Novel, Society & History - I Flashcards
Where did novels first take root?
England and France.
Who were the first readers of novels?
New groups of lower middle class people such as shopkeepers and clerks along with the traditional aristocratic and gentlemanly classes in England France.
What was the effect printing press?
In ancient times manuscripts were handwritten and circulated among very few people. When printed, they were read more widely. Big cities like London were growing and getting connected to small towns through print. Readers were drawn into novels and identified with the story and characters and could think about important issues.
Why did Henry Fielding consider himself a founder of a new province?
As the earnings of authors increased, they were freed from financial dependence on the patronage of aristocrats and gave them independence to experiment with different literary styles. Henry claimed this because now he could make his own novels and was allowed flexibility in the form of writing.
Walter Scott’s novel…
Remembered and collected popular Scottish ballads which he used in his historic novels about the wars between Scottish clans.
Define epistolary novels.
Written in the from of a series of letters. Samuel Richardson’s ‘Pamela’ written in the 18th century tells mug of its story through an exchange of letters between two lovers. These letters tell the reader of the hidden conflicts in the heroine’s mind.
Define Gentlemanly classes.
People who claimed noble birth and high social position. They were supposed to set the standard for proper behaviours.
How much Henry Fielding’s ‘Tom Jones’ cost?
Published in six volumes, each volume was three shillings each- which was more than what a labourer earned in a week.
Define serialised.
A format in which the story is published in instalments; each part in a new issue of a journal. Charles Dickens’s ‘Pickwick Papers’ was serialised on a magazine.
‘Hard Times’ by Charles Dickens.
Describes Coketown, a fictitious industrial town as a grim place full of machinery, smoking chimneys, rivers polluted purple and buildings that all looked the same. Dickens criticised not only the greed for profits but also the ideas that reduced human beings into simple instruments of production.
‘Oliver Twist’ by Charles Dickens.
Dickens focused on the terrible conditions of urban life under industrial capitalism. It is about a poor orphan brought up in a cruel workhouse in a world full of petty criminals. He gets adopted by a wealthy man and lives happily ever after.
‘Germinal’ by Emile Zola.
About a young miners life in France explores the harsh lives of miners. The strike the hero leads fails, his co-workers turn against him, and hopes are shattered.
Define vernacular.
The normal, spoken form of a language rather that the formal, literary form. Thomas Hardy’s ‘Mayor Of Casterbridge’ uses this language. By coming closer to the different spoken language, the novel produces the sense of a shared world between diverse people in a nation.
