and others are not characteristic of any special period, or are even out of keeping with the particular period in question. The main historical value may be found in the characters, incidents, settings, language; or in the dominant mental and moral tone. Thackeray's eighteenth century novels are wonderful successes in this last respect. The exact period is not always easily stated, for a small section of history may be viewed as representative of a much larger area. Of about 1500 novels mentioned in Baker's Guide, the historical distribution is as follows: The distribution of Scott's historical survey as given in the Library Edition of the Waverley Novels, may be summarized as follows: — 112. Historical Interpretation. The reader's sense of the particular nature of a period may be gained through an extensive array of characteristic details, by an intensive study of striking features, or by some general formula. To over-emphasize the peculiarities of an epoch, however, is to destroy a true historical quality; for underneath all the transformations of society lie a common human nature, and practically uniform types of social organization. The author's interpretation will depend on the degree to which historical imagination has been developed in his generation, as well as on his personal power to re-create the past. It will vary according to the nearness and the familiarity of the historical field he selects. The backward glance of George Eliot at the catastrophe of Silas Marner covered only some thirty years; but for the present-day reader, nearly a half century more intervenes, and George Eliot herself is an historical figure. An interesting pamphlet might be made of the views of history by different novelists. Discussion of the relation of history to fiction is almost as old as fiction itself. Several of Scott's ideas have already been noticed. Vigny's preface to Cinq-Mars is an important contribution. Mérimée wrote, in the preface to the Chronique du Règne de Charles IX, "I don't care for anything in history except anecdotes." (Gilbert.) Dumas declared that Lamartine had "elevated history almost to the dignity of the novel." (Ibid.) — See also the quotations from Hugo and Brunetière, in the history of novelistic criticism, in the appendix. 113. Individuality. - In one aspect, the life of the individual is a series of external phenomena, which the novelist may observe as he observes the manners of society. Some of the phases of that external life are sex, age, health and disease, social success and failure, repose and activity, isolation and companionship. In the matter of age, the novel has laid stress upon the central portions of life. Infancy and early childhood have received more attention in recent educational psychology than in the novel; and old age has rarely been a major subject in extended fiction. Baldwin's Dictionary of Philosophy gives this tribute to the study of adolescence in the novel: "The storm and stress periods of Goethe and John Stuart Mill, of Tolstoi and Marie Bashkirtseff, no less than the masterly delineations of George Eliot's Gwendolen Harleth and Maggie Tulliver, form a valuable and suggestive contribution to the psychology of adolescence." (Article on Adolescence.) The maturing of the individual is not a new subject of the last century. It is forcibly presented in Daphnis and Chloe, and in Paul and Virginia, in connection with first love. In the inner life of the individual the novel finds a field particularly adapted to its own powers. Lyric poetry may be a strong rival in some respects, but in elaborate and varied study of the development and experiences of moral individuality, the novel has no successful competitor, unless it be such poetry as Browning's Inn Album, Red Cotton Night-Cap Country, Sordello, etc., which is itself novelistic. Browning's formula in the dedication of Sordello, "my stress lay on the incidents in the development of a soul: little else is worth study," does not cover the entire scope of the novel, but it is applicable to very many of the greatest novels. Brunetière says that "the novel is nothing if not psychological." The inner life may be viewed as simple or complex, as a chaos or a cosmos, as temporary or eternal, as a revelation or an unintelligible mystery, as having value in itself or only in its relations to society. Elements in its composition are memory, sensation, emotion, thought, and volition; among its episodes are those of special activity and of languor, of the domination of single passions, of faith and doubt, of self-reliance and humble submission. Some lives, especially in the short story, are interpreted through some single moral experience. This is the conception of many love-stories; but modern realism often considers experience as a continuous "stream of consciousness," in which no quiet pool or wild cataract can be viewed as final. The episodes of mental and moral life may be less easily examined than those of the outer history. In interpretation of other individuals the novelist is liable to the "psychologist's fallacy" of transferring his own experience to his character. A clear image of the physical personality and its activities helps to overcome this tendency. The life of the sensations is exhibited with marked emphasis in Frankenstein, in a semi-scientific spirit. The word sensation itself occurs some thirty times; and the experiences of hunger, thirst, bodily fatigue and pain, and consciousness of organic disturbance, are all impressed upon the reader. The conception that the emotional life is the true field of the novel has not disappeared, but it is no longer held with the old dogmatism; and the emotion of love, in particular, is now viewed as only one of many aspects of spiritual history the novelist is free to study. Compare the quotations from Novalis and Madame de Staël, in the history of novelistic criticism, in the appendix. In Silas Marner, love, as a sexual passion, is less important than other phases of love and other emotions. — In many recent novels, the emotional struggle between faith and doubt is a central theme. There are notable studies of this subject in Anna Karénina, Children of the Soil, and Valdés' La Fé. -Memory often has a large place in romantic psychology, especially in the sentimental school. The reflective side of life is best exhibited in the philosophical novel, as in Rasselas and Wilhelm Meister. 114. The Individual and Society. The relation of these two forces may be interpreted as a natural harmony, an unceasing conflict, or a necessary compromise. Not a few novelists have been strong advocates for the rights of the individual, not only against social conventions, but even against moral law, as society has conceived it. The moral isolation of the individual who rebels against the social will is a frequent tragic theme, and the comedy of petty resistance to social demand has been largely exhibited in fiction. The moral isolation of all deep individual life, even when it craves sympathy from its fellows, is a less common theme. The lovers in a novel usually arrive at a fairly complete understanding, as compared with those described in Browning's Two in The Campagna : "Just when I seemed about to learn! Where is the thread now? Off again! Infinite passion, and the pain of finite hearts that yearn." The profound religious solitude of Levin, in Anna Karénina, in reference to his wife, recalls the autobiographical confessions of the author. Such a theme belongs mainly to nineteenth century fiction, but The Princess of Cleves describes the emotional isolation of a husband and wife, who are in complete mutual confidence and respect. In Robinson Crusoe, it is interesting to note the large measure of social quality in the mental life of the hero during his long period of physical solitude. Yet in its way, this novel is a real and deep study of the "solitude of the soul." 115. Human Nature. Humanity in its totality never appears as a subject in art, unless in symbolical treatment, which is alien to the spirit of the novel. Through the imagery of limited social and historical conditions, all the great novels exhibit and interpret the enduring elements of human nature. In the first chapter of Tom Jones, Fielding tells the reader that the sole dish of the feast is to be Human Nature; but he adds that there is little danger that an author will "be able to exhaust so extensive a subject." Comprehensiveness requires that the good and the bad, the dignified and the trivial, the pleasant and the repulsive qualities of our common nature be exhibited; but usually there is some central conception which serves as a guide in interpretation. In most cases, such a conception is ethical rather than purely artistic or scientific. Man may be viewed as inherently bad, or warped from his natural goodness by the force of unkind circumstances. Many novelists delight to show human nature throwing off the disguises under which society has endeavored to hide it. |