Recent Posts - page 30
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Analysis of Sir Walter Scott’s Kenilworth
In his novel Kenilworth, Sir Walter Scott tells his romanticized version of the death of Amy Robsart, wife to Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester, favored by Queen Elizabeth I. Set in 1560, the novel seeks to, as Scott writes… Read More ›
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Analysis of Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure
Like other novels by Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure offers a bleak picture of the choices available to the working man. First published as a serial in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine between December 1894 and November 1895, the novel upset… Read More ›
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Analysis of Daniel Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year
While it purports to be a journal, Daniel Defoe’s novel, A Journal of the Plague Year, is an imaginatively drawn “history” of the Great Plague that seized England from 1664 to 1665. Defoe likely based his narrator, a Whitechapel saddler… Read More ›
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Analysis of Henry Fielding’s The History of the Life of the Late Jonathan Wild the Great
Henry Fielding received some criticism for romanticizing a common criminal in his novel The History of the Life of the Late Jonathan Wild the Great. Based on the career of a well-known criminal executed earlier in the 18th century, the… Read More ›
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Analysis of Dinah Maria Mulock Craik’s John Halifax, Gentleman
Dinah Mulock (Craik) emphasized nonconformist ideals in her popular fifth novel, John Halifax, Gentleman. Nonconformist churches believed that each member should freely respond to the Gospel and take responsibility for their own membership, while the church should maintain its congregation’s… Read More ›
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Analysis of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre
Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre is the story of the protagonist’s quest, not for material treasure, but rather for equality and selfhood. Equally important, Jane seeks the proper manner to rebel against men who seek to dominate and control her, eventually… Read More ›
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Analysis of Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe
Sir Walter Scott’s most popular novel, Ivanhoe, takes place during the 12th-century reign of Richard I. While historians took him to task for incorrectly extending the Saxon-Norman conflict into that century, the public enthusiastically received his tale of knights, displaced… Read More ›
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Analysis of Charles Reade’s It Is Never Too Late to Mend
Already known as a writer with a social conscience, Charles Reade published It Is Never Too Late to Mend specifically to stimulate public interest in social revolution. He proved successful, spurring his reading public to lead a movement to reform… Read More ›
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Analysis of H. G. Wells’s The Island of Dr. Moreau
Described by some critics as gruesome and by others as grim, H. G. Wells’s The Island of Dr. Moreau depends on the mad scientist characterization that would continue to be popular into the 20th century. Intent on transmitting a moral… Read More ›
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Analysis of H. G. Wells’s The Invisible Man
H. G. Wells often used his science fiction tales to teach a moral lesson. In The Invisible Man, he warns against the abuse of scientific capability and the misuse of power it encourages. The protagonist, Griffin, was driven to find… Read More ›
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Analysis of Susan Ferrier’s Inheritance
Susan Ferrier allowed six years to pass between the release of her well-liked novel of manners, Marriage, and Inheritance, another anonymously published story that focused on the romantic choices of young women. She had worked on the novel at Morningside… Read More ›
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Analysis of Charles Kingsley Hypatia
In his third novel, Hypatia, or New Foes with an Old Face, Charles Kingsley seemingly departed from his previous focus on his own era to produce a historical romance. However, as the title indicates, he still dealt with contemporary issues…. Read More ›
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Analysis of Emily Lawless’s Hurrish: A Study
As indicated by its subtitle, Hurrish: A Study was intended by Emily Lawless to reflect as much about Ireland’s general masses as about any one person. Thus, her characters serve as basic types or symbols. They scratch out a living… Read More ›
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Analysis of Anna Marie Porter’s The Hungarian Brothers
Anna Marie Porter’s novel of the French Revolutionary War, The Hungarian Brothers, proved her most popular romance. It either delighted or repulsed readers in later centuries, depending on their fondness for the genre. One contemporary review of the novel read,… Read More ›
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Analysis of Tobias Smollett’s The Expedition of Humphry Clinker
When Tobias Smollett published the last of his novels, The Expedition of Humphry Clinker, he used the familiar epistolary novel form first made famous by Samuel Richardson. Five of his flat, predictable characters wrote letters that differed in their points… Read More ›
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Analysis of Thomas Holcroft’s Hugh Trevor
The first three volumes of Thomas Holcroft’s Hugh Trevor appeared in 1794. In October of that year, before he could add the final three volumes to his novel, Holcroft went to Newgate Prison on a charge of high treason due… Read More ›
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Analysis of Samuel Richardson’s The History of Sir Charles Grandison
When Samuel Richardson began The History of Sir Charles Grandison, he had no plan other than to present a moral tale to counter the bawdy tone and content of Henry Fielding’s wildly popular The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling… Read More ›
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Analysis of William Makepeace Thackeray’s The History of Pendennis
William Makepeace Thackeray published his second novel, The History of Pendennis, as a serial between November 1848 and December 1850. It ran at the same time as Charles Dickens’s David Copperfield, a novel to which it is often compared. The… Read More ›
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Analysis of William Makepeace Thackeray’s The History of Henry Esmond
William Makepeace Thackeray achieved his goal of making history familiar to his readers in The History of Henry Esmond. He established a model for historical fiction, using true occurrences as the basis of his novel in a way never done… Read More ›
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Analysis of Robert Smith Surtees’s Hillingdon Hall
Robert Smith Surtees became the most popular of the “squire novelists” with his series featuring the inexpert fox-hunting enthusiast and London grocer John Jorrocks. Made famous first in Jorrocks’s Jaunts and Jollities and later in its sequel, Handley Cross (1843),… Read More ›
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