What are the salient features of
Modern novel? Illustrate with reference to the prominent novelists of the Age.
Ans. Compared to the
development of the novel in the Victorian age, the modem novel has achieved far
greater excellence, especially in the last 70 years. We find novels of
different types, different techniques of plot construction and characterization
and different angles of approaching the problems of modern life. The modern
novelists have laid stress on art form. They have rejected the moralizing, the
direct appeal to the 'Dear Reader' of the Victorians like Dickens, Thackeray
etc. The modern novel tends to be compact. The Edwardian novelist wrote mostly
during the reign of Edward VII, in the early years of the 20th century. They
are — John Galsworthy, Henry James, Samuel Butler, Joshep Conrad, H. G. Wells,
Arnold Bennet etc. After this period followed the Georgian period which
extended for over 25 years. The novelists are—- Somerset Maugham, Huge Walpole,
J. B. Priestly, Compton Mackenzie, Charles Morgan etc. The writers who were dissatisfied
with the Edwardian and Georgian genre of
novels are as follows : Aldous Huxley, James Joyce , Virginia Woolf, May
Sinclair etc. From 1939 onwards there came a new set of novelist. For example—
Graham Green, Joyce Carry, Ivy Compton Burnett.
The dominance of the
novel becomes apparent in the early days of modern literature. For the first
time in the history of English literature, novel became the dominant literary
form of English literature. To a semi educated modern taste prose fiction was
more palatable than poetry (which is still today). Because poetry is a more
sophisticated taste. Novel is more accessible to the masses than drama.
Moreover , the novel is
admirably suited as a vehicle for the sociological studies which attracted most
of the artist of the early period of modern literature. One of the most
striking feature of the history of novel is the speed with which it has
developed. Not before 18ff century, did it appear as a serious rival to poetry
and drama. But during the 19th century its status grew rapidly with the hands
of Jane Austen, Brontes, George Eliot, Dickens, Thackeray etc., Novel achieved
a climactic success over other literary form. Its growing importance has been
accompanied by serious start of the art of the novelist and from a technical
point of view the progress is unequalled by its previous history.
The conception of novel
emerged as an art form. The problem, the aim and scope of the novelist is
seriously posed in England for the first time. It marks the beginning of a new
interest in the novel as an art form. Hardy, H. G. Wells, Conrad, James,
Galsworthy, Moor etc. all devoted themselves to the study of this question. All of them would undoubtedly
have seemed to endorsed the statement of wells — "Before we have done, we
will have all life within the scope of the novel". From the definition of
ends to the consideration of means was a short and inevitable step. Novelists
like James and Conrad evolved techniques which revolutionized the form of
novel. They have abandoned direct and biographical method in favour of an
indirect narrative for greater aesthetic consideration of pattern and
composition and a new concept of characterization built upon the study of inner
consciousness. Not all modern novelist have followed their lead. But it is in
this manner that much of the significant modern fiction has been written.
There has been novel of
ideas and social purpose. For example—to Hardy the aim of novel was an
interpretation of life through a picture of human existence and readers can get
the philosophy which the author wished to Propagate. To speak precisely, many
novelists saw novel as a means of social, Propaganda/criticism, a medium for
the dissemination of their ideas or contemporary problems like religion, social
values and family life.Novel at the wake of the modern literature emphasized on
the realistic Portrayal of life, regardless of moral and ideological
consideration. The aim of the novelist was to present life with detached and
photographic accuracy. Even the short story writers were influenced by the
realist conception of Fiction.
The foreign influences
were evident in English novel during the early days of modern literature. It is
almost impossible to overestimate the impact upon the English novelist of the
French and Russian novelists/masters. English writers learned the naturalistic
art of minutely accurate portrayal of everyday life. The new concept of the
novel as an art form in which structure, pattern, style and finish were of
fundamental impact. Novelists like Dostoyevsky, Turgenev and Tolstoy found a
new interest in the investigation of the darker, hidden sides of human nature.
These influences are felt in the novels of James, Conrad, Galsworthy etc.
In the novel as in the
drama the spirit of romance survive in this age of realism. Besides, the
survival of romance the growth of regional fiction was also noticed/traced, especially
in the fiction of Scotland and Ireland. There were romantic and sentimental
novels of Scottish countryside.
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