《英美文学选读》资料 (全) American Literature

American Literature
Chapter one : The romantic period
I. Emerson’s transcendentalism and his attitude toward nature:
1.Transcendentalism—it is a philosophic and literary movement that flourish in New England, as a reaction against rationalism and Calvinism. It stressed intuitive understanding of god without the help of the church, and advocated independence of the mind.
2. Emerson’s transcendentalism:
The over-soul—it is an all-pervading power goodness, from which all things come and of which all are a part. It is a supreme reality of mind, a spiritual unity of all beings and a religion. It is a communication between an individual soul and the universal over-soul. And he strongly believe in the divinity and infinity of man as an individual, so man can totally rely on himself.
3.His toward nature:
Emerson loves nature. His nature is the garment of the over-soul, symbolic and moral bound. Nature is not something purely of the matter, but alive with God’s presence. It exercise a healthy and restorative influence on human beings. Children can see nature better than adult.

II. Hawthorne’s Puritanism and his black vision of man:
1. Puritanism—it is the religious belief of the Puristans, who had intended to purify and simplify the religious ritual of the church of England.
2. his black vision of man—by the Calvinistic concept of original sin, he believed that human being are evil natured and sinful, and this sin is ever present in human heart and will pass one generation to another.
3. Young Goodman Brown—it shows that everyone has some evil secrets. The innocent and naïve Brown is confronted with the vision of human evil in one terrible night, and then he becomes distrustful and doubtful. Brown stands for everyone ,who is born pure and has no contact with the real world ,and the prominent people of the village and church. They cover their secrets during daily lives, and under some circumstances such as the witch’s Sabbath, they become what they are. Even his closed wife, Faith, is no exception. So Brown is aged in that night.

III. The symbolism of Melville’s Mobby-Dick
1.The voyage to catch the white whale is the one of the mind in quest of the truth and knowledge of universe.
2. To Ahab, the whale is an evil creature or the agent of an evil force that control the universe. As to readers, the whale is a symbol of physical limits, or a symbol of nature. It also can stand for the ultimate mystery of the universe and the wall behind which unknown malicious things are hiding.

IV. Whitman and his Leaves of Grass :
1. Theme: sing of the “en-mass” and the self / pursuit of love, happiness, and ***ual love / sometimes about politics (Drum taps)
2. Whitman’s originality first in his use of the poetic form free verse (i.e. poetry without a fixed beat or regular rhyme scheme),by means of which he becomes conversational and casual.
3.He uses the first person pronoun “I” to stress individualism, and oral language to acquire sympathy from the common reader.

Chapter two : The realistic period
I. The character analysis and social meaning of Huck Finn in Adventure of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Huck is a typical American boy with “a sound heart and a deformed conscience”. He appears to be vulgar in language and in manner, but he is honest and decent in essence. His remarkable raft’s journey down on the Mississippi river can be regarded as his process of education and his way to grow up. At first, he stands by slavery, for he clings to the idea that if he lets go the slave, he will be damned to go to hell. And when the “King” sells Jim for money, Huck decides to inform Jim’s master. After he thinks of the past good time when Jim and he are on the raft where Jim shows great care and deep affection for him, he decide to rescue Jim. And Huck still thinks he is wrong while he is doing the right thing.
Huck is the son of nature and a symbol for freedom and earthly pragmatism. Through the eye of Huck, the innocent and reluctant rebel, we see the pre-Civil War American society fully exposed. Twain contrasts the life on the river and the life on the banks, the innocence and the experience, the nature and the culture, the wilderness and the civilization.

II. Daisy Miller by Henry James
1. Theme: The novel is a story about American innocence defeated by the stiff, traditional values of Europe. James condemns the American failure to adopt expressive manners intelligently and point out the false believing that a good heart is readily visible to all. The death of Daisy results from the misunderstanding between people with different cultural backgrounds.
2. The character analysis of Daisy: She represents typical American girl, who is uninformed and without the mature guidance. Ignorance and parental indulgence combine to foster he assertive self-confidence and fierce willfulness. She behaves in the same daring naive way in Europe as she does at home. When someone is against her, she becomes more contrary. She knows that she means no harm and is amazed that anyone should think she does. She does not compromise to the European manners.
3. The character analysis of Winterbourne: He is a Europeanized American, who has live too long in foreign parts. He is very experience and has a problem understanding Daisy. He endeavors to put her in sort of formula, i.e. to classify her.

III. Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser:
1. Theme: The author invented the success of Carrie and the downfall of Hurstwood out of an inevitable and natural judgment, because the fittest can survive in a competitive, amoral society according to the social Darwinism.
2. The character analysis of Carrie: She follows the right direction to a pursuit of the American dream, and the circumstances and her desire for a better life direct to the successful goal. But she is not contented, because with wealth and fame, she still finds herself lonely. She is a product of the society, a realization of the theory of the survival of the fittest.
3. The character analysis of Hurstwood: He is a negative evidence of the theory of the survival of the fittest. Because he is still conventional and can not throw away the social morals, he is not fitted to live in New York.

Chapter three : The Modern Period
I. Ezra Pound and his theory of Imagism
1. The principles: a. direct treatment of the thing; b. to use absolutely no word that does not contribute to the presentation; c. to compose in the sequence of the musical; d. to use the language of common speech and the exact word; e. to create new rhythms; f. absolutely freedom in the choice of subject.
2. Imagism is to present an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time. An imagistic poem must present the object exactly the way the thing is seen. And the reader can form the image of the object through the process of reading the abstract and concrete words.

II. Frost and his poetry on nature:
Frost is deeply interested in nature and in men’s relationship to nature. Nature appears as an explicator and a mediator for man and serve as the center of reference of his behavior. Peace and order can be found in Frost’s poetical natural world. With surface simplicity of his poems, the thematic concerns are always presented in rich symbols. Therefore his work resists easy interpretation.

III. F. Scott Fitzgerald and his The Great Gatsby
1. Theme: Gatsby is American Everyman. His extraordinary energy and wealth make him pursue the dream. His death in the end points at the truth about the withering of the American Dream. The spiritual and moral sterility that has resulted from the withered American Dream is fully revealed in the article. However, although he is defeated, the dream has gave Gatsby a dignity and a set of qualities. His hope and belief in the promise of future makes him the embodiment of the values of the incorruptible American Dream .
2. The character analysis of Gatsby: Gatsby is great, because he is dignified and ennobled by his dream and his mythic vision of life. He has the desire to repeat the past, the desire for money, and the desire for incarnation of unutterable vision on this material earth. For Gatsby, Daisy is the soul of his dreams. He believe he can regain Daisy and romantically rebels of time. Although he has the wealth that can match with the leisured class, he does not have their manners. His tragedy lies in his possession of a naive sense and chivalry.

IV. Ernest Hemingway’s artistic features:
1. The Hemingway code heroes and grace under pressure:
They have seen the cold world ,and for one cause, they boldly and courageously face the reality. They has an indestructible spirit for his optimistic view of life. Whatever is the result is, the are ready to live with grace under pressure. No matter how tragic the ending is, they will never be defeated. Finally, they will be prevail because of their indestructible spirit and courage.
2.The iceberg technique:
Hemingway believe that a good writer does not need to reveal every detail of a character or action. The one-eighth the is presented will suggest all other meaningful dimensions of the story. Thus, Hemingway’s language is symbolic and suggestive.

V. The character analysis of Emily in A Rose for Emily:
Emily is a symbol of old values, standing for tradition, duty and past glory. But she is also a victim to all those she cares and embrace. The source of Emily’s strangeness is from her born pride and self-esteem, the domineering behavior of her father and the betrayal of her lover. Barricaded in her house, she has frozen the past to protect her dreams. Her life is tragic because the defiance of the community, her refusal to accept the change and her extreme pride have pushed her to abnormality and insanity.

English  Literature

Chapter One  The Renaissance Period

I. Shakespeare’s sonnets
1. With a few exceptions, Shakespeare writes his sonnets in the popular English form of three quatrains and a couplet. The couplet usually ties the sonnet to one of the general themes, leaving the quatrains free to develop the poetic intensity.
2. The sonnet’s most common themes concern the destructive effects of time, the quickness of physical decay, and the loss of beauty, vigor, and love. Although the poems celebrate life, they are always with a keen awareness of death.
3. His sonnet 18 expresses that beautiful things can rely on the force of literature to reach eternity. Literature is created by man, thus it declares man’s eternity. The poem shows the mighty self-confidence of the newly class. The vivid, variable and rich images reflect the lively and adventurous spirits of those who were opening new world.

II. Shakespeare’s A Merchant of Venice
1. Theme  
(1) Justice vs. mercy:  Shakespeare suggests that all men should be merciful. There is a further aspect of justice—the injustice revealed in the Christians’ treatment of the Jews.
(2) Appearance vs. reality:  e.g. superficial or external beauty vs. moral or spiritual beauty or truth (in the case of three caskets); the letters of law vs. the spirit of the law.
(3) Commercial or material values vs. love: True love is much more worthwhile than money and material values. Antonio epitomizes true love in his friendship for Bassanio.
2. The character analysis of Shylock  
Shylock is a Jewish usurer, and he is a tragic-comic character.
He is comic because he finally becomes the one punished by his own evil deed. He is avaricious. He accumulates as much wealth as he can and he even equates his lost daughter with his lost money. He is also cruel. In order to revenge, he would rather claim a pound of flesh from his enemy Antonio than get back his loan.

He is tragic, because he is the victim of the society. As a Jew, he is not treated equally by the society. The law is harsh to him. He has to make as much money as he can in order to protect him. He is abused by Antonio, so he wants to get revenge.

III. The character analysis of Hamlet

Hamlet is a scholar and a warrior. His father has been killed by his uncle, Claudius, who then take the throne and marries his mother. Hamlet is informed by the ghost of his father to take revenge, but the weakness of indecisiveness or indetermination in his character always delay his action, and finally leads to his tragic fall of death. Hamlet is not a man of action, but a man of thinking at first. He hesitates at some crucial moments. At last when he is forced to take some actions, he does kill Claudius gloriously, but he also sacrifices his own life.

IV. Donne and his “The Sun Rising”
1. Metaphysical poet: He wrote poems by using unconventional and surprising conceits and full of wit and humor, but sometimes the logic argument and conceits become pervasive. The language is colloquial but powerful, creating unorthodox images on the reader’s mind.
2. His “The Sun Rising”: In this poem, the love’s wedding room has been intruded by sun and the man takes offence at the intrusion. He attack the sun as an unruly servant, and finally he allow the sun to enter their chamber and warm them. The poem’s true subject is the lady—his true emotional love. Every insult to the sun is a compliment to the lady.


V. Milton’s Paradise Lost :
1.Structure: The story is taken from the Old Testament. It extends chronologically from the exaltation of Christ before the creature of universe to the second coming of Christ. Geographically, it ranges over the entire world.
2. The character analysis of Satan:
He has the strength, the courage and the capacity for leadership, but he devoted all those qualities to evil. His defiance of God shows his egoistic pride, his false conception of freedom, and his alienation from all good. His own evil and damnation give him potentially tragic dimensions. Therefore, Satan is enveloped in dramatic irony because he fight in ignorance of the unshakable power of God and goodness.
3.Features: Parallel and contrast
The central conflict and contrast between good and evil are intensified by the contrast between heaven and hell, light and darkness, love and hate, reason and passion, etc.

Chapter Two    The Neo-classical Period
I. The allegorical meaning of “The Vanity Fair” in John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress
The Vanity Fair refers to the real world where people have become so degenerated that all they are concerned is to buy and sell everything they can. It allegorically represents vanity both in the society and in people’s heart, so people are spiritually lost. However, the pilgrims refuse to buy any of the things in the Vanity Fair. Its purpose is to urge people to abide by Christian doctrines and seek salvation through constant struggle with their own weakness and social evils. Christians’ refusal shows that they are one step nearer the Celestial City.
II. Pope’s point of view on poetry criticism and the characteristics of his own poetry
1. Pope’s point of view on poetry criticism is best shown in his An Essays on Criticism. He emphasizing that literary works should be judged by classical rules of order, reason, logic, restrained emotion and good taste. He calls on people to turn to the old Greek and Roman writers for guidance. He advises the critics not to stress too much the artificial use of conceit or the external beauty of language, but to pay special attention to true wit which is best set in a plain style.
2. Pope’s poem strictly follows his idea of neoclassicism. He developed a satiric, concise, smooth, graceful and well-balanced style, and finally brought to its last perfection of the heroic couplet.
II. The social satire of Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels
The account of Lilliputian life, especially the games for people at court, alludes to the similar ridiculous practices or tricks in the English government. The description of the competition in the games before the royal members leads to the fact that the success of those government officials such as the Prime Minister lies not in their being any wiser or better but in their being more dexterous in the game. This alludes to the practices in England. And the pompous words singing of the Lilliputian emperor ridicule the aristocratic arrogance and vanity.
V. Henry Fielding and his Tom Jones
It is a good example of “comic epic in prose”. Fielding describes the fight between Molly and the villagers and her fistfight with Goody Brown in the grand style of the Homeric epic. He first of all calls on the Muses to assist him in recounting the fight as if it were of great historical importance. Like Homer who would list names of gods involved in the battle, he lists the names of the villagers. He treats Molly as a great hero at battle, an “Amazonian heroine”. Besides, he uses a mock-epic tone and seems very solemn about what he is describing. He uses formal words and refined language. Finally, he makes use of different figures of speech, particularly, irony and hyperbole.

V. Thomas Gray and his “Elegy Written in a County Church”
In the poem, Gray presents a picture of the quiet and solitary county at dusk through the sounding of the curfew, the home-coming plowman, the tinkling of bells under the necks of the cattle, the moping owl, the narrow cell (grave), etc.. He bemoans the fate of those common laborers who are now buried in the graves, tries to imagine how they had lived as loving parents and hardworking people, and praise their homely joys. He then express his contempt for those noblemen who once lived a pompous life, and despised the poor, but have ended up in a way no better than the ordinary folk. We can see Gray’s sympathy for the poor and contempt for the rich.

Chapter Three    The Romantic Period
I. Wordsworth and his “I wandered lonely as a cloud”

The poem is crystal clear and lucid. Below the immediate surface, we find that all the realistic details of the flowers, the trees, the waves, the wind, and all the realistic details of the active joy, are absorbed into an over-all concrete metaphor, the recurrent image of the dance. The flowers, the stars, the waves are units in this dancing pattern of order in diversity, of linked eternal harmony and vitality. Through the revelation and recognition of his kinship with nature, the poet himself becomes as it were a part of the whole cosmic dance.

II. Shelley and his “Ode to the West Wind”

In the poem, Shelley eulogizes the west wind as a powerful phenomenon of nature that is both destroyer and preserver. The wind enjoys boundless freedom and has the power to spread messages far and wide. The keynote in the poem is Shelley’s ever-present wish for himself and his fellow men to share the freedom of the west wind, remembering meanwhile his own and common human miseries. And the dominant mood is that of hope rather than despair, as the poet is hoping for the realization of the freedom and joy. The optimism expressed in the last two lines show the poet’s critical attitude toward the ugly social reality and his faith in a bright future for humanity.

III. John Keats and his “Ode on a Grecian Urn”

In the poem Keats shows the contrast between the permanence of art and the transience of human passion. The poet has absorbed himself into the timeless beautiful scenery on the Grecian urn: the lovers, musicians and worshippers carved on the urn, and their everlasting joys. They are unaffected by time, stilled in expectation. This is the glory and the limitation of the world conjured up by and object of art. The urn celebrates but simplifies intuitions of joy by defying our pain and suffering. But at last, the urn presents his ambivalence about time and the nature of beauty.

IV. The character analysis of Elizabeth in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice

Elizabeth is a beautiful young lady in the Bennets. She is intelligent, contrasting her empty-minded, snobbish and vulgar mother. She is a women of distinct character. She is not passive, but pursue her true love bravely. She turns down Mr. Collin’s marriage proposal and seeking her happiness with Darcy, the one she possesses true affection for her. She is also courageous. When Darcy’s aunt lady comes to force her into a promise of never consenting to marry Darcy, she boldly challenges her authority, contempt and arrogance. On the whole, Elizabeth is a typical image of the good, attractive lady in the 19th century.

Chapter Two    The Neo-classical Period

I. The allegorical meaning of “The Vanity Fair” in John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress

The Vanity Fair refers to the real world where people have become so degenerated that all they are concerned is to buy and sell everything they can. It allegorically represents vanity both in the society and in people’s heart, so people are spiritually lost. However, the pilgrims refuse to buy any of the things in the Vanity Fair. Its purpose is to urge people to abide by Christian doctrines and seek salvation through constant struggle with their own weakness and social evils. Christians’ refusal shows that they are one step nearer the Celestial City.

II. Pope’s point of view on poetry criticism and the characteristics of his own poetry

1. Pope’s point of view on poetry criticism is best shown in his An Essays on Criticism. He emphasizing that literary works should be judged by classical rules of order, reason, logic, restrained emotion and good taste. He calls on people to turn to the old Greek and Roman writers for guidance. He advises the critics not to stress too much the artificial use of conceit or the external beauty of language, but to pay special attention to true wit which is best set in a plain style.

2. Pope’s poem strictly follows his idea of neoclassicism. He developed a satiric, concise, smooth, graceful and well-balanced style, and finally brought to its last perfection of the heroic couplet.

III. The social satire of Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels

The account of Lilliputian life, especially the games for people at court, alludes to the similar ridiculous practices or tricks in the English government. The description of the competition in the games before the royal members leads to the fact that the success of those government officials such as the Prime Minister lies not in their being any wiser or better but in their being more dexterous in the game. This alludes to the practices in England. And the pompous words singing of the Lilliputian emperor ridicule the aristocratic arrogance and vanity.

IV. Henry Fielding and his Tom Jones
It is a good example of “comic epic in prose”. Fielding describes the fight between Molly and the villagers and her fistfight with Goody Brown in the grand style of the Homeric epic. He first of all calls on the Muses to assist him in recounting the fight as if it were of great historical importance. Like Homer who would list names of gods involved in the battle, he lists the names of the villagers. He treats Molly as a great hero at battle, an “Amazonian heroine”. Besides, he uses a mock-epic tone and seems very solemn about what he is describing. He uses formal words and refined language. Finally, he makes use of different figures of speech, particularly, irony and hyperbole.

V. Thomas Gray and his “Elegy Written in a County Church”

In the poem, Gray presents a picture of the quiet and solitary county at dusk through the sounding of the curfew, the home-coming plowman, the tinkling of bells under the necks of the cattle, the moping owl, the narrow cell (grave), etc.. He bemoans the fate of those common laborers who are now buried in the graves, tries to imagine how they had lived as loving parents and hardworking people, and praise their homely joys. He then express his contempt for those noblemen who once lived a pompous life, and despised the poor, but have ended up in a way no better than the ordinary folk. We can see Gray’s sympathy for the poor and contempt for the rich.

Chapter Three    The Romantic Period

I. Wordsworth and his “I wandered lonely as a cloud”

The poem is crystal clear and lucid. Below the immediate surface, we find that all the realistic details of the flowers, the trees, the waves, the wind, and all the realistic details of the active joy, are absorbed into an over-all concrete metaphor, the recurrent image of the dance. The flowers, the stars, the waves are units in this dancing pattern of order in diversity, of linked eternal harmony and vitality. Through the revelation and recognition of his kinship with nature, the poet himself becomes as it were a part of the whole cosmic dance.

II. Shelley and his “Ode to the West Wind”

In the poem, Shelley eulogizes the west wind as a powerful phenomenon of nature that is both destroyer and preserver. The wind enjoys boundless freedom and has the power to spread messages far and wide. The keynote in the poem is Shelley’s ever-present wish for himself and his fellow men to share the freedom of the west wind, remembering meanwhile his own and common human miseries. And the dominant mood is that of hope rather than despair, as the poet is hoping for the realization of the freedom and joy. The optimism expressed in the last two lines show the poet’s critical attitude toward the ugly social reality and his faith in a bright future for humanity.

III. John Keats and his “Ode on a Grecian Urn”

In the poem Keats shows the contrast between the permanence of art and the transience of human passion. The poet has absorbed himself into the timeless beautiful scenery on the Grecian urn: the lovers, musicians and worshippers carved on the urn, and their everlasting joys. They are unaffected by time, stilled in expectation. This is the glory and the limitation of the world conjured up by and object of art. The urn celebrates but simplifies intuitions of joy by defying our pain and suffering. But at last, the urn presents his ambivalence about time and the nature of beauty.

IV. The character analysis of Elizabeth in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice

Elizabeth is a beautiful young lady in the Bennets. She is intelligent, contrasting her empty-minded, snobbish and vulgar mother. She is a women of distinct character. She is not passive, but pursue her true love bravely. She turns down Mr. Collin’s marriage proposal and seeking her happiness with Darcy, the one she possesses true affection for her. She is also courageous. When Darcy’s aunt lady comes to force her into a promise of never consenting to marry Darcy, she boldly challenges her authority, contempt and arrogance. On the whole, Elizabeth is a typical image of the good, attractive lady in the 19th century.

Chapter Four    The Victorian Period

I. The features of Charles Dickens

1. His critical realism: While sticking to the principle of faithful representation of the 18th-century realist novel, he carried the duty to the criticism of the society and the defense of the mass.

2. He is a master storyteller. With his first sentence, he engages the reader’s attention and holds it to the end.

3. What he writes is mainly the middle and lower-middle class life in London.

4. He is a master of language with a large vocabulary and an adeptness with the vernacular.

5. He is a great humorist as well as a great painter of pathos. He always mingles the two to make his fictional world realistic.

6. His characters are not only true to life but also large than life. There are both individual characters and type characters.

II. Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre

1. Theme: The novel sharply criticizes the religious hypocrisy of charity institutions like Lowood School, where girls are trained to be humble slaves. It rebukes the social discrimination and false convention about love and marriage. Besides, the novel is a moral fable. It tells us that people have to go through all kinds of physical or moral tests to obtain their final happiness.

2. The character analysis of Jane Eyre: Jane Eyre is an orphan child with a fiery spirit and a longing to love and be loved. She is poor and plain, but she dares to love her master, a man superior to her in many ways, as a little governess. She is brave enough to declare to the man her love for him. She cuts a completely new women image. She represents those middle-class working women who are struggling for recognition of their basic rights and equality as a human being.

III. Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Height

1. The novel is an extraordinary moving love story: the passion between Heathcliff and Catherine is the most intense, beautiful, and the most horrible passions ever found among human beings.

2. It is also a work of critical realism. Heathcliff is abused, rejected and distorted by the society only because he is a poor orphan of obscure parents. He suffers all kinds of inhuman treatment after the death of his benefactor. He loves Catherine dearly but forced to be separated from her. So, Heathcliff’s cruel revenge upon his enemies is justified in a way.

3. The author makes clear that it is wrong to discriminate on the basis of social status, and it is cruel and destructive to break genuine, natural human passions. Although Catherine and Edgar’s marriage is ideal in the eyes of the whole neighborhood, her love for Heathcliff is hard and everlasting.

IV. Robert Brouning’s “My Last Duchess”

Dramatic Monologue can best bring out the Duke’s character in a dramatic way. The Duke is extremely cruel to kill his newly-married wife just because his jealousy. He is addressing to a character who exists but remains silent in the poem. He is showing off to this silent character about his wife’s beauty and his own power to destroy it. He justifies his own deed as a trifle matter. However, as audience, we may feel strongly the contrary. His arrogance, cruelty and hypocrisy are fully exposed. What he says and what we feel form a sharp contrast and achieve an dramatic effect.

V. George Eliot’s Middlemarch

Gorge Eliot pays great attention to the mutual effect between the inner world of the character and the outer world of the environment. Dorothea had wanted to escape the common meaningless life of the gentle ladies and enter some noble cause by marrying Casaubon. But her voluntary help, companionship and tenderness are ignored by her husband, she is forced into the idle life.

When Dorothea got up, Mr. Casaubon was in library. Looking through the windows at the white landscape and cloudy sky, she felt a dullness and lifelessness. The furniture, the book, and everything in the house too looked lifeless and shrunk to her. The gloomy environment found ready response from her inner heart. Her great disappointment with her marriage is here joined together with the outer dreary and lifeless environment to make up a pathetic picture.  

Chapter Five    The Modern Period

I. The features of Shaw’s plays:

1. Problem plays: He took the modern social issues as his subject with the aim of directing social reforms. Most of his plays are concerned with political, economic, or religious problems.

2. In his characterization, he makes the tricks of showing up one character vividly at the expense of another. His characters are the representatives of ideas, which shift and alter during the play.

3. The strong sense of comedy in his play are achieved through his witty dialogues, sharp satires, and vivid portrayal of characters.

II. The theme of Shaw’s Mrs. Warren’s profession

1. The play is not only moral, but also has a strong realistic theme. The guilt for prostitution lies more upon the social system than immoral woman. He shows all human sufferings are consequences of the economic exploitation.

2. The play is a spiritual triumph for Vivie who experiences a journey from illusion to reality. At first, she is ignorant of the evil, and through a series of temptations, she understands the capitalist world better.

III. Yeats’ Poems:

1. “The lake isle of Innisfree”

The poem consists of three quatrains of iambic pentameter, with each stanza rhymed abab. Tired of the life of his day, Yeats sought to escape into an ideal “fairyland” where he could live calmly and enjoy the beauty of nature. The best remedy for the emptiness of his age seemed to lie in a return to simple life in the past.

2. “Down by the Salley Gardens”

The poem is about the fundamental questions on life: how to live and enjoy? The speaker’s lover bids “me” to take love and life easy. Love and life are like leaves and grass which have their own rule of living—nature determine it. Too much human effort will only spoil them. They are best when they are most natural. Yeats thinks there are too much human interference in modern life.

IV. T. S. Eliot’s “The love song of J. Alfred Prufrock”

Written in the form of monologue, the poem is the song of a being divided between passion and timidity. It is about the impotence and futility of a modern everyman and his existence. Prufrock is an interesting tragic figure. He is a man caught in a sense of defeated idealism and tortured by unsatisfied desire. He does not dare to seek love because even if he could find it, it would not satisfy his needs. He compares himself with Hamlet. As a result of his timidity he has become incapable of action of any sort.

V. D.H. Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers

1. Theme: Sociologically, it is a novel about modern civilization, the “sickness of a whole civilization”. Psychologically, it is a case study of the Oedipus complex theory, for it deals with a son who loves the mother too dearly and hates the father too despisingly. The psychic conflict (between dark self and white self) in human relationships is the central theme of the novel.

2. The character analysis of Paul Morel:
He is a light, quick, slender boy. From his childhood, he is especially sensitive, artistic and imaginative, and he becomes extraordinarily dependent on his mother. When he gets older, his distorted relationship with his mother prevents him from loving girls as fully as he feels he should. Besides, Paul is also an artist, and a likeable young man adored by many girls.

VI. The features of stream of consciousness

1. The unspoken thoughts and feelings of their characters are described without resorting to objective description or conventional dialogue.

2. The flux of a character’s thoughts, impressions, emotions are often shown without logical sequence or syntax.

[转帖]<<英美文学选读>>作品及作家一览表
英国作家文学作品
Chapter 1 文艺复兴时期
I. Edmund Spenser
Epithalamion 贺新婚曲
The Faerie Queene 仙后
选文为The Faerie Queene

II．Christopher Marlowe
Tamburlaine 铁木耳转
Dr. Faustus 浮士德悲剧
The Jew of Malta 马乐他岛的犹太人
Edward II 爱德华二世
Hero and Leander 海洛与勒安德尔
选文为Dr. Faustus ； The Passionate Shepherd to His Love

III. William Shakespeare
Rape of Lucrece 鲁克斯受辱记
Venus and Adonis 维纳斯与安东尼斯
Titus Andronicus 泰托斯安东尼
The Comedy of Errors 错误的喜剧
The Two Gentlemen of Veroma 维洛那二绅士
The Taming of the Shrew 驯悍记
Love’s Labour’s Lost 爱的徒劳
Richard II 理查二世
King John 约翰王
Henry IV, Parts I and II, Henry V
Six Comedies:
A Midsummer Night’s Dream 仲夏夜之梦
The Merchant of Venice 威尼斯商人
Much Ado About Nothing 无事无非
As You Like It 皆大欢喜
Twelfth Night 第十二夜
The Merry Wise of Windsor 温莎的风流娘儿们
Two Tragedies:
Romeo and Juliet 罗米欧与朱丽叶
Julius Caesar 凯撒
Hamlet
Othello
King Lear
Macbeth
Antony and Cleopatra 安东尼与克里佩特拉
Troilus and Cressida, and Coriolanus 特洛伊勒斯与克利西达
All’ Well That Ends Well (comedy) 终成成眷属
Measure for Measure (comedy) 一报还一报
Pericles 伯里克利
Cymbeline 辛白林
The Winter’s Tale 冬天的故事
The Tempest 暴风雨
Henry VIII
The Two Noble Kinsmen两位贵族亲戚
选文为Sonnet 18; The Merchant of Venice; Hamlet

IV. Francis Bacon
The Advancement of Learning 论科学的价值与发展
Novum Organum 新工具
Apophthagmes New and Old 新旧格言录
The History of the Reign of Henry VII
The New Atlantis 新大西岛
Maxims of Law 法律原理
The Learning Reading upon the Statute of Uses法令使用读书
选文Of Studies
V. John Donne
The Elegies and Satires 挽歌与十四行诗
The Songs and Sonnets 歌谣与十四行诗
Holy Sonnets 圣十四行诗
A Hymns to God the Father 给圣父的赞美诗
选文The Rising Sun; Death Be Not Proud

VI. John Milton
Paradise Lost 失乐园
Paradise Regain 复乐园
Samson Agonistes力士参孙
Lycidas 利西达斯
Areopagitica 论出版自由


Chapter 2 新古典主义时期
I． John Bunyan
The Pilgrim’s Progress 天路历程
Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners 罪人头目的赫免
The Life and Death of Mr. Badman 拜德门先生生死录
The Holy War 圣战
选文The Vanity Fair (from the The Pilgrim’s Progress)
II． Alexander Pope
The Dunciad 群愚史诗
An Essay on Criticism 论批评
The Rape of the Lock 夺发记
选文An Essay on Criticism
III. Daniel Defoe
Robinson Crusoe 鲁宾逊漂流记
Captain Singleton 辛立顿船长
Moll Flanders 莫尔弗兰德斯
Colonel Jack 杰克上校
A Journal of the Plague Year 灾疫之年的日记
Roxana 罗克萨那
选文Robinson Crusoe
IV. Jonathan Swift
A Tale of Tub 木桶传
The Battle of the Books 书籍的战斗
Gulliver’s Travels 格列弗游记
A Modest Proposal 一个小小的建议
The Drapier’s Letters 布商的书信
选文Gulliver’s Travels
V. Henry Fielding
The Coffee House Politician 咖啡屋的政治家
The Tragedy of the Tragedies 悲剧中的悲剧
The Historical Register for the Year 1736 1736历史年鉴
The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews and of his friend Mr. Abraham Adams, Written in Imitation of the Manner of Cervantes
The History of Jonathan Wild the Great 大伟人江奈生翻乐德传
The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling 汤姆琼斯
The History of Amelia 阿米亚
选文为Tom Jones

VI. Samuel Johnson
Poems:
London
The Vanity of Human Wishes 人生希望多空幻
The History of Rasselas, Price of Abyssinia (a romance)阿比西尼亚王子的故事
Irene (a tragedy) 艾琳
The Ramble and The Idler 漫游者和闲散者
Lives of Poets
A Dictionary of the English Language
选文To the Right Honorable the Earl of Chesterfield
VII. Richard Brinsley Sheridan
The Rival 情敌
The School for Scandal 造谣学校
St. Patrick’s Day 圣特帕里克节日
Scheming Lieutenant 诡计多端的中尉
The Duenna 少女的监护人
The Critic 批评家
Pizarro 比扎罗
选文The School for Scandal
VIII． Thomas Gray
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard 写在教堂墓地的挽歌
Ode on a Spring 春之颂
Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College 伊顿远眺
Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat 爱猫之死颂
Hymn to Adversity 逆境颂
选文Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
Chapter III 浪温主义时期
I． William Blake
Poetic Sketches 诗歌扎记
The Songs of Innocence 天真之歌
The Songs of Experience 经验之歌
Marriage of Heaven and Hell 天堂与地狱联姻
The Book of Urizen 尤里曾的书
The Book of Los 洛斯的书
The Four Zoas 四个成熟的个体
Milton 弥尔顿
选文The Chimney Sweeper (from Songs of Innocence); The Tyger

II. William Wordsworth
Lyrical Ballads (抒情歌谣集)
The Prelude
The Excursion
Worshipper of Nature (The Sparr,w’s Nest, To a Skylark, To the Cuckoo, To a Butterfly,
I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud, An Evening Walking, My Heartn Leaps up, Tintern Abbey)
选文：I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud, Composed upon Westminster Bridge,
She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways, The Solitary Reaper
III. Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Lyrical Ballads
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner （古舟子咏）
Kubla Khan （忽必烈汗）
This Lime Free Bower My Prison （酸橙树亭------我的监牢）
Frost at Midnight 午夜霜
The Nightingale 夜莺
Biographia Literaria 文学传记
选文Kubla Khan
IV． George Grodon Byron
Hours of Idleness 闲散的时光
Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage 恰尔德哈罗德游记
Oriented Tales 东方化的传奇
The Prisoner of Chillon 锡庸的囚徒
Manfred 曼弗雷德
Don Juan 唐璜
Cain 该隐
The Island 岛屿
The Vision of Judgment 审判的想象
选文Song for the Luddites ; The Isles of Greece (from Don Juan)
V. Percy Bysshe Shelley
The Necessity of Atheism 无神论的必要性
Queen Mab: A Philosophical Poem 仙后麦布
Alastor, or The Spirit of Solitude 复仇者或隐居者的精神
Julian and Maddalo 朱利安与麦达格
The Revolt of Islam 伊斯兰的反叛
The Cenci 钦契一家
The Prometheus Unbound解放了的普罗米修斯
Adomais 阿多尼斯
Hellas 海娜斯
A Defense of Poetry 诗之辩护
选文A Song: Men of England; Ode to the West Wind
VI. John Keats
On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer
Endymion
Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agens, and Other Poems (Ode on Melancholy,
Ode on a Grecian Urn, Ode to a Nightingale, Ode to Psyche)
Lyric masterpiece (To Autumn, Hyperion)
选文Ode on a Grecian Urn
VII. Jane Austen
Sense and Sensibility 理智与情感
Pride and Prejudice 傲慢与偏见
Northanger Abbey 诺桑觉寺
Mansfield Park 曼斯菲尔德花园
Emma 埃玛
Persuasion 劝导
The Watsons 屈陈氏一爱
Fragment of a Novel 小说的片断
Plan of a Novel 小说的计划
选文Pride and Prejudice

Chapter IV. 维多利亚时期
I． Charles Dickens
Sketches by Boz 博兹特写集
The Posthumous of the Pickwick Club 皮克威克外传
Oliver Twist 雾都孤儿
Nicholas Nickleby 尼古拉斯尼克尔贝
The Pickwick Paper 皮克威克外传
David Copperfield 大卫科波菲尔
Martin Chuzzlewit 马丁朱尔述维特
Dombey and Son 董贝父子
A Tale of Two Cities 双城记
Bleak House 荒凉山庄
Little Dorrit 小杜丽
Hard Times 艰难时世
Great Expectations 远大前程
Our Mutual Friends 我们共同的朋友
The Old Curiosity Shop 老古玩店
选文为Oliver Twist
II. The Bronte Sisters
Poem by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell (Charlotte, Emily, Anne)
The Professor (Charlotte) 教师
Jane Eyre (Charlotte) 简爱
Wuthering Heights (Emily) 呼啸山庄
Agnes Grey (Anne) 格雷The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (Anne)野岗庄园房客
选文Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
III. Alfred Tennyson
Poems by Two Brothers 两兄弟诗集
Poems, Chiefly Lyrical 诗集，主要是抒情诗
Poems 诗集
The Princess 公主
In Memoriam 悼念
Idylls of the King 国王叙事集
选文Break,Break,Break, Crossing the Bar, Ulysses
IV. Robert Browning
Pauline 波琳 Sordello 索尔戴洛
Dramatic Lyrics 戏剧抒情诗
Dramatic Romances and Lyrics 戏剧罗曼史和抒情诗
Bells and Pomegranates 铃铛与石榴
Men and Women 男人与女人
Dramatic Personae 剧中人
The Ring and the Book 指环与书
Dramatic Idylls 戏剧田园诗
选文My Last Duchess, Meeting at Night, Parting at Morning
V. George Eliot
Scenes of Clerical Life 教区生活场景
Adam Bede 亚当比德
The Mill on the Floss 弗洛斯河上的磨坊
Romola 罗慕拉
Felix holt, the Radical 激进分子菲尼克斯霍尔特
Middlemarch 米德尔马契
Daniel Deronda 但尼尔狄隆达
选文Middlemarch
VI. Thomas Hardy
Tess of the D’Urbervilles 苔丝
Jude the Obscure 无名的裘德
The Dynasts 列后
The Return of the Native 还乡
The Trumpet Major 号兵长
The Mayor of Casterbridge 卡斯特桥市长
The Woodlanders 林地居民
Under the Greenwood 林间居民
Far from the Madding Crowd 远离尘嚣
选文Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Chapter 5 现代主义时期
I. George Bernard Shaw
Cashel Byron’s Profession 卡歇尔拜伦的职业
Our Theaters in the Nineties 90年代的英国戏剧
Widower’s Houses 鳏夫的房产 Candida 堪迪达
Mrs. Warren’s Profession 沃伦夫人的职业
Caesar and Cleoptra 凯撕与克利奥佩特拉 St. Joan 圣女贞德
Back to Methuselah 回归玛士撒拉 Man and Superman人与超人
John Bull’s Other Island 约翰布尔的另外岛屿 Pygmalion 茶花女
Getting Married 结婚 Misalliance 不合适的媳妇
Fanny’s First Play 范尼的第一部戏剧 The Doctor’s Dilemma医生的困境
Too True to be Good 难以置信
选文Mrs. Warren’s Profession

II. John Galsworthy
From the Four Winds 来自四位吹奏者
The Man of Property 财主 The Silver Box 银盒
The Forsyte Saga弗尔赛特三部曲 ( The Man of Property, In Chancery 骑虎难下, To Let 出租)
A Modern Comedy 现代喜剧 End of the Chapter 篇章未尾
选文The Man of Property
III. William Butler Yeats
The Lake of Innisfree 伊尼斯岛 Sailing to Byzantium 驶向拜占庭
The Countess Cathleen 女伯爵凯瑟琳 Cathleen ni Houlihan 故里痕的凯瑟琳
The Land of Heart’s Desire 心里渴望的地方 The Shadowy Waters 浅水区
Purgatory 炼狱 选文The Lake of Innisfree
IV. T. S. Eliot
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock 布鲁富劳克的情歌
The Waste Land 荒园 Murder in the Cathedral 教堂里的谋杀
The Family Reunion 家人团聚 The Confidential Clerk 机要秘书
The Statesmen 政治家 The Cocktail Party鸡尾酒会
选文The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
V. D. H. Lawrence
Sons and Lovers 儿子与情人 The White Peacock白孔雀
The Trespasser 过客 The Rainbow彩虹
Women in Love 恋爱中的女人 Aaron’s Rod亚伦神仗
Kangaroo 袋鼠 The Plumed Serpent带羽毛的蛇
Lady Chatterley’s Lover St. Mawr 圣摩尔
The Daughter of the Vicar 主教的女儿 The Horse Dealer’s Daughter贩马人的女儿
The Captain’s Doll 般长的娃娃 The Prussian Officer 普鲁士军官
The Virgin and the Gypsy贞女和吉普塞人
Trilogy(A Collier’s Friday Night, 矿工周五的夜晚The Daughter-in-law,儿媳 The Widowing of Mrs. Holroyed 守寡的霍尔伊德夫人
选文Sons and Lovers
VI. James Joyce
Dubliner 都柏林人 A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man青年艺术家的自画像
Ulysses 尤利西斯 Finnegans Wake 为芬尼根守灵
选文Dubliner
美国文学
I． Washington Irving
A History of New York form the Beginning of the World to the End of Dutch Dynasty
自古至荷兰占领为止的纽约史
The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent 见闻扎记
Bracebridge Hall 布雷斯布里奇庄园
Tales of a Travel 旅行者的故事
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow 睡谷的传说
选文Rip Van Winkle
II. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Nature 论自然 Essay 散文集 The American Scholar 论美国学者
Self-Reliance 论自信 The Over-Soul 论超灵
选文Nature
III. Nathaniel Hawthorne
Mosses from an Old Manse古宅青苔
The Snow-Image and Other Twice-Told Tales 雪像和其他故事新编
The Scarlet Letter 红字
The House of Seven Gables 七个尖角阁的房子
The Blithedale Romance 福谷传说 The Marble Faun 大理石雕像
选文Young Goodman Brown
IV. Walt Whitman
Leaves of Grass
选文There Was a Child Went Forth, Cavalry Crossing a Ford, Song of Myself
V. Herman Melville
Typee 泰比 Omoo 奥穆 Mardi 玛迪
Redburn 雷德本 White Jacket 白外衣 Pierre 皮埃尔
Confidence-Man 信心人 Moby-Dick 白鲸
Billy Budd 比利伯德
选文Moby-Dick
Chapter 2 现实主义时期
I. Mark Twain
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Life on Mississippi The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County
Innocent Abroad 傻瓜出国记 Roughing It 含莘如苦
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer The Gilded Age 镀金时代
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court 亚瑟王宫庭中的美国佬
The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson 傻瓜威尔逊
The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg 败坏哈德莱堡的人
The Mysterious Stranger 神秘的陌生人
选文Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
II. Henry James
The American 美国人 Daisy Miller 黛西米勒 The European 欧洲人
The Protrait of A Lady 贵妇人的画像 The Bostonians 波士顿人
Princess Casamassima 卡撒玛西公主 The Private Life 私生活
The Middle Years 中年 The Turn of the Screw 螺丝的拧紧
The Beast in the Jungle 丛林猛兽 What Maisie Knows 梅西所知道的
The Wings of the Dove 鸽翼 The Ambassadors 大使
The Golden Bowl 金碗 The Death of a Lion 狮之死
选文Daisy Miller
III. Emily Dickinson
If you were coming in the fall
There came a day Summer’s full
I cannot live with You I’m ceded-I’ve stopped being theirs
选文This is my letter to the World, I heard a Fly buzz-when I died
I like to see it lap the Miles
Because I could not stop for death
IV． Theodore Dreiserer
Sister Carrie 嘉莉妹妹 Nigger Jeff 黑人杰夫
Old Rogaum and His Theresa 老罗格姆和他的特里萨 Jennie Gerhardt珍妮姑娘
Trilogy of Desire The Financier 金融家 The Genius 天才
An American Tragedy 美国悲剧 Dreiser at Russia 德莱塞对俄罗斯的观感
选文Sister Carrie
Chapter 3 现代主义时期
I. Ezra Pound
The Cantos 诗章 Collected Early Poems of Ezra Pound 庞德的诗章
Personae 人物 Cantos Hugh Selwyn Mauberley 休塞尔温莫伯利
Make It New 要革新 Literary Essays 文学散文 The ABC of Reading 阅读入门
Polite Essays 优雅的随笔 The Translations of Ezra Pound 庞德译文集
Confucius 孔子 Shih-Ching 诗集
选文In a Station of the Metro, The River-Merchant’s Wife: A Letter, A Pact
II. Robert Lee Frost
A Boy’s Will 一个男孩儿的愿望 North of Boston 波士顿以北 Mountain Interval
New Hampshire 新罕布什尔 Snowy Evening 雪夜停马在林边 West-Running Brook 向西流去的小溪 Collected Poems 诗选 A Winter Tree
选文After Apple-Picking, The Road Not Taken, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening以
III. Eugene O’Neill
Bound East for Cardiff 驶向东方的卡笛夫 Beyond the Horizon 天外边
Straw Anna Christie The Emperor Jones 琼斯皇帝
The Hairy Ape 毛猿 All God’ s Chillun Got Wings 所有上帝的烟斗都有翅膀
The Great God Brown 伟大之神布朗 Long Day’s Journal Into Night 直到夜晚的漫长的一天 Desire Under the Elms 榆树下的欲望
选文The Hairy Ape
IV. F. Scott Fitzgerald
This Side of Paradise 天堂的这一边 Beautiful and Damned 美丽而遭骂的人
The Great Gatsby Tender is the Night 夜色温柔
The Last Tycoon 最后一个巨头 Flappers and Philosophers 吹捧者与哲学家
Tales of the Jazz Age 爵士时代 All the Sad Young Men 所有悲惨的小伙子
Taps at Reveille 拍打在起床鼓上 Babylon Revisited重返巴比伦
选文The Great Gatsby
V. Earnest Hemingway
In Our Time 在我们的时代 A Farewell to Arms 永别了，武器
For Whom the Bell Tolls 丧钟为谁敲响 The Old Man and the Sea 老人与海
Men Without Women 没有女人的男人 Death in the Afternoon 午后之死
The Snows of Kilimanjaro 开利曼扎罗之雪 The Green Hills of Africa 非洲的青山
选文Indian Camp (from In Our Time)
VI. William Faulkner
The Marble Faun 玉石牧神 The Sound and the Fury 喧嚣与骚动
As I Lay Dying 我弥留之际 Light in August 八月之光
Absalom, Absalom 押沙龙！押沙龙！ Wild Palms 疯狂的手掌
The Hamlet 哈姆雷特 The Unvanquished 不可征服的
Go Down, Moses 去吧，摩西 The Fable 寓言
The Town 小镇 The Mansion 大厦
Soldier’s Pay 士兵的报酬

英美文学常考作家
最常考作家         
Emily Dickinson
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Henry James
Mark Twain
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Thomas Hardy
Washington Irving
William Shakespeare
次常考作家         
Alexander Pope
Charles Dickens
Daniel Defoe
Emily Bronte
Eugene O'Neill
Ezra Pound
Heminway
Jane Austen
John Keats
John Milton
Melville
Percy Bysshe Shelly
Robert Browning
Theodore Dreiser
Whitman
William Faulkner
William Wordsworth
一般作家
Charlotte Bronte
Emerson
Enlightenment
Francis Bacon
Henry Fielding
James Joyce
John Bunyan
Jonathan Swift
Robert Frost
Samuel Johnson
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
William Blake

我也添点瓦：部分英美文学串讲资料（转贴）
Chapter5 Victorian Period
1. age: 1836-1901
2. background:
(1)early years: rapid economic development as well as serious social problems
(2)the next twenty years: prosperity and relative stability. a national spirit
of earnestness, respectability, modesty domesticity
(3)the last three decades: the decline of the British empire and the decay of
the Victorian values
3. idea: (1)Darwin's The Origin of Species; The Descent of Man shook the
theoretical basis of the traditional faith
(2)Utilitarianism: whether it could promote the material happiness
(3)socially conscious writers criticized(2)'s depreciation of cultural
values, cold indifference towards human feeling
(4)literature: magnitude and diversity, romantically and realistically
4. critical realist writers: criticized the society, concerned about the fate
of common people
Charles Dickens
1. theme: critical realist
writers, criticize: poverty, injustice, hypocrisy, corruptness
2. works: Oliver Twist; The Pickwick Paper; David Copper field; Domeby and
Son; A Tale of Two Cities; Bleak House; Little Dorrit; Hard Times; Great
Expectations
3. characteristics: (1)he is skillful in the dialect and have a large
vocabulary
(2)character portrayal
(3)characters are mostly innocent, helpless, persecuted child characters
(4)a mixture of humor and sympathism
(5)bizarre figure, horrible
4. Oliver Twist: the cruelty and hypocrisy of the workhouse system and the
dark criminal underworld life
The Bronte Sisters
1. scene: vast, rough, untouched moorland wilderness
2. Charlotte Bronte: Jane Eyre
Mr. Rochester and Jane Eyre.
Rochester: a grim-looking, energetic, quick-tempered, but an understanding
middle-aged man
Jane Eyre: has a burning spirit and a longing to love and be loved
Jane Eyre: struggles for recognition of her basic rights and equality as a
woman. It's an individual conscious struggle towards self-realization. She gets
joy through the sacrifice of herself or her weakness overcome 　
3. Emily Bronte: Wuthering Heights(uses flashbacks)
Nelly: Catherine's old nurse, narrator, told Mr. Lockwood, a temporary tenant
the story
Alfred Tennyson
1. Crossing the Bar; Ulysses; Break, Break, Break
2. evaluation: Poet Laureate(Wordsworth, Southey)
3. features: a powerful expression of the poet's philosophical and religious
thoughts, his doubts about life, soul.
Robert Browning
1. features: perfects "dramatic monologue", keeps readers alert, thoughtful and
enlightened
2. works: My Last Dutches, in heroic couplets, dramatic monologue
George Eliot
1. idea: founder of "stream of consciousness", focus on inner
struggle. hereditary influences govern human action. concern for the destiny of
woman. the tragedy of women lies in their very birth(hereditary influences)
2. works features: naturalistic and psychological novel
3. works: Middlemarch: a full view of life in a small Englishtown
Thomas Hardy
1. evaluation: naturalist(D. H. Lawrance; Theodore Dreiser; George Eliot), also
critical realist writer(Dichens)
2. works: Wessex
The Return of the Nature; The Mayor of Casterbridge; Tess of the
D'Urbervilles; Jude the Obscure
3. features: nostalgic(Washington Irving; F. Scott Fitzergerald; William
Faulkner), also pessimistic
4. naturalism: Darwin's idea of "survival of the fittest"
(1)man is born with tragic, inevitably bound by his own hereditary traits
(2)man proves powerless before fate however he tries, he seldom escapes his
doomed destiny
5. Tess of the D'Urbervilles:
(1)criticize the society, hypocricy of the society
(2)nauralism, the misery, poverty Tess suffers
Chapter6 The Realistic Period 1865-1914
1. background: the Civil War affected both the social and the value system
(1)transformed from an agricultural one to an industrialized and
commercialized one 　
(2)stimulated technological development
(3)stepped up urbanization
(4)people became dubious about the human nature and the charity of God
The Gilded Age
2. American Realistic Period and English Realistic Period(Victorian Period)
common ground
(1)a great interest in the realities of life, aim at the interpretation of
the actualities of any aspect of life
(2)what was brutal or filthy, the open portrayal of class struggle
(3)common people mostly depicted
differences(America)
(1)native trends in the realistic portrayal of the landscape and social
surfaces
(2)perfect the dialect style
(3)concern about "local colorism", a unique variation of American literary
realism
3. American Naturalism: influenced by Darwin's evolutionary theory
(1)accept the more negative implications of it and use it to explain the
behavior of those characters in litrary works
(2)inherited qualities, and habits confined by social forces are depicted
(3)theme: human "bestiality", especially the sexual desire
(4)unpolished language
(5)philosophically, the truth is always partially hidden from the eyes of the
individual, or beyond his control
(6)material source from the lower ranks of society portray misery and
poverty
(7)naturalism is evolved from realism. author's tone in writing is less
serious and sympathetic, more ironic and pessimistic
Mark Twain
1. works: Life on the Mississippi; The Adentures of Tom Sawyer; Advantures of
Huckleberry Finn(trilogy of Mississippi)
The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County; Innocents Abroad; The Man
that Corrupted Hadleyburg
2. features: (1)paid more attention to the "life" of the Americans
(2)preferred to have his own region and people in his stories, i. e. "local
colorism"
(3)concerned with the life of a small, well-defined region and the
lower-class people
(4)nostalgic in a vanishing way of life and recorders of a present that
faded before their eyes 　
(5)skillfully used the colloquialism, the language is
simple, direct, faithful. protagnists spoke in vernacular, both realistically
and
symbolically
(6)his humor is remarkable, his humor is not only funny elements making
people laugh, but a kind of artistic style to criticize the social injustice and
satirize the decayed romanticism
3. Advantures of Huckleberry Finn: The climax is Huck's inner struggle on the
Mississippi, between his affection for Jim and the laws, finally he follows his
own good-hearted morality rather than the conventional village one
Huckleberry Finn: a typical American boy with "a sound heart and a deformed
conscience", innocent and rebel
Henry James
1. evaluation: fluenced by Freud, pioneer of "stream-of-consciousness", founder
of psychological realism
2. works: The Portrait of A Lady(masterpiece): international themes
3. Daisy Miller
narrator: Frederick Winterbourne
Daisy Miller: Freedom an individuality, innocent, a pretty American Flirt
Emily Dickinson
1. works features: (1)she uses a particular rhyme pattern, uses dashes and
captical letters as a means of emphasis
(2)simplicity and plainness
(3)focus on a single image or symbol
(4)poems are personal and meditative
(5)personification
2. idea: skeptical about the relationship between man and nature, concerns
religion, death, immortality, love, nature
3. works: This is my letter to the World; I heard a Fly buzz-when I died;
Because I could not stop for Death
Theodore Dreiser
1. works: Sister Carrie
2. trilogy: The Financier; The Titan; The Stoic
greatest work: An American Tragedy
3. idea: naturalist
(1)heredity and environment are the forces determining man's destiny, under
what life was ironic, even tragic
(2)human beings'life was trapped into 'a welter of inscrutable forces'
(3)Darwin's idea of "survial of the fittest" is embodied as "kill or to be
killed" in Dreiser's works 　
2003年4月“英美文学选读”串讲资料(5)
　 2004-01-04 16: 56: 14
(4)explain the insignificance of life and attack the conventional moral
standards
(5)materialism is the core. man has a meaningless, endless search for
satisfaction of his desires, desires for money
(6)sex is another human desire. sexual beauty symbolizes the social status
Chapter7 The Modern Period(England)
1. background: second half of the 19th century to early of the 20th decades
(1)natural and social sciences enormously advanced
(2)capitalism came into its monopoly stage
(3)the gap between the rich and the poor was further deepened
(4)World War 1 2 broke
2. what ideas influence this period: all kinds of philosophical ideas
(1)Karl Marx: scientific socialism
(2)Darwin's theory of evolution, "survival of the fittest"
(3)Freud's analytical psychology
(4)The irrationalist philosophers give immense influence
3. ideas: (1)Modernism originated from skepticism and disillusion of
capitalism
(2)The French symbolism announced modernism
(3)takes the irrational philosophy and the theory of psycho-analysis as its
theoretical base. The major themes are the distorted, alienated and ill
relationships
4. difference between Modernism and Realism
Modernism is a reaction against realism in many aspects
(1)Modernism rejects rationalism, which is the theoretical base of Realism
(2)Modernism refects the source of Realism, i. e. the
external, objective, material world
(3)Modernism rejects almost all the traditional elements in literature
5. D. H. Lawence's works'features: (1)he interests in exploring the
psychological development, he thinks life impulse is man's instinct. any
conscious oppression will cause distortion of the individual's personality
(2)make a psychological exploration of human relationships, especially those
between men and women
(3)he emphasizes that it's capitalist industrialization that turn man into
inhuman machines. And the desires for power and money cause the alienation of
human reationships 　
6. John Osborne: "Look back in Anger" "Angry Young Man", the working-class
drama and the Theater of Absurb
George Bernard Shawn
1. idea: against "art for art's sake", art should serve social purposes by
reflecting human life, revealing social contradictions and educating common
people
2. works features: prolem plays, only one passion: indignation
(1)showing one's character by the expense of another's
(2)inversion
3. works: Mrs Warren's Profession(a play about the economic oppression of
woman); St. Joan(historical play); The Apple Cart(political play); The Doctor's
Dilemma(political play)
John Galsworthy
1. works: trilogy: The Man of Property; In Chancery; To Let
2. The Man of Property: Soames(husband), Irene(wife), Bosinney(wife's lover)
the predominant possessive instinct of the Forsytes
Soames represents the principle that the accumulation of wealth in the aim
of life, for he considers everything in terms of one's property, he never pays
any attention to his wife's thoughts and feelings, he takes her merely as part
of his own property.
theme: human relationships of the contemporary English Society are merely an
extension of property relationships
William Butler Yeats
1. works: The Lake Isle of Innisfree; Down by the Salley Gardens
T. S. Eliot
1. works: The Waste Land
(1)presents physical disorder and spiritual decadence in the modern western
society
(2)reflects disillusion and despair of a whole post war
generation. anguish, menace, sterility had been afflicting all sensitive members
of the postwar generation
(3)concerns with the spiritual breakup of a modern civilization in which
human life has lost its meaning
(4)reflects the 20th century people's disillusion and frustration in a
meaningless and boring world
2. works: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock: dramatic monologue in ironic tone
content: the meditation of an aging young man over the proposing marriage 　
theme: the speaker's incapability of facing up to love and to life in a
sterile upper-class world
D. H. Lawence
1. works: The Rainbow; Women in Love; Lady Chatterley's Lover
2. Sons and Lovers
contents: ignorant, drunken and brutish father(Mr. Morel), the weary, frustrated
mother(Mrs. Morel), the intelligent and ambitious woman, tries to find emotional
fulfillment in her sons(Paul). she hopes her sons should never became miners,
they will be educated to realize her ideals of success, happiness and social
respect. Paul is incapable of escaping the overpowering emotional bond imposed
by her mothers love. (distorted relationship)
James Joyce
1. scene: the same setting: Ireland, especially Dublin, the same subject: the
Irish people and their life
2. works: Ulysses: an account of man's life during one day
3. stream of conscienceness: presents unspoken materials directly from the
psyche of the characters, or make the characters tell their own inner thoughts
in monologues
a literary form presenting psychological aspects of characters
The events seem to be trivial, insignificant, but below the surface of
them, the natural flow of mental reflections, the shifting moods and impulses in
the characters inner world are richly presented in an frank and penetrating
way. (Ulysses)
4. Araby(from Dubliners): a tale of the frustrated quest for beauty
theme: the child lives not with his parents but with an uncle and aunt, a
symbol of that isolation and lack of proper relation between parents and
children
Chapter8 The Modern Period(America)
1. age: second half of the 19th century to early decades of the 20th century
2. background: (1)the U. S. has become the most powerful country
(2)technological revolution
(3)a decline in moral standard, a spiritual wasteland, feelings of
fear, loss, disorientation and disillusionment
3. influencing ideas: (1)the same as English Modern period: Karl
Marx, Darwin, Freud 　
(2)stream of consciousness:
4. "The Lost Generation" by Gertrude
5. John Steinbeck: "The Grapes of Wrath"
Allen Ginsberg: "Howl", the manifesto of Beat Movement
Salinger: "The Catcher in the Rye"
6. modernism's features:
literature: convey a vision of social breakdown and moral decay
writer: develop techniques that could represent a break with the
past. modernistic works are discontinuity and fragmentation
7. The differences between Modernism America and England
(1)American wirters emphasize the concrete sensory images or details as the
direct conveyor of experience
(2)modern fiction employ the first narration or confine the reader to the
"central consciousness" or one character's point of view
common ground: directness, compression, vividness, sparing of words
Ezra Pound
1. imagist: (1)dirext treatment of poetic subjects
(2)eliminat ornamental words
(3)rhythmical composition in the sequence of the musical phrase rather than
in the sequence of a metronome
example: "In a Station of the Metro"
2. works: In a Station of the metro; The River-Merchent's Wife; A pact(free
verse)
Robert Lee Frost
1. works: The Road Not Taken-Mountain Interval, uncertainty of the speaker's
choice between safety and unknown(meditative)
Stopping by Woods on a snowy Evening-New Hampshire
After Apple-Picking, a man's best efforts ever satisfy God?
2. idea: a momentary stay against confusion, like Wordsworth
3. The Road Not Taken: took the one less travelled by and that has made all
the difference
Eugene I'Neill
1. works: The Hairy Ape
characters seek meaning and purpose in their lives through love or religion
or revenge. the result is disappointment or despair. use Expressionism
2. The Hairy Ape: concerns the problem of modern man's position. Yank's sense
of belonging nowhere is a typical of the mood of isolation and alienation in the
early twentieth century in the US and the whole world as well. 　
F. Scott Fitzgerald
1. both an insider and outsider of the Jazz Age
2. The Great Gatsby
narrator: Nick Carraway
Ernest Hemingway
1. Hemingway hero
(1)a wounded hero confronts all the difficulties of the situation with his
dignity and courage. (In Our Times-Nick Adams)
(2)a group of wandering, amusing and aimless people caught in the war. (The
Sun Also Rises-The Lost Generation)
(3)man suffers both physically and mentally, and is doomed to suffer, refute
God's kindness to man. (A Farewell to Arms-Frederick Henry)
(4)proves life's worth and there are causes worth dying for. (For Whom the
Bell Tolls-Robert Jordan)
(5)show great respect for the struggle of mankind against unconquerable
natural forces, though only a partial victoy is possible. (The Old Man and the
Sea-Santiago)
(6)he is with the honesty, the discipline, and the restraint. man always fights
a losing battle of life, but never lose dignity. man can be physically
destroyed, but never defeated spiritually
(7)man of courage, and masculinity and inflexible heroism. (The Undefeated)
2. The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one-eighth of it
being above water
3. colloquialism (Mark Twain)(short, simple, conventional words)
4. works: Indian Camp(In Our Times)
William Faulkner
1. works: The Sound and The Fury; Light in August; Absalom, Absalom!; Go
Down, Moses; The Marble Faun; Soldiers'Pay; As I Lay Dying; Wild Palms; The
Hamlet; Intruder in the Dust(Nobel Prize); The Bear; Requiem for a Nun; The
Fable; The Town; The Mansion
2. background: American South, Northern Mississippi, Yoknapatawpha County
3. theme: almost all his heroes are tragic
(1)they are prisoners of the past or of the society, or of some social and
moral taboos, or of their own personalities
(2)society conditions man with its laws and institutions and eliminates
man's chance of responding naturally to the experiences of his existence
(3)man tries to explain the incomprehensible by turning away from
reality, but becomes weak, cowardly and confused(Emily-coward)
4. nostalgic in The Sound and The Fury
5. works'features: (1)use of narrative techniques is remarkable, let the
characters explain themself, the reader experiences the work of art directly
(2)breaks up chronology, juxtaposes the past with the present
(3)stream of consciousness
(4)inner musings of the narrator
(5)good at presenting multiple points of view

6. works: A Rose for Emily(Gothic devices)
Emily: the symbols of the Old South, the prisoners of the past. an eccentric
spinster. she refuses the inevitable changes and loss with the pass of time


English and American Literature
(mailto:Winniechou2008@hotmail.com, 整理, 2004/03/18)

English Part:

Thomas More: Utopia 《乌托邦》

Francis Bacon: Essays 《论说文集》或 《随笔》
                 “Knowledge is power”----Bacon

Edmund Spencer: Faerie Queen 《仙后》
“Our sweetest songs are those that sing of saddest feelings.”
--- Spencer

Ode to the West Wind--
If winter comes, can spring be far behind?
-Percy Bysshe Shelley

★Chapter 1 renaissance
The Renaissance
The Renaissance is a historical period in which the European humanist thinkers and scholars made attempts to get rid of those old feudalist ideas in medieval Europe, to introduce new ideas that expressed the interests of the rising bourgeoisie, and to recover the purity of the early church from the corruption of the Roman Catholic Church.

Humanism (人文主义)
Humanism is the essence of the Renaissance. “Man is the measure of all things.” Thomas More, Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare are the best representatives of the English humanists.

Mainstream of Literary Forms
In the early stage of the Renaissance, poetry and poetic drama were the most outstanding literary forms and they were carried on especially by Shakespeare and Ben Jonson. The Elizabethan drama, in its totality, is the real mainstream of the English Renaissance.
End//
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
William Shakespeare
23rd, April 1564, Stratford-on-Avon
His Father, a leather merchant 皮货商
His school, a local Grammar school for 6 years
His life, dramatist, actor, poet, proprietor
His first son, Hamlet
4 tragedies: Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, MacBeth (Romeo and Juliet)
Main works: 37 plays, 154 sonnets , 2 narrative plays
戏剧    14行诗        叙事诗
Titus Andronicus 《泰特斯•安德洛尼克斯》
Taming of the Shrew 《驯悍记》
The Two Gentlemen of Verona 《维罗纳二绅士》
Love’s Labor’s Lost 《爱的徒劳》
A Midsummer Night’s Dream 《仲夏夜之梦》
King John 《约翰王的生平和逝世》
Much Ado about Nothing  《无事生非》
The Merry Wives of Windsor 《温莎的风流娘们》
Julius Caesar  《朱力叶斯•凯撒》
The Merchant of Venice  《威尼斯商人》
As you like it  《皆大欢喜》
Carl Marx: “Aeschylus and Shakespeare are the two greatest dramatic genius the world has ever known.”
His friend: “He does not belong to one time, but belongs to all times.”

William Shakespeare’s writing feature
A play in the play.
Borrow plots from other stories such as Roman, Greek and ancient myth.
Several threads running through the play.
Combination of tragic and comic elements.
William Shakespeare’s writing style
1. Tremendous vocabulary (16,000 words, invent words)
2. Literary devices (alliteration, simile, metaphor)
3. Use poetry in his play
William Shakespeare’s humanistic ideas
1. Against cruelty and anti-natural character of civil wars
2. Against religious persecution, racial discrimination, social inequality.
3. Hates rebellion and despises democracy
Themes in Shakespeare’s sonnets
1. Express love and praise to a young man
2. Immortalize beauty through verses
3. Friendship or betrayal of friendship

Sonnet
Origin: Italy
Most famous and influential sonneteer: Petrach
Selected Reading of Shakespeare:
1. [P37] Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18:
a. Ladies in the eyes of Shakespeare are not good and beautiful. His wife is 8 years older than him.
b. Iambic pentameter

c. Main ideas:
i.     Quatrain 1: praise the beauty of the young man
ii.     Quatrain 2: changes in life and nature
iii. Quatrain 3: “your” beauty will last forever
iv.   Couplet: “your” beauty will live in my poem. An Immortal beauty

d. His sonnet 18 expresses that beautiful things can rely on the force of literature to reach eternity.
Literature is created by man, thus it declares man’s eternity. The poem shows the mighty self-confidence of the newly class. The vivid, variable and rich images reflect the lively and adventurous spirits of those who were opening new world.

2. [P39] An Excerpt from The Merchant of Venice
a. How does Shylock justify himself according to the accusation of Duke and Bassanio?
[P40-41] There are 3 reasons.

b. Why does Shylock stick to his bond instead of taking twice his principle?
He hates the Christians and is determined to revenge on them because his daughter elopes with a Christian.

c. What do you think of Shylock in the early court scene? What about him later?
In the early court scene, Shylock is cruel, eloquent, stubborn, tricky, isolated from law and friendship.
In the later court scene, Shylock is greedy, sympathetic and oppressed by Christians.

d. What is Shakespeare’s attitude towards Shylock?  
He sympathizes those who are oppressed. Antonio is oppressed by Shylock. Shylock is oppressed by Christians.

e. The whole play is a tragi-comedy. In the scene, Shylock is the tragic side. Antonio and his friends is the comic side.
The theme of Shakespeare’s A Merchant of Venice
(1) Justice vs. mercy:  Shakespeare suggests that all men should be merciful. There is a further aspect of justice—the injustice revealed in the Christians’ treatment of the Jews.


(2) Appearance vs. reality:  e.g. superficial or external beauty vs. moral or spiritual beauty or truth (in the case of three caskets); the letters of law vs. the spirit of the law.


(3) Commercial or material values vs. love: True love is much more worthwhile than money and material values. Antonio epitomizes true love in his friendship for Bassanio.
The character analysis of Shylock  
Shylock is a Jewish usurer, and he is a tragic-comic character.

He is comic because he finally becomes the one punished by his own evil deed. He is avaricious. He accumulates as much wealth as he can and he even equates his lost daughter with his lost money. He is also cruel. In order to revenge, he would rather claim a pound of flesh from his enemy Antonio than get back his loan.

He is tragic, because he is the victim of the society. As a Jew, he is not treated equally by the society. The law is harsh to him. He has to make as much money as he can in order to protect him. He is abused by Antonio, so he wants to get revenge.
The character analysis of Hamlet
Hamlet is a scholar and a warrior.
His father has been killed by his uncle, Claudius, who then take the throne and marries his mother. Hamlet is informed by the ghost of his father to take revenge, but the weakness of indecisiveness or indetermination in his character always delay his action, and finally leads to his tragic fall of death.

Hamlet is not a man of action, but a man of thinking at first. He hesitates at some crucial moments. At last when he is forced to take some actions, he does kill Claudius gloriously, but he also sacrifices his own life.
End//

John Donne (1572-1631)
John Donne
1572 Born in a merchant family
1591 Learn law at the Inns of Court in London
Private Secretary to Sir Thomas Egerton, the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal.
1601 29y. Married Egerton’s niece, Ann More. He worked hard to fight against poverty. However, it’s a secret marriage. When the marriage was exposed, he was put into jail. The Egertons regarded the marriage as an offence.
1617 His wife died. He devoted his time and efforts to his priestly duties, writing sermons and religious poems.
1621 Donne was appointed the Dean of St. Paul’s and kept the post until his death.
John Donne’s major work
1. Songs and Sonnets, wrote before 1600, 55 love poems.
2. The Elegies and Satires, his elegies wrote for love whereas others wrote for mourning dead people.
3. Holy Sonnets & Sermons, Sonnets wrote about God, ***ual life, problem of death and life. Sermons are Christian preaching.

He wrote poems by using unconventional and surprising conceits and full of wit and humor, but sometimes the logic argument and conceits become pervasive. The language is colloquial but powerful, creating unorthodox images on the reader’s mind.
John Donne is famed for 3 things
1. A great visitor of ladies
2. A great frequenter of plays
3. A great writer of conceited verses

At his time, John Donne was famed as a preacher. Today, he is famed as a lyric poet. John Donne compared parting love to compass, flea compared to the union of lovers. John Donne’s conceit can be seen from his “Go catching the falling star” in which he listed many impossible things---the most impossible thing is a woman’s faith and heart.
Metaphysical poetry
--- is commonly used to name the work of the 17th-century writers who wrote under the influence of John Donne.
metaphysical poets
--- are the poets in the 17c England who often unconventionally use conceits and wit. The imagery is draw from everyday life. The form is the form of argument (with God, lover, himself). The diction is simple and the language is colloquial but powerful. John Donne is the leading of “metaphysical school”.

Selected Reading of John Donne
1. [P66]The Sun Rising
In this poem, the love’s wedding room has been intruded by sun and the man takes offence at the intrusion. He attacks the sun as an unruly servant, and finally he allow the sun to enter their chamber and warm them. The poem’s true subject is the lady—his true emotional love. Every insult to the sun is a compliment to the lady.

2. [P68]Death, Be not Proud (1)
End//

John Milton (1608-1674)
John Milton (1608-1674)
1608 Born in London. A Catholic family. His father was both a scholar and a businessman.
1620 Educated at St. Paul’s School
1625 Educated in Cambridge
1643 Married a 17y. girl younger than him
1649 Appointed Latin Secretary to Cromwell’s Council of State
1652 Became totally blind. His wife died. He married again.

3 periods in John Milton’s life
1. English revolution
1649 Charles I beheaded. Cromwell took the power
1660 Restoration. Charles II took the power
2. Political ideas: express his political ideas in pamphlets
3. Poem: Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, Samson Agonistes.
Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost is a long epic divided into 12 books. The theme is the “Fall of Man”, i.e. man’s disobedience and the loss of Paradise.

The original story is taken from Genesis. Adam and Eve are originally in innocent spiritual love. They are punished by God because they eat the apple of the Tree of Knowledge seduced by a serpent. Since they eat the apple, they begin to make love. God thinks they are not innocent. They committed sin. God drives Adam and Eve out of Eden.

Satan is punished by God to suffer from fire. He knows that he can’t win God by power, so he wins God by cheating. He seduced Eve to eat the apple.

Selected Reading of John Milton
1. [P73] An Excerpt from Paradise Lost
▲The character analysis of Satan
In Paradise Lost, Satan is the rebel who never bows down to God even when he failed. He is a good military leader. He refuses to acknowledge the power of God. He is determined to continue the battle. He feels sorrow at the sufferings of those angels. He has led to so terrible a punishment, but he is very cruel. He has indomitable pride, unconquerable rebellion, and the will to evil and power. He said, “Only do evil, no good”. He tries to be as equal as God.
End//

Christopher Marlowe
Christopher Marlowe
As the most gifted of the "University Wits", Marlowe composed six plays within his short lifetime


Dr. Faustus(German legend of a magician)
Dr. Faustus is the greatest of Marlowe's plays, in which the old German legend is freely reshaped. Faustus is a great scholar who has a strong desire to acquire all kinds of knowledge. He is bored of his present study on the academic curriculum and turns to black magic. By conjuration he calls up Mephistophilis, the Devil's servant. Faustus makes a bond to sell his soul to the Devil in return for twenty-four years of life in which he may have the sevices of Mephistophilis to give him everything he desires.
The passionate Shepherd to his love
This poem is considered to be one of the most beautiful lyrics in English literature. It derives from the pastoral tradition, in which the shepherd enjoys an ideal country life, cherishing a pastoral and pure affection for his love. Strong emotion is conveyed through the beauty of nature where lovers are not disturbed by worldly concern
Marlowe’s Achievements
Marlowe's greatest achievement lies in that  he perfected the blank verse (无韵体诗)and made it the principal medium of English drama.

Marlowe's second achievement is  his creation of the Renaissance hero for English drama.
End//
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon
refusing the objections to learning and outlining the problems with which his plan is to deal
Also he answers the charge that learning is against religion
In order to illustrate this idea, he divides knowledge into two kinds.

One is the knowledge obtained from the Divine Revelation,
the other is the knowledge from the workings of human mind

Bacon's essays are famous for their brevity, compactness and powerfulness


Of Studies
Of Studies is the most popular of Bacon's 58 essays. It analyzes what studies chiefly serve for, the different ways adopted by different people to pursue studies, and how studies exert influence over human character.

Forceful and persuasive, compact and precise, Of Studies reveals to us Bacon's mature attitude towards learning
End//
Edmund Spenser
Edmund Spenser
Edmund recorded his laments over the loss of Rosalind in The Shepheades Calender.(牧人日记).

In 1594  he married Elizabeth, and wrote his Epithalamion(新婚喜歌）
The faerie Queene
The purpose of Redcrosse's quest is to free original mankind----the parents of Una----from the power of the Devil. His fight is thus against sin

the theme is not "Arms and the man" but something more romantic----"Fierce warres and faithful loves." The scenery is not classical but romantic.
Five main qualities of Spenser's poetry
1) a perfect melody;
2) a rare sense of beauty;
3) a splendid imagination;
4) a lofty moral purity and seriousness
5) a dedicated idealism.

In addition to the above, Spenser uses strange forms of speech and obsolete words in order to increase the rustic effect.

It is Spenser's idealism, his love of beauty, and his exquisite melody that make him known as "the poets' poet."
End//
★Chapter 2 The Neoclassical Period (1600-1798)
The age of reason and enlightenment. It’s a turbulent period.

1660 The Restoration
1665 The Great Plague --- Black Death. 70,000 died, 2/3 homeless.
1688 The Glorious Revolution.

Glorious Revolution （光荣革命）;
British colonies (Abroad);
Acts of Enclosure （圈地运动）
(At home); The Enlightenment Movement （启蒙运动）

James II exiled abroad. The persecution of Protestants. James II’s daughter Marry and her wife William turned back to England as figurehead (King and Queen) without power. Power was in the Parliament. England became the first capitalist country with Constitutional monarchy, which marked the end of feudal society.

1) 1798 The publication of Lyrics by Wordsworth
Industrial Revolution (romantic period) --- at the 2nd half of 18c
Preparations for the revolution
1. money --- by trading companies, e.g. East India Company
       --- by money investment
2. goods, materials --- colonies, e.g. India, North America
3. manpower --- “Act of Enclosure”. The landless and homeless peasant began to work in cities
              --- the invention of textile machine

In the revolution, Bourgeois (middle class) became the main class in the society. Bankers, landlords, slave traders, merchants, colonists controlled the economy of the country at the time. They believed in self-reliance and hard working.

The Giants of the Enlightenment Movement
Voltaire 伏乐泰, Mosteiqeu 孟德斯鸠, Dierot 狄德罗, Rousseau 卢梭.

Gothic Novel
1. Content: magic, supernatural elements, ghosts, monsters.
2. Setting: old castle, graveyard, dark forest
3. Atmosphere: horrible
The Enlightenment Movement
The 18th century England is known as the Age of Enlightenment or the Age of Reason.
The Enlightenment Movement was a progressive intellectual movement which purpose was to enlighten the whole world with the light of modern philosophical and artistic ideas. The enlighteners celebrated reason or rationality, equality and science. They held that rationality or reason should be the only, the final cause of any human thought and activities. They called for a reference to order, reason and rules. They believed that when reason served as the yardstick for the measurement of all human activities and relations, every superstition, injustice and oppression was to yield place to “eternal truth,” “eternal justice” and “natural equality”.

Great writers like John Dryden, Alexander Pope, Joseph Addison and Sir Richard Steele, the two pioneers of familiar essays, Jonathan Swift, Daniel Defoe, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Henry Fielding and Samuel Johnson.

Neoclassicism
In the field of literature, the Enlightenment Movement brought about a revival of interest in the old classical works. This tendency is known as neoclassicism.

According to the neoclassicists, all forms of literature were to be modeled after the classical works of the ancient Greek and Roman writers. They believed that the artistic ideals should be order, logic restrained emotion and accuracy, and that literature should be judged in terms of its service to humanity. This belief led them to seek proportion, unity, harmony and grace in literary expression, in an effort to delight, instruct and correct human beings, primarily as social animals. Thus a polite, urbane, witty, and intellectual art developed.

John Bunyan (1628-1688)
John Bunyan (1628-1688)
1628   Born in a poor tinker’s family. He received little education in a Grammar  School
1647 Married a Christian woman and became interested in Christianity.
1660 Bunyan began to preach, but he didn’t have a preaching license so he was put into jail for 6 years.
1665 Great Plague in England, he was released from jail. Few months later, he was in jail again for another 6 years.
1672 Declaration of Independence, he was released again.
1675 His license of lay preacher was temporarily cancelled and he was in prison again.
Selected Reading of John Bunyan: [P85]“The Vanity Fair” from The Pilgrim’s Process

Throughout his life, he only read one book the Bible. His most famous work is  The Pilgrim’s Process.

         Bunyan’s purpose of writing The Pilgrim’s Process
1. Urge people to abide by Christian doctrine
2. To seek salvation through struggling with his own weakness and social evils

The content of The Pilgrim’s Process is about Christianity. The title means “life is a journey”. It’s a metaphor.

Form of The Pilgrim’s Process: Allegory
1. A story in verse or prose with double meanings or meanings at two levels.
2. Higher lever – concerning moral, religious, or political ideas. Lower level – your understanding of the story.
3. Main characters in the story Christian, Faithful, Hopeful.
4. The description of the story is realistic religious allegory.

Why “The Vanity Fair” is a satire on the ruling class of Egnland?
1. It’s a symbolic picture of London at the time of Restoration
2. In Vanity Fair, everything can be sold and bought, daily necessities, but also honor, kingdom, lust, pleasure and even lives.
3. Evil things such as cheating, roguery, and adultery are normal in the Vanity Fair where there is no moral. It’s a satire of the non-moral English ruling class.
4. Faithful is put to death for his despising of the Vanities. It’s a parallel of Bunyan’s experience of imprisoned for preaching.
John Bunyan’s writing style --- moded after the Bible
Language --- easy to read, colloquial, concrete and concise
Form --- allegorical form, realistic, true to life.
The allegorical meaning of “The Vanity Fair” in John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress▲
The Vanity Fair refers to the real world where people have become so degenerated that all they are concerned is to buy and sell everything they can. It allegorically represents vanity both in the society and in people’s heart, so people are spiritually lost. However, the pilgrims refuse to buy any of the things in the Vanity Fair. Its purpose is to urge people to abide by Christian doctrines and seek salvation through constant struggle with their own weakness and social evils. Christians’ refusal shows that they are one step nearer the Celestial City.
End//
Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
1688 Born in the year of Glorious Revolution in a merchant Roman Catholic family.
Because of his ill health, he didn’t go to university. He received his education from a learned preacher. Because he is a Catholic, he can’t do thing for the government.
   
    Pope is a deformed person. He suffered severe illness in his childhood.
    Illness accompanied him throughout his life.
Alexander Pope’s major work
1711 An Essay on Criticism. The poem is a manifesto of English neoclassicism. It’s expressed Pope’s aesthetic theories of poetry. The poem is divided into 3 parts with 744 lines.         

Part I: bewailing the lack of true taste in critics; praising the ancients like
                Homer, Virgil
Part II: enumerating dangers of criticism;
referring to literary scene of his  day

Part III: giving rules for criticism; tracing the history of literary criticism.
  
The poem is a comprehensive study on literary criticism. It was written in heroic couplet as Pope is a master in heroic couplet.

Heroic couplet is 2 lines with the same rhymes, same length. 10 syllables, 5 stressed, 5 unstressed. Heroic couplet was first used by Chaucer.

1712 The Rape of Lock is based on a real event. Bellina is as beautiful woman as a Goodness. She is admired by all the people around her, esp. a young man name(consider revised). A Baron cut a small amount of Bellina’s hair. In Bellina’s opinion, it’s an offence. Baron just cut her hair for fun and admiration. So hatred is aroused between the two families. They become enemies. In this poem, Pope satires the idle, meaningless life of middle-class people.

1728 The Dunciad is consisted of 4 books. It’s the best satire of Pope. It’s a very famous satirical poem about against personal enemies. Pope tries to attack on all personal enemies.

1733-34  An Essay on Man. Pope gained his fame as a poet. It includes 4 epistles   (letters). People review his philosophical and political views as an enlightener.

Selected Reading of Alexander Pope: [P93] An excerpt from Part 2 of An Essay on Criticism.

◆▲Pope’s point of view on poetry criticism and the characteristics of his own poetry   
1. Pope’s point of view on poetry criticism is best shown in his An Essays on Criticism. He emphasizing that literary works should be judged by classical rules of order, reason, logic, restrained emotion and good taste. He calls on people to turn to the old Greek and Roman writers for guidance. He advises the critics not to stress too much the artificial use of conceit or the external beauty of language, but to pay special attention to true wit which is best set in a plain style.


2. Pope’s poem strictly follows his idea of neoclassicism. He developed a satiric, concise, smooth, graceful and well-balanced style, and finally brought to its last perfection of the heroic couplet.
End//

Daniel Defoe (1660-1731)
Daniel Defoe (1660-1731)
He was born in a butcher’s family (wealthy but low social status). Defoe never went to university, but received good education in a Dissenting Academy. Defoe has two interests: interest in business and interest in politics.
   
Interest in business. He started from small business to become rich. He is a gifted man in business.

Interest in politics. His political stand swang between the Whigs and the Tories. He wrote political pamphlets to attack the Whigs, but both of the two parties thought the pamphlets insulted them. So Defoe was sent to jail and pillory. He negotiated with the Prime minister to become a spy to Scotland. He tried to make the union of Scotland and England.

1704, he issued a periodical The Review, on which he voiced his concerns for woman’s right, economy, children and parents relationships, politics and other hot issues of the time.

1718, he began to write novel.

1719, his first novel Robinson Crusoe was published. It’s based on a true story published on a newspaper. (Alexander is a Scottish who lives in an uninhabited island for 5 years.) The story is about the hero’s life on the island. The first part is about the career of Robinson Crusoe. The body of the novel is about his life on the island after the shipwreck. The story reveals the essence of British colonialism.

The themes of Robinson’s Crusoe
a. man’s struggles against nature
b. Glorification of the bourgeois men who has the courage and will to face hardship and determination to improve his livelihood.
c. Glorification of labor (Robinson lives on his own hands)
The style of Robinson’s Crusoe
a. Realistic style, true to life, in details
b. Smooth, simple, colloquial language
c. Long sentences are loose; short sentences are plain, easy to understand
d. presents facts in order, the meaning is clear

In the following years, Defoe wrote another 4 novels: Captain Singleton (1720), Moll Flanders (1722), Colonel Jack (1722) and Roxana (1724). Defoe wrote them in the same pattern. The feature of the pattern:

a. Traces the personal history of the titular hero or heroine of a low origin. After some ups and downs, he/she finally gets prosperity.
b. Deals with moralizing, repentance, and revolutions to be good.
c. Expresses the struggles for mere existence. Show the conflicts between existence and social environment.
d. Blames the society for driving people to sinning.  

1720, Captain Singleton is sent to Africa when he was 3 months old. In Africa, he experiences many adventures. With good luck, he wins much gold. Back to England, he goes bankrupt and becomes a pirate.

1722, Moll Flanders is the daughter of a woman thief. She is born in the Newgate Prison. In her life, she married 5 times with over 12 children. However, she never nurses a single child. She becomes a thief herself. She is transferred to the American colony as a criminal. She accumulates a wealth and buys a fare plant there. At the age of 30, she comes back to England.

1722, Colonel Jack is deserted by his parents at a very young age. He becomes a pickpocket. He is kidnapped and sent to the American colony. He is very clever and finally becomes a rich plant owner.

1724, Roxana is the daughter of a Protestant refugee. She is beautiful and clever. She marries an English merchant. Because the merchant deserts her, she becomes a famous international prostitute. In Holland, she married a Dutch merchant. After his death, she finds that he was in great debts. She can’t pay off the debts and is put into jail and died in jail.  

Daniel Defoe’s satirical poems
1701, The True-Born Englishman, in the poem, Defoe defended King William, which won him the friendship of the King. He attacked the racial and family pride of the aristocrats in England.

1703, A Hymn to the Pillory. He voiced his anger over the shameful punishment, courageous attack on the injustice of England’s legal system. He was cheered by people as a hero to defend himself.

Selected Reading of Daniel Defoe: [P98] An excerpt from Robinson Crusoe

End//
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)
He was born in Dublin, Ireland, of an English family. His father died before he was born. A rich uncle sent Swift to the Trinity College. His most deed is against the ruling class of England.

1689-1699, he worked as a private secretary to Sir William Temple, a retired diplomat. On the post, Swift made many famous politician friends and came to know many dirty and dishonest politicians of the day.

1704, Swift published the satire, The Battle of the Books, which wrote about the quarrels between the Ancients and the Moderns. The Ancients were compared to bee. The Moderns were compared to spider. In literate theory, bee represents good - “bring honey”; spider represents selfish.

1704, A Tale of a Tub attacks on religion or Christianity. In the satire, the father represents the God. His 3 sons indicate the 3 branches of Christianity: Roman Catholic, English Church, and Dissenters.

The Battle of the Books, and A Tale of a Tub established Swift’s name as a satirist.

1705, he became a clergyman.

1707, he moved to London and became a politician. He tries to speak for the Irish people. He was the editor of The Examiner, a Tory’s periodical.

1713, he was appointed the Dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin.

1716, Swift married a woman.

1724, there were 2 great events in England
a. Wool industry --- English Congress passed the persuasion of developing wool industry in England. Irish people can’t make money from wool because they have to return the land. Irish people had to live a miserable life. A famous slogan in Ireland at that time is “Burn everything that come from England except the coal” which voiced Irish people’s determination of refusing England.
b. Coin event --- A minister suggested and permitted to make new coins. The exchange rate between Irish coin and the new English coin was unfair. The minister and King got profit from the exchange.

1724, Swift published the satire, The Drapier’s Letters to attack the event. The exchange of new coin is canceled.

Gulliver’s Travels
1726, his wife died. It’s a heavy blow on him. He wrote and published his greatest satirical work, Gulliver’s Travels. The story is divided into 4 parts.

Part I. Travels in Lilliput is a mini picture of modern English society.
Two parties: High Heel and Low Heel indicates the Tories and the Whigs. Here, Swift satires the two parties. The war between Lilliput and its neighboring country about how to break eggs (big/small end). Big end – Roman Church. Small end – English Church. Swift satires the party and church fights are meaningless.

Part II. Travels in Brobdingnag

Part III. A show of the cruelty of the English ruling class. The Flying Island rules the below countries.

Part IV. It’s the sharpest and bitterest satire. In this part, human beings are reduced to animals. A wiser creature governs human beings. Gulliver wants to be a horse rather than a man. It shows how mean the human beings are.
▲■The social satire of Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels
The account of Lilliputian life, especially the games for people at court, alludes to the similar ridiculous practices or tricks in the English government. The description of the competition in the games before the royal members leads to the fact that the success of those government officials such as the Prime Minister lies not in their being any wiser or better but in their being more dexterous in the game. This alludes to the practices in England. And the pompous words singing of the Lilliputian emperor ridicule the aristocratic arrogance and vanity.
A Modest Proposal
1729, the publication of the pamphlet A Modest Proposal. It’s a greatest and bitterest satire.

The theme of A Modest Proposal
a. The poor Irish people were forced to sell their one-year-old child for the rich people for food.
b. English King allowed French King to recruit soldiers from Ireland to solve the problem of over population.
c. Some politicians suggested sending Irish people to Australia to be concentrated servants because of over population.
d. Swift lists some terrible scenes in the prose: a beggar mother followed by children in rugs; poor parents sell children. It’s a satire against the English ruling class and the cruelty of English landlords.

Selected Reading of Jonathan Swift: [P107] An excerpt from Gulliver’s Travel
End//
Henry Fielding (1707-1754)
Henry Fielding (1707-1754)
1707 Fielding was born in an aristocratic family. His great grandfather was an Earl. (Duke 公, Marquis 侯, Earl 伯, Viscount子, Baron男) He received his education in the Eton Public School
1728 21y. He published his first play in London, but failed.
1729 Fielding quarreled with his father, so his father cut off financial support. He had to make a living by himself.
1730-37 He produced 25 plays of different times. His ballads, satires were also very successful. (Shakespeare wrote 37 plays)

1734 He got married.
1737 30y. The promulgation of Licensing Act restricted the publication of plays. So Fielding took up law. He spent 3 years to finish a 7-year course.
1740 Fielding became a bar, but the money he earn couldn’t support his family

Henry Fielding wrote 4 novels in his life. Henry Fielding is regarded as “Father of English Novel”.

1742 The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews. The hero Joseph Andrews is the servant of Mr. B’s uncle and is the cousin of Pamela.
  
  Samuel Richardson’s Pamela is a collection of letters written by herself and her parents. Pamela is a very beautiful and clever girl. Mr. B’s mother is very found of here and teaches her knowledge. After the mother died, Pamela wants to go home, but Mr. B as a noble man seduces her, doesn’t allow her to go home and imprisons her. Pamela write letters and sends the letters by a servant of Mr. B. Mr. B falls in love with Pamela through reading her letters. The novel persuades people to be virtuous.

Henry Fielding’s aims of writing the Adventures of Joseph Andrews

Part I, Fielding tries to attack Pamela. He thinks Pamela’s chastity is
pretentious and untrue. She uses her chastity to seduce Mr. B.

Part II. Joseph Andrews meets his friend Parson Adams. Both of them travel through England. Fielding tries to give a panoramic view of England.

Part I. It was first intended as a burlesque of the conventional virtue of false sentimentality.

Part II. Fielding adopted “comic epic in prose”--- to write common people in form of great novel. Epic is used to describe great figures and heroes. He gave a vivid picture of English life.

Major achievement: the description of Parson Adams. Adams is an absent-minded, vain man, so he is a ridiculous person, easy to be cheated.

1743 Jonathan Wild the Great , Jonathan is a notorious criminal of the London underworld. He is a real person. He is hanged in 1725. Jonathan is described as a great man. He never participated in any crime, but he orders other people to commit crimes. He commands crime.  
Henry Fielding compared Jonathan to Prime Minister Walpole. The story is a political satire.
Tom Jones
1749 Tom Jones is a deserted child.
Tom Jones, the full lttle being The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, is generally considered Fielding's masterpiece. The novel consists of 18 books, each with an essay before it. Tom, the titular hero of the story, is a boy found in Mr Allworthy's house and brought up there with the kind old man's nephew Blifil. The latter, a hypocritical, wicked man, is envious of Mr Allworthy's fondness for the foundling and of Tom's intimacy with the beautiful Sophia, daughter of the well-off squire Western. He plays some tricks so that Mr Allworthy drives Tom out of the house. Tom, intending to go to sea, wrongly takes the road to London, and Sophia, in rebellion against her father's desire that she be married to Blifil, marches out for London too, accompanied by her maid. The two young man, especially Tom, have many adventures on the road, but in the end, after some misunderstanding between them , they are happily united

So they go through a long journey and give a panoramic view of 18c’s English life.

In this novel, social evils are presented: cruelty, moral degeneracy, deceit, and hypocrisy. It’s showed Fielding’s view about human nature. Henry Fielding thinks that human nature is a combination of good and evil.

The writing feature of Tom Jones --- “comic epic in prose”, displays a kind of classic epic form. The novel contains 18 books in 3 sections.
Section 1: life in the countryside
Section 2: life on the highway
Section 3: life in London

▲■Henry Fielding and his Tom Jones
It is a good example of “comic epic in prose”.
Fielding describes the fight between Molly and the villagers and her fistfight with Goody Brown in the grand style of the Homeric epic. first of all, He calls on the Muses to assist him in recounting the fight as if it were of great historical importance.
Like Homer who would list names of gods involved in the battle, he lists the names of the villagers. He treats Molly as a great hero at battle, an “Amazonian heroine”.
Besides, he uses a mock-epic tone and seems very solemn about what he is describing. He uses formal words and refined language.
Finally, he makes use of different figures of speech, particularly, irony and hyperbole.
▲■意义:
Tom Jones brings its author the name of the "rose Homer".

The panoramic view it provides of the18th-century English country and city life with scores of different places

and a whole gallery of about 40 characters is superb.

The language is one of clarity and suppleness.

And last of all, the plot construction is excellent.
Its eighteen books of epic form are divided into three sections, 6 books each, clearly marked out by the change of scenes: in the country, on the highway and in London.

By this, Fielding has indeed achieved his goal of writing a "comic epic in prose."
Amelia
1750 Amelia marries a poor solider. Her husband goes to London to seek fortune. He fights with other people in the street so he is put into jail. She is very faithful to her husband. When her husband is in prison, other officials try to seduce her. In the end, Amelia reunites with her husband and live happily.

Henry Fielding’s aim of writing Amelia
a. To condemn the moral degeneracy of the officials. To praise Amelia.
b. To reveal the shameless deed of the noble and the rich.

Henry Fielding’s writing style
1. Comic epic in prose:
the grand style of classic epic in the depiction of common, ridiculous people.
2. He started the third person narration. The narrator is a kind of all knowing God.
3. The characters are vivid, convincing and true to life,
4. His language is easy, familiar, vivid but vigorous.
5. The content is noted for the theatrical devices: suspense, coincidence, surprise.
What is “comic epic in prose”?
1.The description in a grand style of classic epic. “Classic epic” has:
(a) a great hero
(b) calls on Muses
(c) give a list of names of gods
(d) Compare small fights to great wars.
2. Use verified language to narrate a small fight.
3. Different figure of speech esp. irony, hyperbole
End//
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)
1708 Johnson was born in a bookseller’s family, in Richfield. His eyesight was very poor like John Milton
1715 8y. He went to a Grammar School for 8 years that provided him a solid knowledge of Latin
1728 He went to Oxford University
1731   22y. His father died. He quit Oxford without a degree.
1735   26y. He married an old rich widow who was 20years older than him. He married her for money.
1738 29y. His first poem
1747 He compiled English dictionary
1752 His wife died. He was in great debt and was arrested.
1755 The first publication of English dictionary brought him fame and money.
1762 The British government gave him an annual pension of £300, which freed him from the burden of “writing for a living”. His life before 1762 was very difficult.  



He had a hand in all the different branches of literary activities. He was a poet诗人, dramatist 剧作家, prose romancer散文传奇小说作家, biographer 传记作者, essayist 随笔作家, critic 批评家, lexicographer 词典编纂者and publicist 政治评论家.
His point of view
Johnson was the last great neoclassicist enlightener in the late 18c. His point of view:
1. He concerned with the theme of the vanity of human wishes.
2. In literary creation and criticism, he was rather conservative, openly showed his dislike and fondness.
3. He insisted that a writer should adhere to universal truth and experience i.e. Nature.
4. He was particularly found of moralizing 道德教化and didacticism 教训主义.
Johnson’s writing style
1. His language is characteristically general, of Latinate 从拉丁文衍生来的 and frequently polysyllabic多音节的
2. His sentences are long and well-structured, interwoven 交织with parallel words and phrases but clearly expressed.
3. He tends to use “learned words”, uses words accurately.

To the Right Honorable the Earl of Chesterfield
The letter is written in a refined and very polite langua