Masters of the English Novel

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Masters of the English Novel

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Title: Masters of the English Novel A Study Of Principles And
Personalities
Author: Richard Burton
Release Date: June 25, 2004 [EBook #12736]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MASTERS
OF THE ENGLISH NOVEL ***

MASTERS OF THE ENGLISH NOVEL:
A STUDY OF PRINCIPLES AND PERSONALITIES
BY RICHARD BURTON

PREFACE
The principle of inclusion in this book is the traditional one which
assumes that criticism is only safe when it deals with authors who are
dead. In proportion as we approach the living or, worse, speak of those
still on earth, the proper perspective is lost and the dangers of
contemporary judgment incurred. The light-minded might add, that the
dead cannot strike back; to pass judgment upon them is not only more
critical but safer.
Sometimes, however, the distinction between the living and the dead is
an invidious one. Three authors hereinafter studied are examples:
Meredith, Hardy and Stevenson. Hardy alone is now in the land of the
living, Meredith having but just passed away. Yet to omit the former,
while including the other two, is obviously arbitrary, since his work in
fiction is as truly done as if he, like them, rested from his literary labors
and the gravestone chronicled his day of death. For reasons best known
to himself, Mr. Hardy seems to have chosen verse for the final
expression of his personality. It is more than a decade since he
published a novel. So far as age goes, he is the senior of Stevenson:
"Desperate Remedies" appeared when the latter was a stripling at the
University of Edinburgh. Hardy is therefore included in the survey. I
am fully aware that to strive to measure the accomplishment of those
practically contemporary, whether it be Meredith and Hardy or James
and Howells, is but more or less intelligent guess-work. Nevertheless, it
is pleasant employ, the more interesting, perhaps, to the critic and his
readers because an element of uncertainty creeps into what is said. If
the critic runs the risk of Je suis, J'y reste, he gets his reward in the
thrill of prophecy; and should he turn out a false prophet, he is consoled
by the reflection that it will place him in a large and enjoyable
company.
Throughout the discussion it has been the intention to keep steadily
before the reader the two main ways of looking at life in fiction, which
have led to the so-called realistic and romantic movements. No fear of
repetition in the study of the respective novelists has kept me from

illustrating from many points of view and taking advantage of the
opportunity offered by each author, the distinction thus set up. For back
of all stale jugglery of terms, lies a very real and permanent difference.
The words denote different types of mind as well as of art: and express
also a changed interpretation of the world of men, resulting from the
social and intellectual revolution since 1750.
No apology would appear to be necessary for Chapter Seven, which
devotes sufficient space to the French influence to show how it affected
the realistic tendency of all modern novel-making. The Scandinavian
lands, Germany, Italy, England and Spain, all have felt the leadership
of France in this regard and hence any attempt to sketch the history of
the Novel on English soil, would ignore causes, that did not
acknowledge the Gallic debt.
It may also be remarked that the method employed in the following
pages necessarily excludes many figures of no slight importance in the
evolution of English fiction. There are books a-plenty dealing with
these secondary personalities, often significant as links in the chain and
worthy of study were the purpose to present the complete history of the
Novel. By centering upon indubitable masters, the principles illustrated
both by the lesser and larger writers will, it is hoped, be brought home
with equal if not greater force.

CONTENTS
I. FICTION AND THE NOVEL II. EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
BEGINNINGS: RICHARDSON III. EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
BEGINNINGS: FIELDING IV. DEVELOPMENTS: SMOLLETT,
STERNE AND OTHERS V. REALISM: JAKE AUSTEN VI.
MODERN ROMANTICISM: SCOTT VII. FRENCH INFLUENCE
VIII. DICKENS IX. THACKERAY X. GEORGE ELIOT XI.
TROLLOPE AND OTHERS XII. HARDY AND MEREDITH XIII.
STEVENSON XIV. THE AMERICAN CONTRIBUTION
CHAPTER I

FICTION AND THE NOVEL
All the world loves a story as it does a lover. It is small wonder then
that