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AA316 The 19th Century Novel

Question: Answer one of the following questions with reference to two, (or, at the most, three) novels, one of which must be Dracula, The Awakening or Heart of Darkness.

Question 3

Simon Eliot Claims that ‘the world of books and publishing was revolutionized by the end of the nineteenth century’ (Identities, p331). How far has your understanding of your chosen novels been enhanced by study of the material factors affecting novels and their publication?

Answer: It is important when trying fully understand and appreciate a novel, to take account of the context in which it was written – both historically and culturally – and the nineteenth century was a period of great change in the literary and publishing worlds. At the beginning of the century the publishing world remained much as it had done since Gutenberg’s printing revolution four centuries bef......(short extract) to download the full answer, please Sign in or Register then make a payment or submit an essay

Question: Middlemarch is “neither a static, nor a harmoniously integrated society” (Sally Shuttleworth, Reader, p290) How are change and conflict portrayed in the novel?

Answer: Middlemarch is a vast novel which studies the whole spectrum of class and age in the English provincial town at the beginning of the nineteenth century, however, “the unity of the novel is not based… on spatial continuity or community of life style. The life portrayed is both geographically and socially dispersed.”(Sally Shuttleworth, Reader, p293). The major theme of the novel is the sear......(short extract) to download the full answer, please Sign in or Register then make a payment or submit an essay

Question: Compare and contrast two of the following novels in terms of the significance of historical changes in class structures: Madame Bovary, Far From the Madding Crowd, Germinal.

Answer: Although a pastoral novel, Far From the Madding Crowd is a novel very much concerned with social status and economics; where personal wealth is detailed and the main love stories centre on these ideas. Germinal is also a novel which focuses on the discrepancies between classes; and highlights the strength of the united workers and their desperate need for change. It is highly political and Zola�......(short extract) to download the full answer, please Sign in or Register then make a payment or submit an essay

Question: Compare and contrast two of the following novels in terms of the balance between character and plot: Madame Bovary, The Woman in White, The Portrait of a Lady. In your analysis, you should include an evaluation of at least one of the critical positions in the Reader.

Answer: Gustave Flaubert’s, Madame Bovary is a novel with adultery at the heart of its plot, an issue which caused great controversy upon publication; and it traces the minimal narrative of desire, passion and disappointment through one character’s eyes. Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White is perhaps the best known Sensation novel, which is famous for its dramatic and secretive plot, which many would......(short extract) to download the full answer, please Sign in or Register then make a payment or submit an essay

Question: Look closely at the passage in Volume 1, Chapter 2 from “what a consternation of soul was mine” to “the key turned, Bessie and Abbot entered”.

Examine how language is used in this passage to convey character and emotions. Then briefly consider how this scene relates to the novel as a whole.

Answer: Jane Eyre is a novel which defies categorisation; it covers a whole range of genres, from Realism and Romance, to Gothic. It depicts an even wider variety of themes: religion, love, family, education, class, and the roles of masculinity and feminity. At the centre of this we have Jane; a passionate, determined, intelligent and moral young woman, whom we follow on her quest for independence and a......(short extract) to download the full answer, please Sign in or Register then make a payment or submit an essay

Question: How does the depiction of domestic interiors function in any one of the following novels: Northanger Abbey, Jane Eyre, Dombey and Son?

Answer: Charles Dickens’ Dombey and Son is a novel which explores a variety of themes including capitalism, love, death, arranged marriages and deceit, but throughout it has a central moral theme which explores the situations which arise from a clash between private affections and the ideology of commercialism. This central theme is both social and psychological; it paints a convincing portrait of a we......(short extract) to download the full answer, please Sign in or Register then make a payment or submit an essay

AA316 The 19th Century Novel

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