英国文学史复习重点2

① His novels offer a most complete and realist picture of the English bourgeois society of his age. They reflect the protest of the people against capitalist exploitation and criticize the vices of capitalist society.

② Dickens is a petty bourgeois intellectual. He could not overstep the limits of his class. He believed in the moral self-perfection of the wicked propertied classes. He failed to see the necessity of a bitter struggle of the oppressed against their oppressors. There is a definite tendency for a reconciliation of the contradictions of capitalist society. ③ Almost all his novels have happy endings.

④ His novels tell much of the experiences of his childhood. ⑤ He is a great humorist. His novels are full of humor and laughter.

William Makepeace Thackeray (1811—1863) Works: 名利场 The Virginians弗吉尼亚人 Comments on Vanity Fair

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Our Mutual Friend我们共同的朋友 The Pickwick Papers匹克威克外传 The Old Curiosity Shop老古玩店 David Copperfield大卫·科波菲尔 Dombey and Son董贝父子 A Christmas Carol圣诞颂歌

 In the novel Thackeray describes the life of the ruling classes of England in the early decades of the 19th century, and attacks the social relationship of the bourgeois world by satirizing the individuals in the different strata（阶层） of the upper society. It was a world where money grubbing was the main thing in the minds of all members of the ruling classes, and they had no scruples (良心上的不安,顾忌) whatever in employing all possible means to attain that end.

George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) (1819-1880) G. Eliot’s Major Works

 Adam Bede 《亚当·比德》  The Mill on the Floss 《弗洛斯河上的磨坊》  Silas Marner 《织工马南》  Middlemarch 《米德尔玛契》  Romola 《罗慕拉》

 Felix Holt, the Radical 《激进分子费立可斯·霍尔特》  Daniel Deronda 《丹尼尔·德龙达》 The characteristics of Eliot’s literary works • a particular concern for the destiny of women

• leading in the direction of both the naturalistic and psychological novel • Interest in the interior life of human beings, moral problems and strains • Religion

Charlotte Bronte ( 1816-1855) major worksThe Professor《教授》 Jane Eyre《简·爱》 Shirley 《雪丽》

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Themes of Jane Eyre

 1. the relations between men and women;  2. women’s equality;

 3. the treatment of children and of women;

 4. religious faith and religious hypocrisy (and the difference between the two);  5. the realization of selfhood;  6. the nature of true love. Comments on Charlotte Bronte

Charlotte Bronte is a representative writer of realism combined with romanticism of that time. In her works, she paints a vivid realistic picture of the English society by exposing the cruelty, hypocrisy, and other evils of the upper classes and by showing the misery and suffering of the poor. Her works are famous for the depiction of the life of the middle class working women, particularly governesses. Emily Bronte (1818-1848) Wuthering Heights 《呼啸山庄》 The theme of Wuthering Heights

 The novel is a riddle which means different things to different people. From the social point of view， it is a story about a poor man abused， betrayed & distorted by his social betters because he is a poor nobody. As a love story， this is one of the most moving： the passion between Heathcliff and Catherine proves the most intense， the most beautiful & at the same time the most horrible passion ever to be found possible in human beings. Comment on Wuthering Heights  Emily has a passionate love for the wilderness of the moor all the year round

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and enjoys staying outside as far as she could. She is a child of nature. That accounts for the mysterious setting in Wuthering Heights.

 Emily is a great poet. Her poems are works of strange sublimity and beauty. Reading her poems is conducive to a better understanding of Wuthering Heights.

 As a love story, the passion between Heathcliff and Catherine proves to be the most intense, the most beautiful and at the same time the most horrible passion ever to be found in human beings. Anne Bronte (1820-1849)  Agnes Grey (1847) 《艾格妮斯·格雷》 and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848) 《威尔德菲尔的房客》,

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