The Development of the English Realistic Novel. Henry Fielding. The Sentimentalists

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Трякина Светлана Анатольевна,
ГОУ СОШ №1232, г. Москва

by Daniel Defoe and Jonathan Swift, but their novels, though

of a new type and with a new hero, were based on imaginary voyages and adventures supposed to take place far from England. Gradually the readers’ tastes changed. They wanted to find more and more of their own life reflected in literature, their everyday life of a bourgeois family with its joys and sorrows.

Richardson, Henry Fielding, Tobias Smollet appeared one after another.

their deep sympathy for the common man, the man in

the street, who had become the central figure of the new bourgeois world.
The common man is shown in his actual surroundings, which makes him so convincing, believable, and true to life.

representative of bourgeois realism of the 18th century, was a

descendant of an ancient, aristocratic family. He was born on April 22 ,1707 in Sharpham.

At the age of twenty he started writing

for the stage, and his first play “Love in Several Masques” was a great success with the public.

University at Leyden, but in less than two years he

had to drop his studies because he was unable to pay his fees.

From 1728 till 1738, twenty-five plays were written by Fielding. In his best comedies “A Judge Caught in His Own Trap”, “Don Quixote in England”, “Pasquin” he mercilessly exposed the English court of law, the parliamentary system, the corruption of state officials.

Fielding’s comedies, strict cencorship was introduced, which put an end

to Fielding’s career as a dramatist.
He tried his pen as a novelist; besides, at the age of thirty he became a student of the University law faculty.
On graduating, he became a barrister and in 1748 accepted the post of magistrate.
The work enlarged his experience, helped his to acquire a better understanding of human nature and greatly increased his hatred of social injustice.

wrote his best novels:
”Joseph Andrews”,
”The

Life of Mr. Jonathan Wild the Great”,
“The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling”.
All these novels, excellent as they were, didn’t make him rich: only his publishers prospered.
Fielding continued to act as a judge till the year 1754, when he had to leave England for Portugal to restore his health, which had begun to fail.

did not help him; he died in Lisbon in October,

1754 and was buried there.
Fielding possessed qualities rarely found together: a rich imagination, a great critical power, a keen knowledge of the human heart.
Fielding used to say that the three essential qualities in a novelist are genius, learning and experience of the human heart.

Fielding’s works. His characters are living beings of flesh and blood,

a combination of contradictions of good and bad.

He appreciates such virtues as courage, frankness and generosity.
The most detestable vices for him are selfishness and hypocrisy.
All this found the expression in his masterpiece “ The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling”

the first half of the 18th century gave way to

a certain depression as years went by. Towards the middle of the century a new trend, that of Sentimentalism, appeared.
Sentimentalists were influenced by the French writer Rousseau, they thought that civilization was harmful to humanity.

They believed that man should live close to nature and be free from the corrupting influence of town life.

was Samuel Richardson.
His novels “Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded”, “Clarissa” and

“The History of Sir Charles Grandison” are works in which the inner world of the characters is shown. He makes his readers sympathize with his heroes.

the aristocracy.
These novels were very much admired

in the 18th and 19th centuries. They were well known in Russia. Much in the works of the novelists of the time does not appeal to readers today; but these novels are full of humour and truthful descriptions of men and things, and will always be read.

and Laurence Sterne’s “Sentimental Journey” the corruption of town life

is contrasted to the happy patriarchal life in the country. Oliver Goldsmith was also a poet. His famous poem “The Deserted Village” shows England at the time of the expropriation of the peasants.