Romanticism in the English literature of1798-1837

Ex. 6. Do the crossword.

Ex. 5. Choose the right word.

1. 18th-century English literature is generally characterized by ___.

a. wit b. romanticism c. dramaticism

2. The 18th century is often called the ___ Age in literature.

a. Troyan b. Augustan c. Elizabethan

3. The first biographical work in English was written by ___.

a. B. Jonson b. J. Swift c. J. Boswell

4. The Tatler and The Spectator were mainly devoted to ___.

a. fashions b. literature c. society news

5. The first great Dictionary of the English language was compiled by ___.

a. S. Johnson b. W. Shakespeare c. A. Pope

6. Gulliver’s Travels refers to the genre of __.

a. travel book b. parody c. gothic novel

1. |___|___ ___ ___ = satirical imitation

2. ___|___|___ ___ ___ ___ ___ = to give a form to sth

3. ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___|___|___ = to prosper and develop

4. ___ ___|___| = clever, humorous and lively expression of ideas

5. ___ ___ ___|___|___ = long story in prose

6. ___ ___ ___ ___|___|___ ___ ___ = to show in a satirical way

7. |___|___ ___ ___ ___ = single composition (in art, music, etc.)

8. ___ ___|___|___ ___ ___ = to prosper; to succeed

9. ___ ___ ___ ___|___|___ ___ = he was the first biographer in England

10. ___ ___ ___ ___|___|___ ___ ___ = to make sth an object of laughter

11. ___ ___|___| = epoch; period marked by important events

The literary movement termed Romanticism or the Romantic Age represented a renewal of progressive thought and emotion, which existed before the 1700s. Romantic writers saw themselves reacting against literary practice of the preceding century. They emphasized imagination and emotions and they championed the value of the individual human being.

The Romantic Age in English literature begins in 1798 with the publication of Lyrical Ballads, the product of a great creative collaboration between the poets William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. This volume revolutionized poetry – both in its theory and its subject matter.

In the Preface accompanying the second edition of Lyrical Ballads, Wordsworth enunciated his views, among which his belief was that poetry should reflect spontaneity and emotion rather than more sedate, ordered tones of the previous generation. Wordsworth also stressed a desire to depict commonplace situations involving ordinary people living in natural settings. Coleridge chose to concentrate his efforts on the supernatural.

English Romantic poets were divided into two groups: passive romanticists and revolutionary romanticists. PassiveRomantic poets were seized with panic and an irresistible desire to get away from the present. They spoke for the English farmers and Scottish peasants ruined after the Industrial Revolution. They idealized the patriarchal way of life during the Medieval Period. Their motto was: “Close to Nature and from Nature to God”. The poets William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey belonged to this group. They were also called the Lake Poets after the Lake District in the north-west of England where they lived.

The second group of poets distinguished themselves for the revolutionary spirit which they brought into poetry. The revolutionary romanticists tried to look ahead and see the future. They spoke up for the new working class and believed in their right to actively struggle for liberty. The outstanding revolutionary romanticists were George Gordon Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Keats.

George Gordon Byron (1788-1824). For many of his contemporaries, Byron was an embodiment of the Romantic spirit, both in his poetry and his personal life. Proud, passionate, rebellious, deeply marked by painful and often mysterious experiences in the past, yet fiercely and defiantly committed to following his own destiny – this was the image that Byron created.

Child Harold’s Pilgrimage is Byron’s most popular poem. The main character is a young aristocrat, disappointed in life. Satiated with pleasures, he goes travelling and hopes to find happiness among people who are not spoiled by civilization.

A cycle known as Oriental Tales,among them The Giaour, The Corsair, and Lara embodies the poet’s romantic idealism. The main character of each poem is a rebel against society. He is a man of strong will and passion. Proud and independent, he rises against tyranny and injustice to gain his personal freedom and happiness. His revolt, however, is too individualistic, and therefore it is doomed to failure. These romantic poems were particularly admired by Byron’s contemporaries and called forth a new mode of thought and feeling called “Byronism”. They also resulted in the appearance of new hero in literature, “Byronic hero”: solitary, gloomy, involved in a single-handed struggle against oppression.

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) was the most progressive poet among the revolutionary romanticists in English literature. Like Byron, he displayed in his poetry the romantic elements typical for revolutionary protest against the growing power of capitalism. His poems Queen Mab, The Revolt of Islam, The Mask of Anarchy, and Ode of Liberty reflected revolt against existing laws, customs and religion.

Shelley is also the author of many lyrical poems of rare beauty and emotional power (Ode to the West Wind, To a Skylark, The Cloud).

Byron and Shelley were engaged in literary criticism too. The literary process of the time was also analyzed by Charles Lamb, William Hazlitt, and Thomas de Quincy in their personal and subjective essays.

Drama did not flourish during the Romantic Age. The main type of drama produced was simplistic melodrama in which all the poor are good and all the rich are evil. Still, some of the leading Romantic poets wrote so-called closet drama, poetic drama written to be read rather than produced. Among the better known plays of this type are Shelley’ s tragedy The Cenci, Byron ’s Manfred, and Coleridge ’s Remorse.

The gothic novel became increasingly popular during the Romantic Age.The most famous gothic novel published during this period was Frankenstein written by Mary Shelley, the wife of the Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Frankenstein goes beyond the gothic interest in the supernatural to explore the nature of evil and the possible consequences of mechanization in the new industrial age.

Two of the most popular and respected novelists in English literature created during the Romantic Age: Walter Scott and Jane Austen.

Sir Walter Scott wrote novels of adventure. He was immensely popular during his lifetime and is now considered the father of historical novel. Reflecting the Romantic interest in the past, he set the plot of many of his novels in England and Scotland of old days. His most famous novel Ivanhoe refers to 13th- century England and represents a complex romance.

Jane Austen ’s novels were drastically different from those of Walter Scott. The plots of her novels concerned domestic situations, with sensitivity and manners dominant. Her most famous novel, Pride and Prejudice, is about a genteel 18th- century family in an English country town. Realistic in tone, graceful, and deliberately decorous in the fashion of the novel of manners, Austen’s novels usually revolve around the business of finding appropriate husbands for marriageable daughters. Austen is now one of the best-loved English novelists and one who helped to develop the modern novel.

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