История литературы / 28. Old curiosity shop

Realism was a trend that concerned itself with the middle classes. They were really despised in the 18^th and 19^th centuries, and now they come into forefront. If the English Empire wanted to make itself prominent in literature, it should rely on the heritage of its realistic writers because they really expressed energy of the middle classes (comprise merchants, lawyers, owners of plants and the ones who tried to establish their own enterprises. Middle class citizens worked for their own benefit, and only then for the benefit of their own country. Their advantage was the ability to balance these two approaches. That was the difference between the middle class and aristocracy. The local colour of daily life was the subject matter of realists. They hardly cared about the heroes of the past and they disregarded the future. That’s why the main concern of the realistic writers was everyday life, and every step within it. The originators of the trend (French writers): Stendahl, Honore de Balzac (Comedie Humaine), Gustave Flaubert (Madame Bovary). In England the first writer who suggested the beginning of realism was Charles Dickens (1812-1870). Dickens was not a very educated man. He was sent to school only in his teens. Self-education was his only resource. Exactly from self-education he took everything he knew and needed. Not so many readers can understand the essence of Dickens. For many critics Dickens is in many cases boring and insufficiently educated to create a plot. There are fields he never touched upon in his novels. Probable, he really didn’t know what to say. E.g. there is practically no love in his novels. Probably Dickens treated it as a childish affair. Lots of ideas which could excite the reader were not even spoken of – art, music, even literature, etc. Probably, they didn’t matter for him or mattered very little. That was the essence of his attitude to life. That’s why his characters seem to be unreal. He was never driven by the purpose to attract the reader’s attention. The readers were just the source of his immortal images. His images are like the summaries of the essence of the human being. All critics agree that Dickens gave us the world of his own. And in this case the world was logical and complete. His books were not caricatures as some critics say. They belonged to the world of his own. And no writer can imitate Dickens, that’s why he even had a nickname “Inimitable”. Dickens started his literary career as a reporter; and the job of every journalist is to give us facts and details. In the novel “David Copperfield” we have the peak of Dickens’ creative work. Here he proves himself to be a master of plot writing and improvisation. One more famous novel written by Dickens that differs from the other a bit is “The Old Curiosity Shop”. The Old Curiosity Shop was one of two novels which Dickens published along with short stories in his weekly serial Master Humphrey's Clock. The plot follows the life of Nell Trent and her grandfather, both residents of The Old Curiosity Shop in London. Her grandfather loves her dearly, and Nell does not complain, but she lives a lonely existence with almost no friends her own age. Her only friend is Kit, an honest boy employed at the shop, whom she is teaching to write. Nell’s grandfather is a gambler and soon he gambles away all the money they have to an ugly dwarf Quilp who seizes the opportunity to take possession of the shop. So Nell and her grandfather have to leave London and to live as beggars. The have lots of adventures, they meet lots of people on their way, both kind and evil. Their journey ends in a village where they live quiet life until Nell, and soon her grandfather, die, although at that time grandfather’s brother looks for them. So in this novel Dickens really creates the world of his own. In the “Old Curiosity Shop” there simultaneously co-exist the fairy and real worlds. E.g. Dickens describes quite a real city, London, with the names of the streets and so on, and at the same time we see this fantastic shop with fairy attributes. “The place through which he made his way at leisure was one of those receptacles for old and curious things which seem to crouch in odd corners of this town and to hide their musty treasures from the public eye in jealousy and distrust. There were suits of mail standing like ghosts in armour here and there, fantastic carvings brought from monkish cloisters, rusty weapons of various kinds, distorted figures in china and wood and iron and ivory: tapestry and strange furniture that might have been designed in dreams. The haggard aspect of the little old man was wonderfully suited to the place; he might have groped among old churches and tombs and deserted houses and gathered all the spoils with his own hands. There was nothing in the whole collection but was in keeping with himself nothing that looked older or more worn than he.” The real and fantastic worlds are not opposed, the penetrate into each other. Even the characters are fantastic as well. E.g. Mr. Quilp who is depicted as an ugly dwarf who possesses no human feature(exaggeration is often used by Dickens). “The child was closely followed by an elderly man of remarkably hard features and forbidding aspect, and so low in stature as to be quite a dwarf, though his head and face were large enough for the body of a giant. His black eyes were restless, sly, and cunning; his mouth and chin, bristly with the stubble of a coarse hard beard; and his complexion was one of that kind which never looks clean or wholesome. But what added most to the grotesque expression of his face was a ghastly smile, which, appearing to be the mere result of habit and to have no connection with any mirthful or complacent feeling, constantly revealed the few discoloured fangs that were yet scattered in his mouth, and gave him the aspect of a panting dog.” Dickens’ characters can be enumerated by the hundreds, and most of them possess a very high degree of freshness and originality. He uses many ways to depict his characters (dialogue, setting appearance, manners, commentary, etc). But the main thing is thar while describing the characters Dickens chooses the feature and goes on using it thoughout the novel, e.g. Quilp’s grimace or Mr. Swiveller’s being too eloquent and constant quoting of pieces of poetry. Dickens is seldom, if ever, impartial to his characters. He takes sides, and his attitude to them is usually manifested immediately. Despite many exaggerations in his novels, Dickens still remains very realistic, because he always gives a character study. In the novel “Old Curiosity Shop” Dickens proves himself to be a master of plot-building. The plot is complete, it has practically no loose-ends.