The Edwardian Period

Question 1

King Edward VII (period)

Answer 1

1901-1910
- peaceful, no wars
- the key word = transition

Question 2

Why wasn’t the time as idyllic as it seemed to the higher classes?

Answer 2

• the rate of economic growth was stagnating
• its naval supremacy was actively challenged
• the armaments race became serious
• the Irish question was still burning and acute

Question 3

parlimentary changes

Answer 3

• women could vote
• 1900 - the Labour Representation Committee
• 1906 - nineteen candidates supported by the LRC parliamentary seats
• reforms → the introduction of so-called “People’s Budget”
• the House of Lords deprived of all power over bills, limited influence over all other legislation

Question 4

2 major tendencies in fiction?

Answer 4

1) writers who follow the tradition of the 19th century novel – traditional realists
2) writers who are innovative – forerunners of Modernism

Question 5

Writers who follow the tradition of the 19th century novel?

Answer 5

John Galsworthy
Arnold Bennett
H.G. Wells
early P.G. Wodehouse

Question 6

Writers who are innovative – forerunners of Modernism?

Answer 6

later Henry James
Joseph Conrad
E. M. Forster

Question 7

Old Wives’ Tale
- author

Answer 7

Arnold Bennett

Question 8

Tono Bungay
- author + info

Answer 8

Herbert George Wells

• the metaphor of English society seen as a large country house

Question 9

Who wrote:
- humorous stories and novels about eccentric members of the upper classes in country houses
- butler Jeeves

Answer 9

Pelham Grenville Wodehouse

Question 10

The Wings of the Dove
- author

Answer 10

Henry James

Question 11

The Time Machine
- author

Answer 11

Wells
- science fiction

Question 12

The Ambassadors
- author

Answer 12

Henry James

Question 13

The Forsyte Saga
- author

Answer 13

John Galsworthy
- main character Soames Forsyte

Question 14

Anna of the Five Towns
- author

Answer 14

Arnold Bennett

Question 15

The Island of Dr Moreau
- author

Answer 15

Wells
- science fiction

Question 16

Who were the greatest anticipators of modernism?
+ features

Answer 16

Joseph Conrad and E. M. Foster
- incoherence
- dislocation
- confusion
- dissolution of moral and political certainties
- alienation of the individual from society

Question 17

Joseph Conrad
- characteristics

Answer 17

• he visited the Congo Free State
• he learned English only as his third language
• his works = parables
• inconclusive experience
• fragmentariness of human experience
• episodic structure
• characters in extreme life situations
• psychological and moral scrutiny (inspection)
• a lucid view of the human condition
• multiple narrative perspectives
• time shifts
• e.g. Heart of Darkness

Question 18

“Celtic Revival”
- author

Answer 18

William Butler Yeats

Question 19

Where Angels Fear to Tread
- author

Answer 19

E. M. Foster

Question 20

Lord Jim
- author

Answer 20

Joseph Conrad

Question 21

E. M. Foster
- characteristics

Answer 21

• studied at Cambridge - there he met members of what was later to become the Bloomsbury Group
• novels - deceptively simple, BUT contain deeper, symbolic meaning levels in their ironic and well-plotted stories
• they examine the class difference and hypocrisy in early 20th century British society

Question 22

Michael Robartes and the Dancer (contains “The Second Coming)
- author

Answer 22

William Butler Yeats

Question 23

William Butler Yeats

Answer 23

• born in Dublin but spent two thirds of his life out of Ireland
• interests - Irish cultural and political patriotism and nationalism and mysticism
• Nobel Prize

Question 24

The Longest Journey
- author

Answer 24

E. M. Foster

Question 25

The Tower
- author

Answer 25

William Butler Yeats