Break, Break, Break
Break, break, break,
On thy cold grey stones, 0 Sea!
And I would that my tongue could utter
The thoughts that arise in me.
0 well for the fisherman's boy,
That he shouts with his sister at play!
0 well for the sailor lad,
That he sings in his boat on the bay!
And the stately ships go on
To their haven under the hill;
But 0 for the touch of a vanish'd hand,
And the sound of a voice that is still!
Break, break, break
At the foot of thy crags, 0 Sea!
But the tender grace of a day that is dead
Will never come back to me.
Charles dickens
Charles Dickens was the most inventive and the most influential of Victorian novelists. Dickens grew steadily in his mastery and in his understanding of society. His early books are, in general, richer in humour; his last ones are more bitter in satire, steadier and darker in their view of social and political forces. The popularity of this most inventive Victorian novelist has been unsurpassed, and he will be read, screened, staged, published and republished for years to come. Each of his 14 novels from Pickwick Papers (1837) to Our Mutual Friend (1865) added to the immortal reputation of their author, and introduced a fresh page in literary history.
Charles Dickens (Feb. 7, 1812, Portsmouth, Hampshire — June 9, 1870, Gad's Hill, near Chatham) was the second of eight children. The Dickenses soon left Portsmouth, and Charles' happiest childhood years of 1817-1822 were spent in Chatham, to which he often returned in his fiction. From 1822 he lived in London, until, in 1860, he moved to a country house for good. His father, a navy office clerk, had a good salary, but his extravagance often brought the family to financial disasters. In 1824, the family was ruined, and Charles, as the eldest son, had to leave school and start manual work in a factory, while his father was imprisoned for debt. This blow fell heavily on Charles' mind, and though he hated his brief working class status, he acquired a first-hand knowledge of their hardships, later to be vital for his novels, as well as the frequent images of the prison and an oppressed childhood. Fortunately, a timely inheritance tided them over, and Charles, after an interrupted schooling, found work as a lawyer's clerk, then a shorthand reporter in the law courts, and finally, like other members of his family, a parliamentary and newspaper correspondent. This experience left him with a lasting fondness of journalism and hatred towards the law and Parliament. He found permanent jobs in the periodicals Household Words, later All the Year Round, which published weekly issues of fiction, poetry, essay and used to reach 300,000 in circulation.
His literary career began with the successful publication of Sketches by Boz (1833-1836), stories about city life. But his career as a novelist was launched by accident. Because of the popularity of the Sketches, Dickens was asked to write prose pieces to accompany the merry drawings of the artist Robert Seymour. After the latter's sudden death, his successor allowed Dickens to take the lead himself, and, before long, his first novel was underway The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club (1836-1837). Its cheerfulness and romantic coloring, though with grim terror, were kept in Dickens' second novel, Oliver Twist (1838). It is the first English novel to concentrate entirely on a child protagonist. It is an early example of the social novel, calling the general attention to such evils as the Poor Law, requiring the poor to toil in workhouses, as child labour and the recruitment of children as criminals. Nicholas Nickleby (1839) is his first shocking depiction of the awful conditions in English schools. The Old Curiosity Shop (1840-1841) portrays Dickens' most sentimental character, Little Nell, and his most extraordinary portrait of the grotesque dwarf Quilp. Barnaby Rudge (1840-1841) tried to follow in Scott's path of the historical novel.
Dickens' first trip to America found its commentaries in American Notes (1842), followed by a heartless criticism of American vulgarity in Martin Chuzzlewit (1844). A travel to the Continent in 1844-1848 was responsible for Dickens' Pictures from Italy (1846) and Dombey and Son (1848), a condemnation of the capitalists for their inhumanity. David Copperfield (1850) was both the author's and the readers' favourite. This semi-autobiographical novel brought a wide gallery of memorable characters, such as Dora Copperfield, Uriah Heep, Mr. and Mrs. Micawber.
Some critics assert that Dickens' next novel is his masterpiece, Bleak House (1853), the story of a tragedy caused by the endless delays of legal processes. A Tale of Two Cities (1859), like Hard Times (1854), results from Dickens' admiration for the contemporary Scottish philosopher and historian Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881). The novel goes back to 1775 with England and France at the background.
Great Expectations (1861) is one of the perfect novels. Its exposition in the dark moors of Kent is unforgettable; exciting events, the hero's rise from poverty to the dangerous hints of arrogance, and his timely rescue, make it one of the most romantic stories. Our Mutual Friend (1865) is Dickens' last finished novel. It contains some amazing scenes on the dark water-front of the Thames.
Dickens' personality underwent great changes towards the end of his life, especially after the second triumphant American reading tour of 1867. His fame remained steady, despite some critical opinions in the last years. The American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, commenting on the American tour, said: "One can hardly take in the whole truth about it, and feel the universality of his fame." Yet, Dickens was growing more and more sad, never calm or relaxed, with less social life and disappointment in his children. He loved his country house, and he could still be warm and welcoming to his few remaining friends.
Oliver Twist or The Parish Boy's Progress
Oliver Twist, a poor orphan under the terms of the Poor Law, spends the first nine years of his life at a baby farm in the care of Mrs. Mann, with little food and few comforts. Mr. Bumble, a parish beadle, puts him to work picking oakum at the workhouse. Oliver remains in the workhouse for six months, until he asks for more food.
To get rid of this troublemaker, the board offers five pounds to any person wishing to take on the boy as an apprentice. Later, Mr. Sowerberry, an undertaker employed by the parish, takes Oliver into his service, but Noah Claypole, a bullying fellow apprentice, is jealous of Oliver's promotion to a mourner. One day, gravely offended, Oliver finally decides to run away to London.
During his journey to London, Oliver meets Jack Dawkins, who leads him to a notorious criminal known as Fagin, the "old gentleman." Oliver realises too late that their real job is to pick pockets, and, although he doesn't participate, he is chased down and arrested while two other boys run off and escape. A witness, who saw Dodger commit the crime, clears Oliver. A wealthy old gentleman, Mr. Brownlow, takes him home and cares for him.
Oliver stays with Mr. Brownlow, recovers rapidly, and blossoms from the unaccustomed kindness. But Fagin, fearing he might tell on their criminal gang, organises Oliver's kidnapping. When Mr. Brownlow sends Oliver to pay for some books, one of the gang, Nancy, with the help of her abusive lover, Bill Sykes, takes Oliver back to Fagin's lair.
In an attempt to draw Oliver into crime again, Fagin forces him to participate in a burglary. Sykes, after threatening to kill him if he does not cooperate, sends Oliver through a small window and orders him to unlock the front door. But all goes wrong, and Oliver is shot and remains with the people he was supposed to rob, Rose Maylie and the elderly Mrs. Maylie. Convinced of Oliver's innocence, Rose takes the boy in and nurses him, once again, back to health.
In the meantime, a mysterious man named Monks, together with Fagin, is plotting to destroy Oliver's reputation. Nancy, ashamed and fearful for the boy's safety, goes to Rose Maylie and Mr. Brownlow to warn them. Noah, now one of the gang, is sent by Fagin to spy on Nancy, and discovers her secret. Believing her to be a traitor, Sykes murders Nancy in a fit of rage, and is himself killed while getting away from an angry crowd. In the end Fagin's gang is ruined and Oliver returns to his kind relatives.
CHARLOTTE BRONTE
The Bronte sisters, Charlotte Bronte (April 21, 1816, Thornton, Yorkshire — March 31, 1855, Haworth, Yorkshire), Emily Bronte (1818-1848) and Anne Bronte (1820-1849), were the youngest of five daughters of a Yorkshire clergyman. In 1820, the Brontes along with six small children moved to Haworth, where their mother soon died. Two oldest daughters, Maria and Elizabeth, died young from tuberculosis and undernourishment while at school. Their aunt, Elizabeth Branwell, to help raise the children, left her native Cornwall and joined the family at Haworth. In 1824, Charlotte, together with the other sisters, attended Clergy Daughters' School at Cowan Bridge. It was an inexpensive institution with poor food and strict discipline. Later Charlotte would condemn the school in her novel Jane Eyre under the disguise of Lowood. The sisters returned home in 1825, and for more than five years learned and played, writing and telling romantic stories set in imaginary kingdoms, or invented and played games either at home or on the wild moorland.
In 1831, Charlotte attended a school in Roe Head and the following year came back home herself to teach her sisters. Her first job was a governess, and in 1843-1844 she was teaching at a Brussels school. Charlotte and Emily planned to open a local school, but no students enlisted.
Once Charlotte accidentally came across a manuscript of Emily's poems, and, since all the sisters were secretly composing them, they decided to publish a joint collection Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell (1846). The book was unsuccessful, and they turned to writing novels. Charlotte's first one, The Professor (1857), was rejected. She then offered Jane Eyre (1847), which proved an overwhelming success.
In the meantime, Emily's Wuthering Heights (1848) and Anne's Agnes Grey (1848) came out in one volume, and Anne's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848) followed soon. The name Bell made a sensation in literary circles so that the publishers were quite astonished when the three ladies openly acknowledged their authorship in London. In 1848, at their brother's funeral, Emily caught a severe cold from which she died in December; and in May of 1849, sister Anne was buried too. Charlotte remained alone to look after her blind father, and managed to finish Shirley (1849), a story about anti-industrial uprisings during the final years of the Napoleonic Wars. After its publication, her reputation increased more than ever, and she spent more time in London, admired by many famous people like Thackeray, Arnold and Elizabeth Gaskell.
In 1853, she published her last novel Villette, the most autobiographical one, centring around shattered love affair with a schoolmaster. In 1854, she accepted the marriage proposal of the Reverend Mr. Nichols, her father's church assistant, but in March of the next year she died.
Charlotte Bronte occupies an important place in the history of the novel because of her subjectivity. She so strongly centres on the personal that it almost ignores the rest of the world, and her humour is a little sad. Jane Eyre will be always remembered for its genuine passion.
Jane Eyre
Jane Eyre introduced new straightforwardness to Victorian fiction. The book's narrator and main character, Jane Eyre, an orphan, lives on the charity of her Aunt Reed. After ten years of mistreatment and bullying on the part of her aunt's three children, she is sent to a boarding school at Lowood. She suffers poverty, hunger and injustice, as Mr. Brocklehurst, the school principal, financially mismanages it. After completing her education, at age 18, she advertises and finds a job of a governess at Thornfield. After some time, Jane falls in love with the master, Mr. Rochester, whose ward, a small French girl Adele, she is teaching. Mr. Rochester, twenty years senior, eventually returns her love, but on the wedding morning it appears that Rochester is already married and keeps his mad wife in the upper floor of his mansion. Rochester then asks Jane to go with him to France, but Jane refuses to break her morals.
At night, she leaves Thornfield and takes a coach to the north of England. Penniless, she sleeps outdoors and begs for food. A young clergyman helps her out, and later, one night, he unexpectedly arrives at Jane's cottage. Guessing who Jane really is, he tells her that her uncle died and left Jane his fortune. Now being quite well off, she shares her money with the late Aunt Reed's three children.
One day, Jane goes to Thornfield, and to her horror sees the former mansion in ruins. She learns that Rochester's mad wife set the house on fire and then killed herself by jumping from the roof. Rochester rescued the servants but lost a hand and his eyesight. He now lives alone in Ferndean. Jane finds him, and at first, Rochester fears that she will refuse to marry a blind invalid, but Jane accepts him without hesitation.
The cited chapter 37 tells of Jane's return to her physically distorted but still the only love of her life.
DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI
The English painter and poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti (May 12, 1828, London — April 9, 1882, Birchington-on-Sea, Kent), was the son of a scholarly Italian immigrant, and an English mother of Italian background. In his home he early got in touch with the Italian cultural tradition. Although the Rossetti's house in London was an epicentre of controversial political and social debates, his soul longed for other heights. Having a rare gift of a painter and poet, Rossetti shifted his interest to art; beauty attracted him and beauty created a protective g* shield from the rest of contemporary Victorian life.
By 1841, after receiving a general education at King's College, Rossetti was undecided what to pursue as a vocation, poetry or painting. At age 14, he went to an old-fashioned drawing school in central London and afterwards, in 1845, to the Royal Academy. He also read romantic literature, William Shakespeare, Goethe, Lord Byron, Sir Walter Scott, and Gothic horror tales. He was also fond of the work of the American writer Edgar Allan Poe. Yet, his first poetic affection was the little known Robert Browning. In 1847, he discovered the 18th century English painter-poet William Blake on buying a volume of Blake's designs and writings in prose and verse. Blake's attacks against the painter Sir Joshua Reynolds prompted Rossetti to do the same against the triviality of early Victorian paintings.
In 1848, largely due to Rossetti's energy the English Pre-Raphealite Brotherhood was established. To reform English painting, they tried to revive the simplicity and pure colours of pre-Renaissance art. The Brotherhood also selected some personalities of high artistic appeal, such as Jesus Christ, Shakespeare, Keats, Shelley, Joan of Arc, Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. In 1850, the Pre-Raphaelites published a magazine to voice their principles in literature, The Germ, which printed Rossetti's best poem, The Blessed Damozel. His sonnet cycle, The House of Life (1870), examined the relationship between spirit and body in love.
In 1850, Rossetti fell in love with Elizabeth Siddal from the very moment he met her. Her face often appeared and reappeared in his paintings, and haunted him forever. In 1854, he met John Ruskin, a powerful but demanding art critic, whose financial generosity became a blessing to 3C Rossetti and his fellow painters. Ruskin began lecturing about the Pre-Raphaelites, and did his best to bring about the marriage with Miss Siddal. In 1860, although physically very weak, she was married to Rossetti, ten long years after their first acquaintance.
Their brief marriage ended tragically. They were bitterly quarrelling over his real or imagined affairs, and once, in 1862, coming home at midnight, he found her unconscious from an overdose of laudanum. She never recovered consciousness, and Rossetti's life was overshadowed with his sense of guilt. On her funeral, he placed the only manuscript of his poems, written for her, between her cheek and her hair in the coffin. Up to that time, only a few of his poems had been published in The Germ and in the Oxford and Cambridge Magazine (1856), as well as a book of translations, The Early Italian Poets (1861).
Later, though still under a heavy burden of guilt, he took up his pen once again. But he was haunted by the buried manuscript, whose content he strove to reconstruct. Finally, with the help of his friends, who got the manuscript back from the grave, the poems were published in 1870. For some time they were welcomed, but a harsh criticism of the article The Fleshy School of Poetry accused him of moral corruption and broke Rosetti's spirits completely. He accepted it as God's punishment for taking the manuscript from the body of his beloved, began taking drugs and rarely left home. Only writing brought some relief to his miseries and in 1881 he published the last two volumes of his poetry.