University of Santa Clara - Redwood Yearbook (Santa Clara, CA)

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The Nineteenth Century Novel Norbert Korte HE exact birth of the modern novel and its precise stages of devel- opment have always been a great bugbear to the I V 1 essayist. So much so in I iJ A ' wisest 8 l wff Ij critics abstain from at- tempting to exactly mark them out. What is certain, however, is that about the beginning of the second quarter of the eighteenth century, the period im- mediately succeeding the appearance of Defoe ' s work, there began a develop- ment of the prose novel and that this movement, due in part to one group of great writers of this style, had made very great progress by the beginning of the third quarter. It is at this time that we find Lady Montague in Italy, receiving boxes full of new novels from her daughter in England. Up to this date we can only say that there was an ever great deter- mination and concentration towards completed prose fiction. How complete this form was, is readily seen in its use in two such different ways by two such different men as Swift and De- foe. At the end of this quarter, the novel, in its incomplete and rude form had taken quite a hold upon the public and had gradually enlisted more and more the attention of the reading part of the nation. It was, at this time, that the works of Fielding, Richardson, Smol- lett and others came into prominence. Of these perhaps Fielding was the greatest. He broke away from the old severity of the seventeenth century, and by shaking off the uncouthness of pedantry and conceit had put prose into such a fictitious working, that the accomplishments hitherto gained only by the dramatist and the poet were achieved in a much larger and fuller manner through the practical re-crea- tion and presentation of life, possible only to the novelist. However, despite the great achieve- ments of these men, the novel still ranked low, nor altogether undeserved- ly. It was too apt to abase and annoy in sentiment or to grumble and com- plain in moralizations. No writers of Fielding ' s type had arisen to infuse a broadness into it, and at the same time, keep it close to contemporary life. Al- though the historical type, after many attempts and failures, was becoming popular, still no one had in the least succeeded with it. It is true that the last decade of the century saw an ex- tensive amount of novel writing and that the talent displayed by some of the 12

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THE REDWOOD 11 That laughter like fairy bells tinkling On your lips ever lovely lies ; Lips that I know are rosebuds blown From bleeding sunset skies; That laughter like streams that gurgle And purl on an upland lawn, Laughter shaming Pipes of Pan, or Lilting of larks at dawn. But your laughter that eve we parted Held hint of fettered tears For you promised to think (remember?) Of me in the waning years. And I sometimes have to wonder Does only myself hold debt, And you, my love forgive me. And you are fain to forget? So please send a line to me, love, And be sure my heart will dance Tf you say your heart is with someone, Someone somewhere in France. W. KEVIN CASEY

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THE REDWOOD 13 exponents of the form was distinctly £ at; still even then, the careful ob- server could not be satisfied with it on the whole or think that it had reached a settled or even promising condition. Miss Burney, who had made a brilliant debut with her ' ' Evelina ' , just before the beginning of the nineteenth cen- tury, fell down completely on her book entitled, ' ' The Wanderer , (1814). So it is that we come to the period with which we are more intimately con- cerned, the nineteenth century, truly called the age of the novel. Notwith- standing the great achievements of po- etry and history, the novel had been making its way steadily as a popular form of literature for something like a century. It had produced great prac- titioners and, what was more to its ad- vancement, had gained a hold upon the reading part of the nation; still it was by no means a success as has been shown in the preceding lines. The places were not real, being painted scenes upon which wooden characters were shoved about upon artificial plat- forms. There was not freedom of ac- tion, and hence the result was a stern and severe novel, not allowing the reader to think or imagine, except along forced lines. However, with the coming of thisr century, the novel was to undergo a complete reincarnation, both in regard to style and popularity. It was about eighteen hundred and fourteen that the father of the novel, Walter Scott, came upon the literary horizon, as a prose writer. Although it may seem strange, still the birth of the nineteenth century novel may be accredited in no little manner to Lord Byron. It was his greatness as a poet that made Waverly and its successors; because at the be- ginning of the century Scott was en- joying great success as a poet and his immediate inducement to turn from verse to prose romance was undoubt- edly the popularity of Byron, coupled with his own consequent loss of public fervor; so that when in 1814, Scott published Waverly, the competent judges were quick to see that a new planet had swum into the literary ken. It entertained the English reader with its novelty and freshness, while the Scotchman was entranced and delight- ed with its truth. It was here for the first time since Fielding that the true and universal sort of life was displayed in this form of literature. The typographical situ- ations were real, not the wooden scen- ery of a child ' s nursery; the persons were real, too, not merely the paint- ed characters thrust upon the stage on wheels. Outside of Robinson Cru- soe ' s caves and castles, Tullyvoclon presented the only fictitious places to the reader for something like a centu- ry, and the attractions of the latter far outdid the cave and castle. And so it was that Waverly led the way for my- riads that were to follow, because the