English Literature
Traveller, or the Life of Jack Wilton_ (1594), which is also a forerunner
of the historical novel, since its action takes place during that gorgeous
interview between Henry VIII and the king of France on the Field of the
Cloth of Gold. In all these short stories and picaresque novels the
emphasis was laid not so much on life and character as on the adventures of
the hero; and the interest consisted largely in wondering what would happen
next, and how the plot would end. The same method is employed in all trashy
novels and it is especially the bane of many modern story-writers. This
excessive interest in adventures or incidents for their own sake, and not
for their effect on character, is what distinguishes the modern adventure
story from the true novel.
In the Puritan Age we approach still nearer to the modern novel, especially
in the work of Bunyan; and as the Puritan always laid emphasis on
character, stories appeared having a definite moral purpose. Bunyan's _The
Pilgrim's Progress_ (1678) differs from the _Faery Queen_, and from all
other mediæval allegories, in this important respect,--that the characters,
far from being bloodless abstractions, are but thinly disguised men and
women. Indeed, many a modern man, reading the story of the Christian;--has
found in it the reflection of his own life and experience. In _The Life and
Death of Mr. Badman_ (1682) we have another and even more realistic study
of a man as he was in Bunyan's day. These two striking figures, Christian
and Mr. Badman, belong among the great characters of English fiction.
Bunyan's good work,--his keen insight, his delineation of character, and
his emphasis upon the moral effects of individual action,--was carried on
by Addison and Steele some thirty years later. The character of Sir Roger
de Coverley is a real reflection of English country life in the eighteenth
century; and with Steele's domestic sketches in _The Tatler, The
Spectator_, and _The Guardian_ (1709-1713), we definitely cross the border
land that lies outside of romance, and enter the region of character study
where the novel has its beginning.
THE DISCOVERY OF THE MODERN NOVEL. Notwithstanding this long history of
fiction, to which we have called attention, it is safe to say that, until
the publication of Richardson's _Pamela_ in 1740, no true novel had
appeared in any literature. By a true novel we mean simply a work of
fiction which relates the story of a plain human life, under stress of
emotion, which depends for its interest not on incident or adventure, but
on its truth to nature. A number of English novelists--Goldsmith,
Richardson, Fielding, Smollett, Sterne--all seem to have seized upon the
idea of reflecting life as it is, in the form of a story, and to have
developed it simultaneously. The result was an extraordinary awakening of
interest, especially among people who had never before been greatly
concerned with literature. We are to remember that, in previous periods,
the number of readers was comparatively small; and that, with the exception
of a few writers like Langland and Bunyan, authors wrote largely for the
upper classes. In the eighteenth century the spread of education and the
appearance of newspapers and magazines led to an immense increase in the
number of readers; and at the same time the middle-class people assumed a
foremost place in English life and history. These new readers and this new,
powerful middle class had no classic tradition to hamper them. They cared
little for the opinions of Dr. Johnson and the famous Literary Club; and,
so far as they read fiction at all, they apparently took little interest in
the exaggerated romances, of impossible heroes and the picaresque stories
of intrigue and villainy which had interested the upper classes. Some new
type of literature was demanded, this new type must express the new ideal
of the eighteenth century, namely, the value and the importance of the
individual life. So the novel was born, expressing, though in a different
way, exactly the same ideals of personality and of the dignity of common
life which were later proclaimed in the American and in the French
Revolution, and were welcomed with rejoicing by the poets of the romantic
revival. To tell men, not about knights or kings or types of heroes, but
about themselves in the guise of plain men and women, about their own
thoughts and motives and struggles, and the results of actions upon their
own characters,--this was the purpose of our first novelists. The eagerness
with which their chapters were read in England, and the rapidity with which
their work was copied abroad, show how powerfully the new discovery
appealed to readers everywhere.
Before we consider the work of these writers who first developed the modern
novel, we must glance at the work of a pioneer, Daniel Defoe, whom we place
among the early novelists for the simple reason that we do not know how
else to classify him.
DANIEL DEFOE (1661(?)-1731)
To Defoe is often given the credit for the discovery of the modern novel;
but whether or not he deserves that honor is an open question. Even a
casual reading of _Robinson Crusoe_ (1719), which generally heads the list
of modern fiction, shows that this exciting tale is largely an adventure
story, rather than the study of human character which Defoe probably
intended it to be. Young people still read it as they might a dime novel,
skipping its moralizing passages and hurrying on to more adventures; but
they seldom appreciate the excellent mature reasons which banish the dime
novel to a secret place in the haymow, while _Crusoe_ hangs proudly on the
Christmas tree or holds an honored place on the family bookshelf. Defoe's
_Apparition of Mrs. Veal, Memoirs of a Cavalier_, and _Journal of the
Plague Year_ are such mixtures of fact, fiction, and credulity that they
defy classification; while other so-called "novels," like _Captain
Singleton, Moll Flanders_, and _Roxana_, are but, little better than
picaresque stories, with a deal of unnatural moralizing and repentance
added for puritanical effect. In _Crusoe_, Defoe brought the realistic
adventure story to a very high stage of its development; but his works
hardly deserve, to be classed as true novels, which must subordinate
incident to the faithful portrayal of human life and character.
LIFE. Defoe was the son of a London butcher named Foe, and kept his family
name until he was forty years of age, when he added the aristocratic prefix
with which we have grown familiar. The events of his busy seventy years of
life, in which he passed through all extremes, from poverty to wealth, from
prosperous brickmaker to starveling journalist, from Newgate prison to
immense popularity and royal favor, are obscure enough in details; but four
facts stand out clearly, which help the reader to understand the character
of his work. First, Defoe was a jack-at-all-trades, as well as a writer;
his interest was largely with the working classes, and notwithstanding many
questionable practices, he seems to have had some continued purpose of
educating and uplifting the common people. This partially accounts for the
enormous popularity of his works, and for the fact that they were
criticised by literary men as being "fit only for the kitchen." Second, he
was a radical Nonconformist in religion, and was intended by his father for
the independent ministry. The Puritan zeal for reform possessed him, and he
tried to do by his pen what Wesley was doing by his preaching, without,
however, having any great measure of the latter's sincerity or singleness
of purpose. This zeal for reform marks all his numerous works, and accounts
for the moralizing to be found everywhere. Third, Defoe was a journalist
and pamphleteer, with a reporter's eye for the picturesque and a newspaper
man's instinct for making a "good story." He wrote an immense number of
pamphlets, poems, and magazine articles; conducted several papers,--one of
the most popular, the _Review_, being issued from prison,--and the fact
that they often blew hot and cold upon the same question was hardly
noticed. Indeed, so extraordinarily interesting and plausible were Defoe's
articles that he generally managed to keep employed by the party in power,
whether Whig or Tory. This long journalistic career, lasting half a
century, accounts for his direct, simple, narrative style, which holds us
even now by its intense reality. To Defoe's genius we are also indebted for
two discoveries, the "interview" and the leading editorial, both of which
are still in daily use in our best newspapers.
The fourth fact to remember is that Defoe knew prison life; and thereby
hangs a tale. In 1702 Defoe published a remarkable pamphlet called "The
Shortest Way with the Dissenters," supporting the claims of the free
churches against the "High Fliers," i.e. Tories and Anglicans. In a vein of
grim humor which recalls Swift's "Modest Proposal," Defoe advocated hanging
all dissenting ministers, and sending all members of the free churches into
exile; and so ferociously realistic was the satire that both Dissenters and
Tories took the author literally. Defoe was tried, found guilty of
seditious libel, and sentenced to be fined, to stand three days in the
pillory, and to be imprisoned. Hardly had the sentence been pronounced when
Defoe wrote his "Hymn to the Pillory,"--
Hail hieroglyphic state machine,
Contrived to punish fancy in,--
a set of doggerel verses ridiculing his prosecutors, which Defoe, with a
keen eye for advertising, scattered all over London. Crowds flocked to
cheer him in the pillory; and seeing that Defoe was making popularity out
of persecution, his enemies bundled him off to Newgate prison. He turned
this experience also to account by publishing a popular newspaper, and by
getting acquainted with rogues, pirates, smugglers, and miscellaneous
outcasts, each one with a "good story" to be used later. After his release
from prison, in 1704, he turned his knowledge of criminals to further
account, and entered the government employ as a kind of spy or secret-
service agent. His prison experience, and the further knowledge of
criminals gained in over twenty years as a spy, accounts for his numerous
stories of thieves and pirates, _Jonathan Wild_ and _Captain Avery_, and
also for his later novels, which deal almost exclusively with villains and
outcasts.
When Defoe was nearly sixty years of age he turned to fiction and wrote the
great work by which he is remembered. _Robinson Crusoe_ was an instant
success, and the author became famous all over Europe. Other stories
followed rapidly, and Defoe earned money enough to retire to Newington and
live in comfort; but not idly, for his activity in producing fiction is
rivaled only by that of Walter Scott. Thus, in 1720 appeared _Captain
Singleton, Duncan Campbell_, and _Memoirs of a Cavalier_; in 1722, _Colonel
Jack, Moll Flanders_, and the amazingly realistic _Journal of the Plague
Year_. So the list grows with astonishing rapidity, ending with the
_History of the Devil_ in 1726.
In the latter year Defoe's secret connection with the government became
known, and a great howl of indignation rose against him in the public
print, destroying in an hour the popularity which he had gained by a
lifetime of intrigue and labor. He fled from his home to London, where he
died obscurely, in 1731, while hiding from real or imaginary enemies.
WORKS OF DEFOE. At the head of the list stands _Robinson Crusoe_ (1719-
1720), one of the few books in any literature which has held its popularity
undiminished for nearly two centuries. The story is based upon the
experiences of Alexander Selkirk, or Selcraig, who had been marooned in the
island of Juan Fernandez, off the coast of Chile, and who had lived there