, in fact, recognized by Brontë's contemporaries; the Athenaeumreviewer labeled the Gothic elements in Wuthering Heights "the eccentricities of ‘woman's fantasy'" (1847). Moers thinks a more accurate word than eccentricities would be perversities. These perversities may have originated in "fantasies derived from the night side of the Victorian nursery–a world where childish cruelty and childish sexuality come to the fore." Of particular importance for intellectual middle-class women who never matured sexually was the brother-sister relationship.

WUTHERING HEIGHTS AS SOCIO-ECONOMIC NOVEL

The novel opens in 1801, a date Q.D. Leavis believes Brontë chose in order "to fix its happenings at a time when the old rough farming culture, based on a naturally patriarchal family life, was to be challenged, tamed and routed by social and cultural changes; these changes produced Victorian class consciousness and ‘unnatural' ideal of gentility." In 1801 the Industrial Revolution was under way in England; when Emily Brontë was writing in 1847, it was a dominant force in English economy and society, and the traditional relationship of social classes was being disrupted by mushroom-new fortunes and an upwardly-aspiring middle class. The criterion for defining a gentleman was shifting to money, from character, breeding, or family. This social-economic reality provides the context for socio-economic readings of the novel.

WUTHERING HIEIGHTS & ROMANTICISM

CRITICAL EVALUATION:

Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë's only novel, was published in 1847 under the pseudonym "Ellis Bell". It was written between October 1845 and June 1846. Wuthering Heights and Anne Brontë's Agnes Grey were accepted by publisher Thomas Newby before the success of their sister Charlotte's novel Jane Eyre. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë's only novel, was published in 1847 under the pseudonym "Ellis Bell". It was written between October 1845 and June 1846. Wuthering Heights and Anne Brontë's Agnes Grey were accepted by publisher Thomas Newby before the success of their sister Charlotte's novel Jane Eyre.

ROMANTICISM AND THE BRONTËS

Romanticism, the literary movement traditionally dated 1798 to 1832 in England, affected all the arts through the nineteenth century. The Brontës were familiar with the writings of the major romantic poets and the novels of Sir Walter Scott. When Charlotte Brontë, for instance, wanted an evaluation of her writing, she sent a sample to the romantic poet Southey. The romantic elements in the Brontës' writings are obvious. Walter Pater saw in Wuthering Heights the characteristic spirit of romanticism, particularly in "the figures of Hareton Earnshaw, of Catherine Linton, and of Heathcliff–tearing open Catherine's grave, removing one side of her coffin, that he may really lie beside her in death–figures so passionate, yet woven on a background of delicately beautiful, moorland scenery, being typical examples of that spirit."

As the details of their lives became generally known and as Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights received increasingly favorable critical attention, Charlotte, Emily, and Anne were cast in the role of Romantic Rebels. Contributing to the Romantic Rebels Myth was the association of Romanticism and early death; Shelley having died at 29, Byron at 36, and Keats at 24. Branwell died at the age of 31, Emily at 30, and Anne at 29; to add to the emotional impact, Branwell, Emily, and Anne died in the space of nine months. The Romantic predilection for early death appears in Wuthering Heights; Linton is 17 when he dies; Catherine, 18; Hindley, 27; Isabella, 31; Edgar, 39; Heathcliff, perhaps 37 or 38.

ROMANTIC ELEMENTS IN WUTHERING HEIGHTS

The major characteristics of Romanticism could be extrapolated from a reading of Wuthering Heights:

the imagination is unleashed to explore extreme states of being and experiences.

the love of nature is not presented just in its tranquil and smiling aspects but also appears in its wild, stormy moods, nature is a living, vitalizing force and offers a refuge from the constraints of civilization, the passion driving Catherine and Heathcliff and their obsessive love for each other are the center of their being and transcend death, so great a focus is placed on the individual that society is pushed to the periphery of the action and the reader's consciousness, the concern with identity and the creation of the self are a primary concern, childhood and the adult's developing from childhood experiences are presented realistically, Heathcliff is the Byronic hero; both are rebellious, passionate, misanthropic, isolated, and willful, have mysterious origins, lack family ties, reject external restrictions and control, and seek to resolve their isolation by fusing with a love object, Hareton is the noble savage and, depending on your reading of the novel, so is Heathcliff, Brontë experiments with the narrative structure (the Chinese-box structure in which Lockwood narrates what Nelly tells him, who repeats what others told her), the taste for local color shows in the portrayal of Yorkshire, its landscape, its folklore, and its people, the supernatural or the possibility of the supernatural appears repeatedly.

ROMANTIC LOVE IN WUTHERING HEIGHTS

Romantic love takes many forms in Wuthering Heights: the grand passion of Heathcliff and Catherine, the insipid sentimental languishing of Lockwood, the coupleism of Hindley and Frances, the tame indulgence of Edgar, the romantic infatuation of Isabella, the puppy love of Cathy and Linton, and the flirtatious sexual attraction of Cathy and Hareton. These lovers, with the possible exception of Hareton and Cathy, are ultimately self-centered and ignore the needs, feelings, and claims of others; what matters is the lovers' own feelings and needs.

Nevertheless, it is the passion of Heathcliff and Catherine that most readers respond to and remember and that has made this novel one of the great love stories not merely of English literature but of European literature as well. Simone de Beauvois cites Catherine's cry, "I am Heathcliff," in her discussion of romantic love, and movie adaptations of the novel include a Mexican and a French version. In addition, their love has passed into popular culture; Kate Bush and Pat Benetar both recorded "Wuthering Heights," a song which Bush wrote, and MTV showcased the lovers in a musical version.

The love-relationship of Heathcliff and Catherine, but not that of the other lovers, has become an archetype; it expresses the passionate longing to be whole, to give oneself unreservedly to another and gain a whole self or sense of identity back, to be all-in-all for each other, so that nothing else in the world matters, and to be loved in this way forever. This type of passion-love can be summed up in the phrase more--and still more , for it is insatiable, unfulfillable, and unrelenting in its demands upon _both_ lovers.

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Sense and Sensibility

by  Jane Austen. 

It is a novel written by Jane Austen and published in 1811. Set in the early 19th century, the novel follows the lives and romantic entanglements of the Dashwood sisters, Elinor and Marianne, as they navigate the societal expectations, financial challenges, and matters of the heart.

The title, "Sense and Sensibility," reflects the contrasting personalities of the two sisters. Elinor Dashwood embodies sense, representing practicality, restraint, and a rational approach to life. On the other hand, Marianne Dashwood embodies sensibility, characterized by passion, emotion, and a more spontaneous nature.

The novel explores themes such as love, social class, and the role of women in a society where marriage often determined a woman's future. Austen's sharp wit and keen observations of human behavior are evident throughout the narrative, making "Sense and Sensibility" a classic work of literature that continues to captivate readers with its timeless portrayal of relationships and societal norms.

2) Summary:-

"Sense and Sensibility" by Jane Austen revolves around the lives of the Dashwood sisters, Elinor and Marianne, as they navigate the challenges of love, societal expectations, and financial uncertainties.

1. **The Dashwood Family:** The novel begins with the death of Mr. Dashwood, leaving his second wife, Mrs. Dashwood, and their three daughters – Elinor, Marianne, and Margaret – in a precarious financial situation. The family is forced to move to a more modest residence, Barton Cottage, on the generosity of a distant relative.

2. **Contrasting Personalities:** Elinor Dashwood is characterized by "sense," displaying practicality and a composed demeanor. Marianne, in contrast, embodies "sensibility," with her passionate and emotional nature. The sisters' differing approaches to life and love become central to the story.

3. **Romantic Entanglements:** Elinor develops an affection for Edward Ferrars, a reserved and seemingly unattainable young man. Marianne falls deeply in love with the dashing and romantic John Willoughby. However, both sisters face obstacles and heartbreak in their pursuit of happiness.

4. **Social Expectations:** The novel explores the constraints of societal norms, particularly regarding marriage and class. The Dashwood sisters must navigate a world where financial stability and social standing play significant roles in romantic relationships.

5. **Heartbreak and Resilience:** Marianne's impulsive pursuit of love results in heartbreak when Willoughby's true character is revealed. Elinor, facing her own challenges, maintains her composure despite the emotional turmoil. Both sisters demonstrate resilience in the face of adversity.

6. **Resolution:** Ultimately, Elinor finds happiness with Edward Ferrars, whose circumstances become more favorable. Marianne, after a period of reflection, discovers a deeper and more mature love with Colonel Brandon, a character initially overlooked.

Through its exploration of love, societal expectations, and the balance between reason and emotion, "Sense and Sensibility" showcases Jane Austen's keen understanding of human nature and her ability to craft a story that remains relevant and engaging across generations.

3) Critical analysis :-

"Sense and Sensibility" by Jane Austen is a novel that delves into the nuances of human character, societal norms, and the complexities of love. Here's a critical analysis of some key aspects:

1. **Satirical Social Commentary:**

- Austen employs sharp satire to critique the social norms of her time. The novel scrutinizes the rigid class structure, the emphasis on wealth and status, and the limitations placed on women, particularly in the context of marriage.

2. **Characterization:**

- The characters in "Sense and Sensibility" are meticulously crafted to represent different facets of human nature. Elinor embodies prudence and rationality, navigating the challenges with poise. Marianne, on the other hand, represents romantic idealism and emotional impulsiveness. The contrast between the sisters serves as a lens through which Austen explores the balance between sense and sensibility.

3. **Exploration of Gender Roles:**

- Austen challenges traditional gender roles, portraying her female characters as complex individuals with intellect and agency. Elinor, in particular, defies stereotypes of the passive and emotional woman, showcasing strength and resilience in the face of adversity.

4. **Irony and Humor:**

- Austen's use of irony and humor is evident throughout the narrative. The gap between appearance and reality, especially in romantic relationships, is a recurring theme. The characters often find themselves in ironic situations, highlighting the discrepancy between societal expectations and individual desires.

5. **Love and Marriage:**

- The novel scrutinizes the institution of marriage, revealing the economic and social considerations that often govern romantic unions. Marriages based on genuine affection, such as Elinor's with Edward Ferrars and Marianne's with Colonel Brandon, are contrasted with those motivated by financial gain, as seen in Lucy Steele's marriage to Robert Ferrars.

6. **Evolution of Characters:**

- The characters undergo significant development and growth throughout the novel. Marianne's transformation from impulsive romanticism to a more measured understanding of love is a central theme. Elinor's resilience in the face of personal disappointment showcases her maturity and strength.

In "Sense and Sensibility," Jane Austen's mastery lies not only in her storytelling but also in her ability to use wit, irony, and keen observation to critique the societal norms of her time. The novel's enduring appeal lies in its timeless exploration of human nature and the intricacies of relationships.