Four Years of Novel Reading | Page 9

NOVEL
Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bront‘.
Points to be noted (suggested by Dr. A. S. Percival).
1. The book is neither artistic nor realistic, yet it possesses an
engrossing interest. On what does the interest depend?
2. The characters:
Jane Eyre, a woman of little human sympathy, upright by rule rather
than from any impulsive love of right. Note the vulgarity of her distrust
of Rochester during her engagement.
Rochester, a woman's false type of manliness. He has a certain nobility,
though his roughness and coarseness detract from the strength of his
character.

St. John Rivers, a selfish prig; his uprightness based purely on hope of
future reward.
Debate. Can Rochester's conduct to Jane Eyre be justified?
Essay. The character of the author as revealed in the book.

TENTH NOVEL
Wives and Daughters, by Mrs. Gaskell.
Points to be noted (suggested by Miss Peard}.
1. Note especially with what subtlety the laws of heredity are shown to
work in the characters of Mrs. Gibson and Molly, Mrs. Gibson and
Cynthia, the Squire and Mrs. Hamley, and their two sons; the
modification or accentuation of certain traits in the children.
2. The charm of truthfulness and absence of exaggeration in the book.
Debate. Was cowardice the moral failing which worked most mischief
in the course of the story?
Essay. The law of heredity as shown in various characters in the book.

ELEVENTH NOVEL
Romola, by George Eliot.
Points to be noted (suggested by W. E. Norris, Esq.}.
It is to the study of Tito Melema in chief that Romola excellent as the
work is throughout owes its immortality. Note especially how his
selfishness and cowardice have to be indicated so early in the book, that
the reader's sympathies are necessarily alienated from him, and it is
therefore all the greater triumph on the writer's part to have conveyed

the impression that in real life his charm would have been almost
irresistible. To have discovered something about the methods by which
this character has been made to stand upon his feet is, no doubt, to have
discovered something about the technical side of light literature.
Essays.
1. The character of Savonarola, and the secret of his influence.
2. Tito and Romola: a contrast.
3. Tito: as a political study, and a work of art.

TWELFTH NOVEL
Persuasion, by Jane Austen.
Points to be noted (suggested by J. H. Shorthouse, Esq.).
1. The extraordinary vitality of Miss Austen's characters, tho more
surprising as they are all, or nearly all, commonplace and ordinary
people.
2. The character of Anne Elliot (considered by some to be the most
perfect piece of work in English fiction).
Debate. Was Anne Elliot self-conscious? and, if so, is
self-consciousness a fault? and why?

THIRTEENTH NOVEL
Alton Locke, by Charles Kingsley.
Points to be noted (suggested by Arthur Berry, Esq., M.A.}.
1. This is essentially a novel with a purpose; namely, to raise public

opinion against the evils of sweating, to denounce cheapness and
competition, and to advocate the union of the gentry and clergy with
the working-classes against the commercial classes.
2. Note the evil influence of Lillian on Alton.
3. The character of Sandy Mackaye.
Essay. Whether it is good art to teach political or other doctrines in a
novel.
Debate. Is the conversion of Alton natural?
Essay. Literary symbolism (Sandy Mackaye Thomas Carlyle).

FOURTEENTH NOVEL
Kenilworth, by Sir Walter Scott.
Points to be noted (suggested by Mr. Thomas Dawson).
1. Note how the general interest of the book is wonderfully divided
between the narrative and the graphic pictures of English life in the
Elizabethan period. Compare and contrast these pictures with those
drawn in Westward Ho!
2. Note the character of Queen Elizabeth, especially when she
frequently betrays the weakness of her sex.
3. It is not until the honor of Amy Robsart is imperilled that the real
strength and nobility of her character is discovered.
4. Observe the mesmeric power possessed by Varney, espe cially in the
scene when Amy drinks the liquid offered by him.
Debate. Which is the greater villain Varney or Foster?
Essay. The literary use of mesmeric fascination.

FIFTEENTH NOVEL
The Wandering Jew, by Eugene Sue.
Points to be noted (suggested by Prof. R. G. Moulton).
1. Note how the legendary immortality of an individual is brought into
contact with immortality as seen (1) in a family, (2) in property
compound interest, (3) in a corporation the Jesuits.
2. Contrast the first part of the book intrigue by violent opposition with
the second part, the intrigue that acts through the passions of its
opponents. Essays.
1.The difficulties and improbabilities of the story.
2. The legend of the Wandering Jew in literature.

SIXTEENTH NOVEL
The Cloister and the Hearth, by Charles Reade.
Points to be noted (suggested by G. L. Dickinson,