English Literature
work on the monumental _Dictionary of National Biography_, and for his
_Hours in a Library_, a series of impartial and excellent criticisms,
brightened by the play of an original and delightful humor.
Among the most famous writers of the age are the scientists, Lyell, Darwin,
Huxley, Spencer, Tyndall, and Wallace,--a wonderful group of men whose
works, though they hardly belong to our present study, have exercised an
incalculable influence on our life and literature. Darwin's _Origin of
Species_ (1859), which apparently established the theory of evolution, was
an epoch-making book. It revolutionized not only our conceptions of natural
history, but also our methods of thinking on all the problems of human
society. Those who would read a summary of the greatest scientific
discovery of the age will find it in Wallace's _Darwinism_,--a most
interesting book, written by the man who claims, with Darwin, the honor of
first announcing the principle of evolution. And, from a multitude of
scientific works, we recommend also to the general reader Huxley's
_Autobiography_ and his _Lay Sermons, Addresses, and Reviews_, partly
because they are excellent expressions of the spirit and methods of
science, and partly because Huxley as a writer is perhaps the clearest and
the most readable of the scientists.
THE SPIRIT OF MODERN LITERATURE. As we reflect on the varied work of the
Victorian writers, three marked characteristics invite our attention.
First, our great literary men, no less than our great scientists, have made
truth the supreme object of human endeavor. All these eager poets,
novelists, and essayists, questing over so many different ways, are equally
intent on discovering the truth of life. Men as far apart as Darwin and
Newman are strangely alike in spirit, one seeking truth in the natural, the
other in the spiritual history of the race. Second, literature has become
the mirror of truth; and the first requirement of every serious novel or
essay is to be true to the life or the facts which it represents. Third,
literature has become animated by a definite moral purpose. It is not
enough for the Victorian writers to create or attempt an artistic work for
its own sake; the work must have a definite lesson for humanity. The poets
are not only singers, but leaders; they hold up an ideal, and they compel
men to recognize and follow it. The novelists tell a story which pictures
human life, and at the same time call us to the work Of social reform, or
drive home a moral lesson. The essayists are nearly all prophets or
teachers, and use literature as the chief instrument of progress and
education. Among them all we find comparatively little of the exuberant
fancy, the romantic ardor, and the boyish gladness of the Elizabethans.
They write books not primarily to delight the artistic sense, but to give
bread to the hungry and water to the thirsty in soul. Milton's famous
sentence, "A good book is the precious life-blood of a master spirit,"
might be written across the whole Victorian era. We are still too near
these writers to judge how far their work suffers artistically from their
practical purpose; but this much is certain,--that whether or not they
created immortal works, their books have made the present world a better
and a happier place to live in. And that is perhaps the best that can be
said of the work of any artist or artisan.
SUMMARY OF THE VICTORIAN AGE. The year 1830 is generally placed at the
beginning of this period, but its limits are very indefinite. In general we
may think of it as covering the reign of Victoria (1837-1901). Historically
the age is remarkable for the growth of democracy following the Reform Bill
of 1832; for the spread of education among all classes; for the rapid
development of the arts and sciences; for important mechanical inventions;
and for the enormous extension of the bounds of human knowledge by the
discoveries of science.
At the accession of Victoria the romantic movement had spent its force;
Wordsworth had written his best work; the other romantic poets, Coleridge,
Shelley, Keats, and Byron, had passed away; and for a time no new
development was apparent in English poetry. Though the Victorian Age
produced two great poets, Tennyson and Browning, the age, as a whole, is
remarkable for the variety and excellence of its prose. A study of all the
great writers of the period reveals four general characteristics: (1)
Literature in this Age has come very close to daily life, reflecting its
practical problems and interests, and is a powerful instrument of human
progress. (2) The tendency of literature is strongly ethical; all the great
poets, novelists, and essayists of the age are moral teachers. (3) Science
in this age exercises an incalculable influence. On the one hand it
emphasizes truth as the sole object of human endeavor; it has established
the principle of law throughout the universe; and it has given us an
entirely new view of life, as summed up in the word "evolution," that is,
the principle of growth or development from simple to complex forms. On the
other hand, its first effect seems to be to discourage works of the
imagination. Though the age produced an incredible number of books, very
few of them belong among the great creative works of literature. (4) Though
the age is generally characterized as practical and materialistic, it is
significant that nearly all the writers whom the nation delights to honor
vigorously attack materialism, and exalt a purely ideal conception of life.
On the whole, we are inclined to call this an idealistic age fundamentally,
since love, truth, justice, brotherhood--all great ideals--are emphasized
as the chief ends of life, not only by its poets but also by its novelists
and essayists.
In our study we have considered: (1) The Poets; the life and works of
Tennyson and Browning; and the chief characteristics of the minor poets,
Elizabeth Barrett (Mrs. Browning), Rossetti, Morris, and Swinburne. (2) The
Novelists; the life and works of Dickens, Thackeray, and George Eliot; and
the chief works of Charles Reade, Anthony Trollope, Charlotte Brontë,
Bulwer-Lytton, Kingsley, Mrs. Gaskell, Blackmore, George Meredith, Hardy,
and Stevenson. (3) The Essayists; the life and works of Macaulay, Matthew
Arnold, Carlyle, Newman, and Ruskin. These were selected, from among many
essayists and miscellaneous writers, as most typical of the Victorian Age.
The great scientists, like Lyell, Darwin, Huxley, Wallace, Tyndall, and
Spencer, hardly belong to our study of literature, though their works are
of vast importance; and we omit the works of living writers who belong to
the present rather than to the past century.
SELECTIONS FOR READING. Manly's English Poetry and Manly's English Prose
(Ginn and Company) contain excellent selections from all authors of this
period. Many other collections, like Ward's English Poets, Garnett's
English Prose from Elizabeth to Victoria, Page's British Poets of the
Nineteenth Century, and Stedman's A Victorian Anthology, may be used to
advantage. All important works may be found in the convenient and
inexpensive school editions given below. (For full titles and publishers
see the General Bibliography.)
_Tennyson_. Short poems, and selections from Idylls of the King, In
Memoriam, Enoch Arden, and The Princess. These are found in various school
editions, Standard English Classics, Pocket Classics, Riverside Literature
Series, etc. Poems by Tennyson, selected and edited with notes by Henry Van
Dyke (Athenaeum Press Series), is an excellent little volume for beginners.
_Browning_. Selections, edited by R.M. Lovett, in Standard English
Classics. Other school editions in Everyman's Library, Belles Lettres
Series, etc.
_Elizabeth Barrett Browning_. Selections, edited by Elizabeth Lee, in
Standard English Classics. Selections also in Pocket Classics, etc.
_Matthew Arnold_. Sohrab and Rustum, edited by Trent and Brewster, in
Standard English Classics. The same poem in Riverside Literature Series,
etc. Selections in Golden Treasury Series, etc. Poems, students' edition
(Crowell). Essays in Everyman's Library, etc. Prose selections (Holt, Allyn
& Bacon, etc.).
_Dickens_. Tale of Two Cities, edited by J.W. Linn, in Standard English
Classics. A Christmas Carol, David Copperfield, and Pickwick Papers.
Various good school editions of these novels in Everyman's Library, etc.
_Thackeray_. Henry Esmond, edited by H.B. Moore, in Standard English
Classics. The same novel, in Everyman's Library, Pocket Classics, etc.
_George Eliot_. Silas Marner, edited by R. Adelaide Witham, in Standard
English Classics. The same novel, in Pocket Classics, etc.
_Carlyle_. Essay on Burns, edited by C.L. Hanson, in Standard English
Classics, and Heroes and Hero Worship, edited by A. MacMechan, in Athenaeum
Press Series. Selections, edited by H.W. Boynton (Allyn & Bacon). Various
other inexpensive editions, in Pocket Classics, Eclectic English Classics,
etc.
_Ruskin_. Sesame and Lilies, edited by Lois G. Hufford, in Standard English
Classics. Other editions in Riverside Literature, Everyman's Library, etc.
Selected Essays and Letters, edited by Hufford, in Standard English
Classics. Selections, edited by Vida D. Scudder (Sibley); edited by C.B.
Tinker, in Riverside Literature.
_Macaulay_. Essays on Addison and Milton, edited by H.A. Smith, in Standard
English Classics. Same essays, in Cassell's National Library, Riverside
Literature, etc. Lays of Ancient Rome, in Standard English Classics, Pocket
Classics, etc.
_Newman_. Selections, with introduction by L.E. Gates (Holt); Selections
from prose and poetry, in Riverside Literature. The Idea of a University,
in Manly's English Prose.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. (note. For full titles and publishers of general reference
books, see General Bibliography.) _HISTORY. Text-book_, Montgomery, pp.
357-383; Cheyney, pp. 632-643. _General Works_. Gardiner, and Traill.
_Special Works_. McCarthy's History of Our Own Times; Bright's History of
England, vols. 4-5; Lee's Queen Victoria; Bryce's Studies in Contemporary
Biography.
_LITERATURE. General Works_. Garnett and Gosse, Taine. _Special Works_.
Harrison's Early Victorian Literature; Saintsbury's A History of Nineteenth
Century Literature; Walker's The Age of Tennyson; same author's The Greater
Victorian Poets; Morley's Literature of the Age of Victoria; Stedman's
Victorian Poets; Mrs. Oliphant's Literary History of England in the
Nineteenth Century; Beers's English Romanticism in the Nineteenth Century;
Dowden's Victorian Literature, in Transcripts and Studies; Brownell's
Victorian Prose Masters.
_Tennyson_. Texts: Cabinet edition (London, 1897) is the standard. Various
good editions, Globe, Cambridge Poets, etc. Selections in Athenaeum Press
(Ginn and Company).
Life: Alfred Lord Tennyson, a Memoir by his son, is the standard; by Lyall
(in English Men of Letters); by Horton; by Waugh. See also Anne T.
Ritchie's Tennyson and His Friends; Napier's The Homes and Haunts of
Tennyson; Rawnsley's Memories of the Tennysons.
Criticism: Brooke's Tennyson, his Art and his Relation to Modern Life; A.
Lang's Alfred Tennyson; Van Dyke's The Poetry of Tennyson; Sneath's The
Mind of Tennyson; Gwynn's A Critical Study of Tennyson's Works; Luce's
Handbook to Tennyson's Works; Dixon's A Tennyson Primer; Masterman's
Tennyson as a Religious Teacher; Collins's The Early Poems of Tennyson;
Macallum's Tennyson's Idylls of the King and the Arthurian Story; Bradley's
Commentary on In Memoriam; Bagehot's Literary Studies, vol. 2; Brightwell's
Concordance; Shepherd's Bibliography.
Essays: By F. Harrison, in Tennyson, Ruskin, Mill, and Other Literary
Estimates; by Stedman, in Victorian Poets; by Hutton, in Literary Essays;