CHAPTER II PROSE FICTION Classes of Prose Fiction.-Prose fiction includes all prose narratives (except the drama) in which the story told is not real, but a product of the imagination. Although closely related to the drama, it is distinct from it since it contains descriptive material which could not be used for stage presentation. The types of prose fiction are:-the prose allegory, prose romance, tale of adventure or experience, novel, novelette, and short-story. The Prose Allegory. The prose allegory is a prose form in which there is a long, implied comparison between unlike things. It is therefore a metaphor expanded to a considerable length. The greatest prose allegory in the literature of the world1 is Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" published in 1678. The characters in this work are depicted vividly and the experiences seem very real. A child enjoys the story as such, but an older person is interested in the allegory which lies beneath. "Pilgrim's Progress," because of its realism, as well as its strong appeal to the imagination, had a great influence on the development of the modern novel, although the latter did not appear until the following century. Another prose allegory which is especially popular with children because of its wealth of imagination is "Gulliver's Travels" by Jonathan Swift, published in 1726. Most of the prose allegories are classed under other types as well. Thus "The Vision of Mirza" and "Burden of Mankind" by Addison are not only allegories but essays. Many of our dramas, novels, and short-stories are also allegories. The Prose Romance.-The early prose romance had the same general characteristics that we noted in the metrical romance, excepting that it was in the prose form. The author gave full reign to his imagination, no attempt being made to bound it in by facts or probabilities. Many of the circumstances were not only highly improbable but really impossible. These romances, both in the. prose and metrical forms, were very popular in the Middle Ages. 1 The other great allegories of world literature, "The Faerie Queene" and "The Divine Comedy," are in poetic form. They are also a delight to the children of to-day, for in childhood imagination is at its height. Many of the Arthur stories, which appeared in such numbers in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, were metrical romances, but there were prose ones among them. In 1470 "The Morte d'Arthur" by Sir Thomas Malory was completed. This was not only the greatest English literary work of the fifteenth century, but it is our greatest treasure-house in prose of the legends and stories of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. All later writers who have made use of Arthurian material have obtained it from Malory. Some other well-known prose romances of the past are the socalled "Travels of Sir John Mandeville" in the fourteenth century, and More's "Utopia," Sidney's "Arcadia," Lyly's "Euphues,' Lodge's "Rosalind," and Greene's "Pandosto" of the sixteenth century. 1 In the later romances the events shown are usually more probable than in those of the past, but still there is an unnatural glamour over life in general, and the adventures and incidents are of more importance than anything else. The Tale of Adventure or Experience. In the romance the imagination has full swing, but in the tale of adventure or experience the reason keeps the imagination from absurdities and unrealities. Though there are often many exciting adventures and hairbreadth escapes, they must be within the limits of probability. The tale is not a novel, because it has no plot development. It is made up of one thrilling or interesting experience after another, but any of these could be omitted or new ones added without harm to the story as a whole. This, of course, would be impossible in a novel. As the romance is most popular in childhood, the tale of adventure or experience is the type of greatest interest in early youth. Probably the best known tale that we have is "Robinson Crusoe" by Defoe (1719). Besides this, "Captain Singleton" by Defoe (1720), Cooper's "Leather-Stocking Tales" (1823-1841), Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" (1876) and "Huckleberry Finn," Stevenson's "Treasure Island" (1883), Quiller-Couch's "The Splendid Spur" (1889), Kipling's "Kim" (1901), and Jack London's "Call of the Wild" and "White Fang" are some of the best examples of these tales. The Beginning of the Modern Novel.-The tale was nearer the novel-type than the romance, yet it lacked the important novel 1 Shakespeare's "As You Like It" was founded on Lodge's "Rosalind," and his "Winter's Tale" on Greene's "Pandosto." element, plot. The true modern novel, therefore, did not make its appearance until 1740. Samuel Richardson, a London printer, was asked to write a set of letters to be used as models by those who found letter-writing difficult. He happened to think of the plan of having the letters tell a story, and the first modern novel, "Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded," was the result. This was published in four volumes and was so popular that the author wrote "Clarissa Harlowe" in eight volumes, and later "Sir Charles Grandison" in seven volumes. These were all in the form of letters, and their purpose, Richardson said, was "to inculcate virtue and good manners.' His purpose was so obvious that, as some one expressed it, he "inflicted morality" upon people. A lawyer and literary man of the time, Henry Fielding, one who had a wider experience of life than Richardson, was disgusted with the sentimental preaching of "Pamela," He accordingly began a burlesque upon it, in which he made Joseph Andrews, Pamela's brother, the chief character. He had not gone far in the story, Other Novel- however, before he became so interested in it that he forgot all about the satire and wrote a truly great novel, "Joseph Andrews" (1742). Later he wrote three other novels, the greatest of all being "Tom Jones" (1749). Other novel writers of the eighteenth century were Smollett, Sterne, Oliver Goldsmith, and Miss Fanny Burney. Of these Goldsmith is especially noted as the author of "The Vicar of Wakefield." The best English novelists in the early part of the nineteenth century were Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) and Jane Austen (17751817). Novelists of Scott created the historical novel, and, beginning with "Waverley" in 1814, he wrote seventeen of these novels in which he made real to his readers life in a past age. Some of his scenes were laid in the Holy Land in the time of the Crusades; others in Norman England; in Elizabethan England; in the time of Cromwell and the Stuart kings; in Scotland in the days of the Covenanters, and of the Jacobites; and in France and Burgundy in the time of Louis XI and Charles the Bold. Besides these historical novels, Scott wrote twelve others on Scottish life and manners. Among them, "The Heart of Midlothian" and "Guy Mannering" are called his very best works. Scott's novels are filled with the romantic spirit, but they are somewhat removed from the true romance type by reason of their well-constructed plots and probable incidents. They show life as seen through the imagination rather than through observation, and emphasize the story, rather than character and life. They are therefore romantic novels. Jane Austen was the greatest of our early realists. Her field of observation was a very small one, being confined to her own village and its surroundings, but she portrayed life as she found it with such sympathy, humor, and accuracy that she, to-day, is being regarded more and more as one of our greatest novelists. Her best works are "Pride and Prejudice," "Sense and Sensibility" and "Emma." First in the works of Dickens, Thackeray, George Eliot, and Hawthorne, and later in those of Stevenson, Meredith, Hardy, and Later W. D. Howells, we find the best English and American novels of the last part of the nineteenth century. Of these writers, Thackeray, George Eliot, Meredith, Hardy, and Howells are realists in the way they handle their materials; Hawthorne and Stevenson are romanticists; while Dickens mingles together both romantic and realistic elements. Among the great number of English novelists that have appeared during the opening years of the twentieth century, the foremost are generally regarded by critics to be John Galsworthy, Joseph Conrad, Arnold Bennett, Herbert George Wells, Eden Phillpotts, Maurice Hewlett, William Frend De Morgan William John Locke, James M. Barrie, and Novelists of the Twentieth Century Mrs. Humphry Ward. Galsworthy has satirized the aristocratic classes in modern English society in "The Man of Property" (1906), "The Country House" (1907), "Fraternity" (1909), and "The Patrician (1911). Joseph Conrad gained the materials for his "Lord Jim" (1900), "Typhoon" (1903), "Chance" (1912), and other sea stories during seventeen years spent in the English merchant marine service. Arnold Bennett's best works, "The Old Wives' Tale" (1908) and "Clayhanger" (1910) are from his Five Town Series dealing with life in the Staffordshire pottery district. H. G. Wells's best novels show his deep interest in science and sociology. "The Time Machine" (1895) "Kipps" (1905), "Bealby" (1915), and “Mr. 1 "Realism," said William Dean Howells, "is nothing more and nothing less than the truthful treatment of material," while Scott said it was "the exquisite touch which renders commonplace things and characters interesting for the truth of the description and the sentiment." Britling Sees It Through" are representatives of his work. Eden Phillpotts has laid his scenes among the peasants on the moors and farms of Devonshire. Some of the most interesting of these are "The Children of the Mist" (1898) and "Demeter's Daughter" (1911). Maurice Hewlett is a romanticist, as is shown in two of his best known novels, "The Life and Death of Richard Yea-and-Nay" (1900) and "The Stooping Lady" (1907). William Frend De Morgan did not know that he had the ability to write novels until he was sixty-seven years of age. Then, while convalescing from an illness, he discovered his power in this field, and found a secure place in the hearts of his readers. "Joseph Vance" (1906), "Alice-for-Short" (1907), and "Somehow Good" (1908) are well worth reading. The experiences of Charles Heath in "Alice-for-Short" are chiefly De Morgan's own. Locke's "The Beloved Vagabond" (1906), Barrie's "The Little Minister" (1897), Mrs. Humphry Ward's "Marcella," and "The Garden of Allah" by Robert S. Hichens are some of the other well received novels of the present century. A novel representing American life in its entirety has never been produced, nor has any whole section of the country found expression in any one work. We have had some good novels which portrayed different parts of the South, or the West, or the New England States, for instance, but each writer dealt with only his own distinct part. The great American novel has not only not appeared, but it never will come, it is thought. The late critic, James Gibbons Huneker, said in this connection, "The Great American novel will be in the plural; thousands perhaps. America is a chord of many nations, and to find the keynote we must play much and varied music." Some of the best present-century novels by American authors are to be found in the works of Winston Churchill, Booth Tarking ton, William Allen White, Stewart Edward White, Mary Johnston, Edna Ferber, F. Hopkinson Smith, Henry Sydnor Harrison,1 Mrs. Mary Stansbury Watts, Henry James, and Ellen Glasgow. Some Characteristics of the Modern Novel.-Every novel must have at least three elements: a setting, a plot, and one or more characters. In some novels the setting is emphasized, while in others stress is laid on either the plot or the portrayal of character. Frequently all three have nearly an equal prominence. The setting of a novel includes the time, the place and the background or enveloping circumstances of the story. Sometimes it 1 Especially "Queed." |