English Literature

Hardy, the novelist,  was essentially  a poet and an artist rather than  a philosopher. Hardy was  primarily a story-teller and should be viewed more as chronicler of moods and deeds than  a philosopher. He repeatedly affirmed that the 'Views' expressed in his novels were not his convictions or beliefs; they were simply "impressions" of the moment. In  The Return of the Native , Hardy proves a dismal view of life in which coincidence and accident conspire to produce the worst of circumstance due to the indifference of the Will.     In order to understand  Hady�s philosophy, we should have a fair idea of Hardy�s biography. Hardy lived in an age of transition. The industrial revolution was in the process of destroying the agricultural life, and the subsequent shifting of population caused a disintegration of rural customs and traditions. It was a period when fundamental beliefs � religious, social, scientific, and political � were shaken t...

    Although Fielding's first novel bears the title  � Joseph  Andrews�  , its main interest centers in Parson  Adams . The immense popularity enjoyed by the novel can be fully attributed to him. In fact , it is difficult to imagine even the existence of this novel without the endearing figure of the absent�minded Parson Adams. �If he is not the real hero of the book� , s ays Dobson , �he is undoubtedly the character whose fortunes the reader follows with the closest interest. � Dudden remarks : �The agreeable youngman, Joseph may be the centre of plot; but it is the �old foolish parson� that is the centre of interest.�        Adams is one of the most original creations; Fielding himself claims that he is �not to be found in any book now extant� . Fielding explains in his preface that he has made Adams a clergyman "since no other office could have given him so many opportunities of displaying his worthy inclin...

The title page of Henry Fielding�s first novel reads as, �The history of the adventures of Joseph Andrews and of his friend Mr. Abraham Adams, Written in imitation of the Manner of Cervantes, Author of Don Quixote.� The allusion to Cervantes and his masterpiece Don Quixote is significant as it shows Fielding�s indebtedness to Cervantes . Parson Adams is indeed a truly Quixotic figure, and the structure of the book also follows Cervantes� picaresque model. Joseph Andrews is a novel of adventures met while travelling on the road. Joseph loses his employment in Lady Booby�s service in London, on his way home to the country to his sweetheart Fanny, he meets Parson Adams. Together they run all kinds of adventures meeting a host of characters from low and middle-class layers of society: innkeepers, chambermaids, country squires and clergymen. The picaresque tradition belongs to Spain and derived from the word �picaro� , meaning a rogue or a villain. The picaresque originally involved the mi...

Henry Fielding undoubtedly holds moral views far-ahead of his times. Morality is an approval or adherence to principles that govern ethical and virtuous conduct. Fielding was accused of being immoral in his novels. Dr. Johnson called his novels �vicious and corrupting� . Richardson echoed the �charge of immorality� against him. Modern critics, however, has justified Fielding and gave him a credit of �an estimable ethical code� . Strachey declared him a �deep, accurate, scientific moralist� . Indeed neither �Joseph Andrews� nor �Tom Jones� strikes the modern sensibility as �low� or �immoral� either in purpose or in narration. Behind the truthful portrait of life, lies his broad moral vision. His aim was to correct mankind by pointing out their blunders. �I have endeavored to laugh at mankind, out to their follies and vices.� Fielding reacted sharply against the code of ethics as incited by Richardson in �Pamela� . He feels that Pamela�s virtue is an affectation and a commodity, exch...

Realism means  conceiving and representing the things as they are . Henry Fielding is widely regarded as the first great realist in English novel. He is among  the few writers who, despite the wideness of their scope are capable of observing the demands of reality with perpetual ease. His novels hold up to view a representative picture of his age. He is as authentic a chronicler of his day as Chaucer was of the later 14th century.  It is true that Richardson and Defoe have some claim to have brought realism to English fiction, it is Fielding who can be called the real pioneer in realistic mode of novel writing. Fielding  reacted against Richardson�s sentimentalism as a falsifying influence on the study of reality, although he does not reject sentimentalism altogether. �His desire� , says Cazamian, �is to give sentiment its right place; but also to integrate it in an organic series of tendencies where each contributes to maintain a mutual balance.� Fielding�s realis...

       Henry Fielding   is widely studied today as one of the chief begetters of the modernist movement in novel and as a master who embodied in realistic prose a panoramic survey of the contemporary society. With the novelty and vitality of the writings of Henry Fielding exerted a major influence on the succeeding writers and dominated the English fiction until the end of the 19th century.          Fielding�s brilliant tour de force   Joseph Andrews   is an astounding encapsulation of the 18th century English social life and manners. It mirrors with rare force and realism, the blemishes of mankind in its true face. The novel, in its entirety, is an impassioned satire   on the moral and social ills that beset the 18th century English society. In this novel we are confronted with a chameleonic society that frequently changes its appearance to gratify personal lusts of various kinds. The social life portra...