Transcription
[Music] We are going to talk about other Victorian novelists. Oh my god, there were so many writers in the Victorian period—an unending list of novelists. Henna, one of the oldest of them, was a very well-known figure: Benjamin Disraeli. He was a statesman, novelist, essayist, and England's first Jewish Prime Minister. Hey, did you know he married Wyndham Lewis's widow? Did you know that?
He wrote a series of novels starting from *Vivian Gray*, *Vivien Gray*, *Coningsby*, *Henrietta Fleming*, and *Alroy*. These three form a trilogy. Now, that is not his only trilogy. Benjamin Disraeli also wrote *Coningsby*, *Sybil*, or *The Two Nations*, and *Tancred*. That is also a trilogy, and these three are political novels. *Sybil*, or *The Two Nations*, you might know, is a Condition of England novel about the working classes in England. This really has written many other novels after this. I don't know where he found the time to write novels; he was such a busy politician. He wrote *Henrietta Fleming*, *Venetia*, so many novels down to *Endymion*. *Endymion* was the last novel by Benjamin Disraeli.
And then another important novelist is Charles Reade. Charles Reade attacked social injustices in his novels. Many novels that he wrote are about various kinds of injustices. For example, *It Is Never Too Late to Mend* is a novel about prison reform; *Hard Cash* is a novel about mental patients; *Put Yourself in His Place* is a novel about trade unionism; *The Course of True Love Never Did Run Smooth*; *The Autobiography of a Thief*; *The Cloister and the Hearth*. These are other famous novels by Benjamin Disraeli. *The Cloister and the Hearth* is about the theme of religion. Hey, did you know the protagonist is Deciduous Erasmus? At the end of the novel, it is said that to the protagonist a son was born, and he became Deciduous Erasmus.
Then we have Charles Kingsley. He was a clergyman, and he depicted Christianity in many of his works, but he was a controversialist. In novels like *Hypatia* and *Westward Ho!*, he depicted controversial versions of Christianity, and it is called Muscular Christianity. In novels like *Alton Locke* and *Two Years Ago*, Charles Reade attempted to reform the working classes. He wrote about the sufferings of the working classes, inspired by Thomas Carlyle. Charles Kingsley's most famous book is the children's book *Water Babies*.
Then Wilkie Collins. Wilkie Collins pioneered a number of related genres. Do you know which they are? You can comment in the comment section. Wilkie Collins pioneered the sensation novel, mystery novel, and detective novel. Wilkie Collins was a friend of Charles Dickens. Charles Dickens' exciting novels, like *A Tale of Two Cities* and *Great Expectations*, were inspired by his friend Wilkie Collins. Wilkie Collins's first novel, a major sensation novel, is *The Woman in White*. Laura, one woman, her identity is switched with Anne Catherick, another woman, by Laura's husband. That is the mystery, the sensation that he talks about in *The Woman in White*. *No Name*, *Armadale*, other sensation novels followed, and then came the first detective novel, *The Moonstone*. Rachel Verinder is a rich girl. On her 18th birthday, she is presented a large diamond, the Moonstone of the title. This large diamond came from India, from the head of a deity in India, and the diamond is stolen. Who stole the diamond? That is the issue; that is the novel, *The Moonstone*. Finally, the diamond is restored to the deity in India.
Talk about historical novels; you can't forget R.D. Blackmore, who wrote *Lorna Doone*, set in the 17th century. It is a very famous historical romance. And then there is George Meredith, not a historical novelist as such, but he was perhaps the first psychological novelist in English. Oh, George Meredith had an unhappy marriage, and his wife ran away with another man—the man who painted the famous painting about the death of Chatterton. Oh, that is another story; you don't want to know about that now. You can Google it if you want, about his unhappy marriage. He wrote a series of sonnets, a sonnet sequence, *Modern Love*, and George Meredith went on to write many novels. His novels include *The Shaving of Shagpat*, that is his first novel; then came *The Ordeal of Richard Feverel*, it is a history of a father and son. At this time, he wrote a lecture, an essay on comedy, and then came his very famous novel, *The Egoist*, the story of Sir Willoughby Patterne, a very egotistical, conceited man who is finally taught a lesson. *The Egoist* by George Meredith, another very famous novel depicting a new woman, is *Diana of the Crossways*. The protagonist, Diana, she is living at a time of great social transformations; she is engaged in some of these issues also, and she has an unhappy marriage. Finally, she escapes from her unhappy marriage, tries to pursue a career as a novelist; she was unsuccessful, however, but at the end she gets complete freedom. *Diana of the Crossways*, a very major novel of the Victorian period, then followed novels like *Evan Harrington*, *Emilia in England* with its sequel *Victoria*, then *Rhoda Fleming*, *The Tragic Comedians*, etc. I have given you all the major details, all the major names. Do look up these; they are very important writers and very important works.
And then Lewis Carroll. We all know Lewis Carroll, the author of *Alice's Adventures in Wonderland*. Lewis Carroll is a pseudonym of Charles Dodgson. His interests were magic, mathematics, poetry. *Alice's Adventures in Wonderland*, his masterpiece, came in 1865, followed by its sequel, *Through the Looking-Glass*. These novels are set in the Oxford countryside. When I was in Oxford, I have gone to Oxford, I was walking along the Oxford countryside, and I came across a huge rabbit hole, and I thought, Oh my god, no wonder Lewis Carroll wrote about a girl falling down the rabbit hole, because they are everywhere, huge rabbit holes. He must have written from real experience. The character Alice was inspired by a real-life Alice, Alice Liddell, a little girl who was friends with Lewis Carroll. *Alice's Adventures in Wonderland* is set on her birthday, May the 4th, and *Through the Looking-Glass* is set on her half-birthday, November the 4th. These two novels disrupt meaning, invert logic, and give strange juxtapositions. It is very interesting to look at these novels; they are like mirror reflections of each other. *Alice in Wonderland*, May 4th; *Through the Looking-Glass*, November 4th. *Alice in Wonderland* talks about changes in size; *Through the Looking-Glass* talks about changes in space and time. *Alice in Wonderland* begins outdoors; *Through the Looking-Glass* begins indoors. *Alice in Wonderland* uses the motive of playing cards; *Through the Looking-Glass*, chess. A very cleverly manipulated pattern is there in these two novels.
And then the famous writer Samuel Butler. Mind you, do not confuse between the 17th-century Samuel Butler, the author of *Hudibras*. This is another man. This Samuel Butler is a humorist and satirist, an iconoclastic novelist and a philosopher, famous for his dystopian novel, *Erewhon*. It is the character Higgs who discovers the land of Erewhon. *Airborne* is the anagram of nowhere. *Airborne* is subtitled *Over the Range*. This is actually a satire on the stagnation, the mental and moral stagnation of England. Finally, Higgs escapes from in a balloon. *Erewhon Revisited* is the sequel. Samuel Butler also wrote *The Way of All Flesh*, where the narrator is Ernest Pontifex. Don't worry, he's not the narrator; he's the protagonist. The protagonist is Ernest Pontifex; the narrator is Overton. This novel also, like the other, attacks the hypocrisies of the Victorian age.
And now another humorist and satirist is famous for two works: *Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow* and *Three Men in a Boat*. One of these three men is Jerome K. Jerome. He's traveling with two friends and his dog, Montmorency. You must have read stories from *Three Men in a Boat* already. And then a writer we all knew as children, R.L. Stevenson. I'm sure all of us have heard of *Treasure Island*. We have read summarized versions. An amazing novelist, R.L. Stevenson, known for his children's books, *Treasure Island* and *Kidnapped*. R.L. Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright, and traveler. *Treasure Island* is the story narrated by Jim Hawkins. He is going on the ship Hispaniola in search of a treasure, da dang, fight with pirates, etc. *Kidnapped* is the story of David Balfour, who is kidnapped by his own miserly, greedy uncle. These are not the most important of his novels. He has written an amazing modernist novel, *The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde*. By virtue of a chemical formula that he discovered, Dr. Jekyll, the scientist, is able to separate the evil nature of his own personality and create another character, Mr. Hyde. Dr. Jekyll uses the formula, chemical formula, and turns into Mr. Hyde, this evil man, Mr. Hyde, who is Dr. Jekyll himself. He commits various crimes, including murder. Finally, Dr. Jekyll runs out of the formula, and he cannot turn back into Dr. Jekyll; he remains as Mr. Hyde. He turns evil completely, and this horrifying narrative is told through the versions of many different characters, through many disparate narratives—a truly modernist, or postmodernist I should say, novel, *The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde*. R.L. Stevenson has also written poetry. Did you know that? He has written a collection of poems called *Underwoods*.
So that is a mind-boggling variety of novelists that we have in the Victorian period. You must have watched individual videos on major novelists, and this video is about all the other novelists—so many of them, so much work for you to do. Please read on your own; enjoy your reading and research. Keep revising; read about these novels and their characters and situations. If possible, read these novels. Your individual personal research is very important. Thank you very much, guys. I know you're eager to know. Until the next video, bye-bye.