126. The Novelistic Type. The novel has always had æsthetic enemies who have denied it any distinctive style; and its friends have not always offered a spirited defense. For something like a century, however, serious criticism has given the novel its own peculiar and respectable place among literary types. According to Lanson, it became a grand genre1 in the early part of the last century. The novel is sometimes considered as essentially descriptive, sometimes as mainly narrative, and again as a characteristic combination of descriptive and narrative styles. Some of the best German and French critics approach it as a species of the generic "epic" type. Artand calls Ivanhoe "la véritable épopée du moyen âge," and an anonymous romanticist adds that "since Homer, the epic has been given only three new forms, one by Dante, one by Ariosto, one by Scott." 8 Compare Spielhagen: "Der historische und der moderne Romane sind die beiden Erben des alten Epos; "4 other passages in the same work, and in German æsthetics and poetics generally. Many critics have defined the novel by comparison and contrast with the drama; and others note the frequent inclusion of the lyrical spirit. "lyrical.") (See the glossary, under In a liberal interpretation of style, Clarissa might be analyzed as an example of the dramatic type; I Promessi Sposi, of the descriptive; Robinson Crusoe, of the narrative; and Atala, of the lyrical. 127. Novelistic Qualities. Each important kind of novel has some fairly determinate qualities of its own; as for example, elegance in the heroic romance, simplesse in pastoral romance, weirdness in Gothic romance, and democracy in the picaresque novel. 1 See the glossary. 2 Maigron, p. 150. 8 Ibid., p. 152. In the following sections, no attention can be paid to these distinctions, or to the fascinating study of style in the individual novel. The aim is to examine such qualities as are historically found in the novel as a generic type, or are emphasized in important theories of the novel. The analysis may perhaps be suggestive of further study and more satisfactory statement of results. 128. Comprehensiveness. According to Spielhagen, "ist der epische Stoff unendlich," and the novelist should give the reader the "möglichst vollkommene Uebersicht der Breite und Weite des Menschenlebens."2 Breadth of view is to be found in the plot, characters, settings, and generalizations. The Shakespearian drama is in some respects not so all-inclusive as many of the great novels of Europe. Balzac includes almost every variety of document in the Comédie Humaine; Shakespeare is in the main limited to the epistolary form. The dramatist gives a very restricted view of Christian thought, of democratic ideals, and of the daily life of the common people. In the last point, compare Fielding, or any picaresque novel; in the matter of religion, compare Wilhelm Meister, Robinson Crusoe, Valdés' La Fé, Quo Vadis, or Callista. The opposite quality of concentration is characteristic of the lyric, and, to a great extent, of the short story. One might turn to the latter as Wordsworth turned to the sonnet, weary of the "weight of too much liberty;" but the amorphous freedom of the novel, though sometimes offensive to creative or critical ideals, has, for centuries, proved attractive to many minds desiring an expansive mental outlook. The novelist himself is usually extremely broad in interests, ideals, and experience. As a class, novelists have been men of the world, travelers, wide readers and 1 Technik des Romans; Das Gebiet des Romans. 2 Ibid.; Novelle oder Roman. Compare his frequent use of "Totalität.” students, philosophers in spirit if not in accomplishment. To no small extent the novel has resisted the modern tendency toward specialization in science, art, and life itself. The pure specialist would not and could not write a great representative novel. Balzac was interested in law, medicine, theology, music, journalism, and politics. Examine the outer and inner history of Cervantes, Rabelais, Fielding, Thackeray, and Tolstoi. Goethe is one of the most comprehensive minds of his century, and his novels are a logical part of his self-expression. The women novelists of eminence - Maria Edgeworth, Madame de Staël, George Sand, George Eliot - have been among the most advanced minds of their time. In breadth of knowledge and speculation, the philosopher doubtless bears away the palm from the novelist. Bacon, Humboldt, Lotze, Spencer, have no rivals in fiction, so measured. Large knowledge of mathematics or of natural science is rare in the novelists. On the other hand, the novelist may often claim a wider experience in personal emotion and passion, a broader domain of natural and social imagery; and his world is always a combination of observed and created data. 129. Objectivity. All style has a certain objectivity, as noted in Section 122, but in a special sense this quality is characteristic of the "epic" imagination, and of an ideal of the novel which influences much theory and practise. The social sense in the novelist and the social element in the novel itself, are related to this quality. Comparatively few great novels were written from purely lyrical impulse- from the mere craving for self-expression. The sense of an audience has been strong in the history of fiction, whether directly expressed, as in the phrase “gentle reader" (centuries old), or implied in choice of subject and treatment. In all novels the influence of the social consciousness, in respect to time, place, character, manners, and ideas, is incalculable. In personal life, the representative novelist has been a considerable figure in society. Observation is another phase of the objective quality, as it appears in the novel. Realism is concerned, for reality is distinguished from unreality largely by the test of objective value. A sketch of the history of this quality in English fiction might be interesting. The following are fragmentary data. Impersonality is the dominant note from Morte d'Arthur, with its epic tradition, to the middle of the eighteenth century. In neither Euphues, Rosalind, nor Jack Wilton does the author appear in propria persona. Defoe has a remarkable power of close observation and description, and of "self-estrangement" in narrative. Few of the experiences recorded in Colonel Jacque, The Plague Year, or Robinson Crusoe were part of his personal history. Richardson chose a form which naturally required dramatic objectivity. Jane Austen is in many ways more impersonal than Shakespeare, with whom she has been compared. (As interesting exceptions, compare the transitional sentence, "I come now," etc., in Chapter XXXVI of Sense and Sensibility, with the example noted in Section 56.) The influence of Fielding, Smollett, and Sterne was largely in the opposite direction. The romanticists are habitually lyrical, coloring their whole view of life by personal experience, and the moods of their individual temperaments. The realistic reaction has produced a new phase of objectivity, more determined and conscious than any that preceded. Spielhagen lays frequent stress upon objectivity as an ideal. Compare the essay on Objektivität im Roman (Vermischte Schriften), and numerous passages in the Technik des Romans. "Das Gesetz der Objektivität. Sie ist für ihn [the novelist] das strikteste Gesetz." — It is not so important for the novelist, "dass die Welt ihn begreift, als dass er die Welt begreift."- A consistent objectivity is not easily atNtained, in our introspective age, but the artist "strebt durchaus nach Totalität des Weltbildes." It is an insult to the reader to explain the characters to him. (Compare Section 100.) Verga is perhaps the greatest recent representative of realistic theory and practise in Italy. Note the remarkable third paragraph of L 'Amante di Gramigna: "Intanto io credo che il trionfo del romanzo . . . si raggiungerà allorchè l' affinità e la coesione di ogni sua parte sarà così completa che il processo della creazione rimarrà un mistero, come lo svolgersi delle passioni umane; e che l'armonia delle sue forme sarà così perfetta, la sincerità della sua realtà così evidente, il suo modo e la sua ragione di essere così necessarie, che la mano dell' artista rimarrà assolutamente invisible, e il romanzo avrà l'impronta dell' avvenimento reale, e l'opera d'arte sembrerà essersi fatta da sè, aver maturato ed esser sorta spontanea come un fatto naturale, senza serbare alcun punto di contatto col suo autore," etc. The above doctrine comes into apparent conflict with impressionistic theory, represented in Henry James' definition of the novel as "a personal impression of life;"1 but even in this conception it is an impression of life that is desired, not an introspective view of the world within the artist's mind. 130. Concreteness. The novelist aims to produce an illusion of life by means of "solidity of specification "2 in vocabulary, characters, dialogue, settings, events, and ideas. When he explores the territory of modern sociology, psychology, or history, he finds himself in a region of almost oppressive detail. It is partly this attention to minute detail that suggests the satirical view of the novel |