The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1896-02-19
The ENGLISH NOVEL.
Miss Louise G. Farrant Lee
lures About its Develop
ment.

MISS Louise u. Farrant delivered a
lecture on 1.-THE Development Of the
Novel," yesterday afternoon. at the res
fdence of Mrs. A. =. Newbury, No. 81
Clifton place, for the benefit of the Uni
ty Circle, Kings Daughters. Miss Far
rant said:-"Apart from the purely liter
airy interest there needs at this time
no excuse for discussing the novel since
the question Of 1t has become one OF
the most urgent and vital problems of
our social and moral life. Who can
sag where the novel originated any more
h he can tell now talking or sing
ing came first to the primeval MANI
The lecturer told of the first stories,
like Esop's Fables, the Milesian tales,
later the pastoral romance, and the ro-
mancss of chivalry. She spoke of the
Italian novel as found in the Costa Ro-
manorum, and said:-"From Italy there
came to England, in the reign of Eliza
beth, the name novel with the thing it
self. Novel, Italian, ~novella, meant orig
inally something that pleased by it's
ewness We see that neither novel or
romance has any historical or etymol-
ogical claims to stand for the latest de-
velopment of prose and fiction" Other
works mentioned were utopia Area
dia," and she Observation-Disclosures to
England we find in the eighteenth cen
fury the real novel, a story of man
ners, a narrative of adventure. The ex-
t~rayagant romances are no longer in evil
dence. A novel is a record Of a soul in
fuenced by other souls. There strolleG
into England Roger De Coverly. a char
acter ever since beloved in English fic-
ton. The De Coverly papers nave not
sufficient plot to be called a novel. but
they certainly suggest the novel form.
elist, and a realsst at hat. IN the wear
174e, a book in two volumes called Pam
ella; or. the Reward of Virtue" appeared.
It was expressly, to ridicule some points
of Pamela. that the second English
novel, Joseph Andrews" was written.
Sasea sssss 9e4sss .ne pluo-icas.Sa u
English fiction @The Vicar Of Wake.
field" called by some our nrst genuine
novel of domestic life, and by others
CORY. Certainly there is not coherency OF
pl5t and the characters have not deyel-
opnent. Goldsmith forms a link between
Miss Burney's society novels, "Evelina"
and Cecilia" where heroines faint at
being asked to take an escorts arm.
In the development of the novel we
have seen that the romance came first.
that the objective appears before the
subjective. and that personality appears
- o&4A = ACt IL 4 I i De-
fore that W e had the masks, not the
real actors. SCOTS novels, or romances.
have been, and are, the delight of child
hood. Marryat needs a passing allusion,
and so does the American Scott. Feni-
mcre Cooper. Following came Bulwer
Lytton with romantic and historical nov
els, while about the same time Nathan
iel Hawthorne gave to US romances of a
much higher order, dealing with the ex-
periences of human souls. In contrast to
TINS Group OF romantic writers let us
place another. Dickens. Thackeray, Ten
nyson, Mrs. Browning, Charlotte Bronte
and George Eliot As novelist
them boldly down IN the parlors Of high
ME, II 10 dlfhcult for me even yet
to look at Dickens in the right perspec-
a delight, and I was something like
Thackeray's daughter. who. when she
was sad, read Nicholas Nickleby, when
read Nicholas Nieklsby.
cray; He is called a satirist ara q
he finds it.. Jane Eyre is the first
novel in which real passion is depicted.
at times. but always feryid. intense. The
portrayal of high life. is. of course. not
true to nature, for what could a young
world? But despite all its faults. I know
of no novel that seems to me more wor-
T mski Of 9 9aag . T eiasEsi srs or more epoch
t4-~ \ tttdAA 9otC
With the publication of Adam Bede'
and The Mill on the Floss George Eliot
took her place at the head Of the novel
lists of the day. Dickens and Scott were
objective writers. George Eliot is a
fine example of the novelist. with the
objective element predominating. Her
characters are real people. her humor is
natural and genuine, and her interpreted
ton of hun-drum life is inspiring. She
shows the possibilities for actual hero.
ism in every day life and points the wal
TO q higher ideal.
Briefly summarizing the DEVELOPMENT
from Pamela to Adam Bede' we fnu
the objective has given place to the sub
are studied, and that the novel has
truly become the record of a soul in
huenced by other souls, not a mere some
thing with a plot. The great contras,
between the school of Richardson and
Fielding and that Of Dickens and EIioi
is this: The older writers wofessed te
there was some attempt to relieve the
picture with goodness, here and there,
the result was such a portrayal as mus
make a man feel contempt fer hsfnselt
and his fellows. On the other hand, the
later group. while glozfng no evil. show
| ed man, not how bad he might be. but
how good. thus stimulating him to nobler
years after the birth of the English
novel. We find 1t realizing a worthy
climax in the works of Dickens. Thack.
cray and George Eliot. X is perhaps. toe
! early to foretel1 the future Of the more
recent novel, but with George MEREDITH
that fiction IS totally degenerate nor tina
1t is necessary to emulate the example
of Charles Lamb in reading an old bool
a new n comes out"