The Early 20th century English Literature 1 страница

In the early 20th century the traditions of critical realism that had developed in the late 19th century were continued and developed. Three names were prominent among the writers who continued the traditions of critical realism. They were George Bernard Shaw, John Galsworthy and Herbert George Wells.

All three possessed remarkable individual talent and developed the trend of critical realism along their own individual lines.

They sought for new ways and means of revealing the truth of life in their works, and their criticism of the bourgeois world reaches considerable depth. The narrow-mindedness, hypocrisy and stupidity are mercilessly criticized in the works of George Bernard Shaw.

John Galsworthy excells in revealing the characters from a psychological point of view.

Of great interest are the works of Herbert George Wells. He is a new type of writer who thinks about the future of mankind. The leading genre of the above mentioned period of time was the novel.

Vocabulary

excel [ik'sel] v отличаться seek [si:k] v (sought) искать

mercilessly ['imisihsli] adv жестоко sought [so:t] past и р. р. от seek

prominent ['prommant] а известный stupidity [stjui'piditi] n глупость

psychological [^saika'tocfeikd] а психо­логический

Questions and Tasks

1. What writers continued to develop the traditions of critical realism at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries?

2. What can you say about these three prominent writers?

3. Comment on the works of George Bernard Shaw, John Galsworthy and Herbert George Wells.

4. What was the leading genre of the above mentioned period of time?

Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

George Bernard Shaw, novelist and playwright, was born in Dublin in an impoverished middle-class family. As a boy he seldom saw his parents. His father was occupied in a business which was almost bankrupt, and his mother devoted all her time to musical interests. She had a beautiful voice; Bernard himself and his sister could sing well enough and there were, besides the piano, many other musical instruments. Music came to play an important edu­cative part in young Shaw's life.

Shaw had a well-educated uncle, a clergyman with whom he read the classics. So when he entered school at the age of ten, he was much advanced and did better than all the other pupils in English composition. He didn't like school, because the school

course of studies was dull for him. He left one school for another, and then another, but everywhere the dull textbooks were the same, and they could not rouse the boy's interest. He educated himself by reading, and by studying foreign languages. At the age of fifteen Shaw went to work as a clerk. The monotonous daily routine, the endless figures, the feeling that he had become an insignificant part of a machine, all that alarmed the youth. In many things he was better informed than the most of his fellow clerks.

Shakespeare, Byron, Shelley and many other great poets and writers had been read and reread by him. He could discuss art, for he had studied the best works at the National Gallery in Dublin. At his job he had mastered the problems of his work without any difficulty. Yet he was far from being happy.

Bernard Shaw felt that he had to leave and so in 1876 he said good-bye to Ireland and went to London, where his mother had been making a living by giving music lessons. In London he devoted much time to self-education and made his first attempt at literature. He became ajournalist and wrote music and dramatic critiques for various periodicals.

Bernard Shaw set out to become a novelist. Between 1879 and 1883 he wrote five long novels, which were rejected by all publishers. Thus he gave up writing novels.

He became a socialist in 1882 and took an active part in the socialist movement. At the British Museum reading room he read Karl Marx in a French version. Though he admired their great influence on him, he failed to understand the necessity of a revolutionary reconstruction of the world.

In 1884 Bernhard Shaw joined the Fabian Society, an orga­nization of petty bourgeois intellectuals. It was a reformist organization. They were afraid of any revolutionary changes and preached gradual transition from capitalism to socialism by means of reforms. On the eve of World War I Shaw experienced a deep ideological crisis. His faith in Fabian illusions was shattered considerably. His point of disagreement with the Fabians was their attitude to the war. Shaw set himself resolutely against the militarists and the military points of view.

Shaw gave up writing novels and turned to dramatic writing. He wrote his first play Widower's Houses in 1892. It was the first of the three plays published in his first volume called Plays Unpleasant. The other two were The Philanderer (1893) and Mrs Warren's Profession (1894). In the preface to his volume Shaw explained why he called them Plays Unpleasant. They discussed social problems of tremendous importance: the source of earning money by the "respectable bourgeoisie", the miseries of the poor. Their dramatic power is used to make the audience face unpleasant facts. The first performance of Bernard Shaw's play Widower's Houses was quite a sensation. He was attacked both by the public and the critics.

George Bernard Shaw was a reformer of the theatre. The English Theatre of the 19th century was a theatre of primitive melodrama. Shaw opened the way for a new drama: a critical and realistic one. Shaw's plays were serious plays, which he called problem plays, full of topical problems of the day.

Shaw was the leader of the revolution against the theory of "art for art's sake". He maintained that art should serve social purposes. He believed that the artist's function was to teach and he saw the theatre as a means of correction of public morals. With his plays Shaw tried to change the world while he entertained it. In 1895 he published some of his plays under the title of Plays Pleasant — they include Arms and the Man (1894), The Man of Destiny (1895) and Candida (1894). The title of the plays is rather ironical: through the amusing situations and witty scenes with sparkling dialogues Bernard Shaw continued his criticism of bourgeois morals and ideals. He attacked militarism and war (Arms and the Man), showing their senselessness and cruelty, and dethroned Napoleon (The Man of Destiny).

The third volume of Shaw's plays was called Three Plays for Puritans; these were Caesar and Cleopatra [ 'si:za and klea 'pcutra] (1898), The Devil's Disciple (1897) and Captain Brassbound's Conversion (1899). The title of the third cycle has a double meaning: on the one hand the plays turn against English puritanism and hypocrisy, on the other hand they are directed against the decadent drama.

In 1912 Shaw wrote his most popular play Pygmalion, which scandalized the "respectable" public by using dialect words which English usage considered vulgar.

By 1900 Shaw had established his reputation as a playwright. He wrote one play after another as well as books of criticism and pamphlets. Shaw's plays deal with various problems: politics, science, religion, education and economics.

During World War I Shaw wrote long and daring articles, pro­testing against the imperialist governments and their war po­licy.

After the war Shaw's political and social views underwent a gradual revolution. He reconsidered the idea of reforms and came to realize the role of the proletariat. His visit to the Soviet Union in 1931 impressed him greatly.

Shaw was greatly interested in Russian culture. He highly appreciated and admired Leo Tolstoy, with whom he corresponded, and also Chekhov and Gorky.

Bernard Shaw was at the peak of his fame (1925) when he received the International Nobel Prize for Literature.

Shaw's plays of the second period become still more complex, for the problems Shaw deals with are now more complicated and significant. The most powerfufamong the plays are The Apple Cart (1929) and Too True to Be Good (1931).

In his play The Apple Cart Shaw touches upon the theme of rivalry between the USA and England in the political arena.

In his play Too True to Be Good Shaw dwells on the decay of the bourgeois system. Besides he depicts the birth and growth of new progressive forces in the world. Shaw's plays are discussion plays full of witty paradoxes and brilliant dialogues. He regards the speeches of his personages not only as means to characterize them but also as a means of expressing his own point of view on this or that problem. Shaw mocks at bourgeois charity, satirizes business­men and aristocrats. Each play is a response to current events, a discussion of burning questions.

Shaw's way of writing is very peculiar, grotesque. He says true things in such a way that at first one is not sure whether he is

Vocabulary

admit [sd'mit] v признавать advanced [ad'vcrast) а продвинутый appreciate [a'piifieit] v ценить charity ['tfaenti] n милосердие complicated ['komphkeitid] а сложный considerably [kgn'sidarabli] adv значи­тельно critique [kn'ti:k] n рецензия daring t'desnrj] а смелый decay [di'kei] n упадок dethrone [di'Greun] v свергнуть с пре­стола figure [Tiga] n цифра gradual ['grsedjusl] а постепенный grotesque [greu'tesk] а гротескный illusion [f 1и:зэп] п иллюзия impoverished [im'prjvanjt] а бедный jester ['djesta] n шут maintain [men'tem] уутверждать, наста­ивать misery ['ткэп] п страдание; pi несчастья monotonous [ma'nDtanas] а однооб­разный

offend [s'fend] v обижать peculiar [pi'kju:lja] а особый petty t'peti] а мелкий preach [pri:tf] у проповедовать; высту­пать в защиту resolutely ['rezalutli] adv решительно response [n'sptms] n ответ rivalry ['rarvsln] n соперничество rouse [rauz] v поднимать; возбуждать routine [ru:'ti:n] n режим scandalize ['skaenalaiz] v возмущать senselessness [ 'senshsnis] n бесчув­ственность shatter ['Jaets] _v поколебать source [so:s] n источник transition [traen'si33n] n переход tremendous [trs'mendas] а огромный undergo [ 'Andsgau] v (underwent;

undergone) подвергаться version [ 'v3:Jbn] n вариант

Pygmalion

Pygmalion is one of Bernard Shaw's
most popular and successful plays. It is a
deep and amusing comedy. Like any of
Shaw's plays, Pygmalion is full of criti­
cism of contemporary life. The criticism
in this case is directed against social bar­
riers and distinctions. The idea of the
play, expressed in the title, originates
from an antique myth. Pygmalion, an an­
cient sculptor, while creating a statue of
beautiful girl Galatea [ 'gseb 'to], by
name, fell in love with his creation. His Andrey Mepburn

love was so great that he began to pray ^{as Eliza Doolittle}

to Aphrodite [, aeftV daiti], the goddess of love, to breathe life into his statue. The goddess made the statue alive, and Pygmalion married Galatea.

Pygmalion in Shaw's play is Mr Higgins, a professor of phonetics.
Galatea is Eliza Doolittle, a street flower seller, and the play itself is
the story of Mr Higgins's attempt to make a duchess out of the flower
seller. *

Professor Higgins meets Eliza one stormy night selling flowers to a crowd under the portico of St Paul's Cathedral. The profes­sor, struck by her remarkably pure Cockney pronunciation, is making notes of her words with a view of studying them at home. A gentleman seems particularly interested in Higgins, and the conversation, which springs up between them reveals that he is Colonel Pickering, a student of Indian dialects.

He and Higgins, it appears, have been interested in each other's work for years. Higgins points out that he can perfect the girl's shock­ing pronunciation which keeps her selling flowers in the street and prevents her from getting a respectable position as a saleslady in a flower shop.

The remark has made a deep impression on Eliza and the very next day she visits the professor to take lessons in pronunciation, at a price she considers fully sufficient of one shilling an hour.

Finding Eliza's offer very interesting Professor Higgins and Colonel Pickering make a bet, that in six months Higgins will teach Eliza the language of "Shakespeare and Milton" and pass her off as a duchess at an ambassador's party. If Higgins suc­ceeds Pickering will pay the expenses of the experiment.

Eliza is taken into Higgins's house where for several months she is being taught to speak correct English. While staying at Higgins's home Eliza gets accustomed to Professor Higgins and Colonel Pickering. Higgins is not married and lives alone with his servants and his elderly housekeeper. He often finds Eliza amusing and Eliza, grateful for the education he is giving her, makes herself useful to him wherever she can.

In order to prove his experiment Higgins dresses Eliza in beautiful clothes and takes her to the Ambassador's Garden Party where she meets the "cream" of society. Everybody takes her for a grand lady.

Higgins wins his bet. But he has forgotten that a flower girl is a human being with a mind and a heart. He looks upon her only as a thing. He does not care what is to become of her when he has finished his instruction. He says, "When I've done with her, we can throw her back into the gutter, and then it will be her own business again".

Higgins is not unkind by nature and perhaps he has even grown fond of Eliza without knowing it; but what is an ignorant flower girl to a gentleman of means and wide education... Eliza teaches him how wrong he is, giving him a lesson in feeling. The lesson costs her some pain because not only has she got accustomed to Higgins, but she has also begun to love him.

Higgins and Eliza remain friends, but the play is without an ending. The dramatist thought it best not to go on with the story. Had he given the usual happy ending, the play would have become an ordinary fairy-tale story.

Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion is a satire on higher society. Here, aristocrats are opposed to a simple girl. In the play Shaw shows his deep feelings for the common people, their humanism, the beauty of their inner qualities. He shows that good language and correct pronunciation are not only the attributes of people of high social, cultural and moral standing.

Vocabulary

accustomed [a'kAStamd] a привычный

to get accustomed привыкнуть ambassador [jem'baesgda] л посол antique [sen'ti:k] о античный appear [э'рю] v оказываться attribute ['aetnbju:t] n отличительная

черта barrier ['Ьаепэ] л барьер bet [bet] л пари

to make a bet держать пари cockney ['kokni] n кокни (лондонское

просторечие) colonel ['кз:п1] л полковник cream [kri:m] n сливки; самое лучшее,

цвет (чего-л.) creation [kii'eijbn] n творение distinction [dis'tinkjbn] л различие duchess f'dAtfis] л герцогиня grateful ['greitful] а благодарный

Questions and tasks

gutter ['gAta] л трущобы means [mi:nz] л средства, состояние oppose [э'рэиг] v противопоставлять originate [э 'ndjineit] v происходить,

брать начало outer f'auta] а внешний perfect [pa'fekt] v совершенствовать,

улучшать polish ['prjhj] л изысканность pray [prei] v молиться respectable [ns'pektabl] о приличный remark [n'ma:k] л высказывание saleslady ['seilzleidi] л продавщица shocking ['Jokirj] о ужасный spring [sprirj] v (sprang; sprung) проис­ходить standing ['stasndirj] л положение succeed [sak'si:d] v суметь сделать sufficient [sa'fijsnt] а достаточный

9. Explain why he named these plays in such a way.

10. What changes did Bernard Shaw introduce into the theatre of England?

11. What plays did he publish under the title of Plays Pleasant?

12. Comment on the third volume of Shaw's plays.

13. What is his most popular play?

14. What problems do Shaw's plays deal with?

15. Characterize the second period of his literary work.

16. Describe Shaw's way of writing.

17. What is the main idea of the play Pygmalion?

18. What is the origin of the plot?

19. Give a brief summary of the contents of Pygmalion.

20. Against what is the criticism of the play directed?

Herbert Wells (1866-1946)

Herbert George Wells is often called the great English writer who looked into the future.

He was bom in the small town of Brom­ley into a middle-class family. He was the second son in a family of three boys. His father was a shopkeeper and at the same time he was a professional player of the national English game — cricket. His mother was a housekeeper in a large country house.

Wells combined his studies at Mid-
hurst Grammar School by working as
a draper's then a chemist's apprentice. ^{Herbert Geor}9^{e Wells}

By means of a scholarship he had won he was able to study at the Royal College of Science in London.

In 1886 he took his B. Sc. (Bachelor of Science) degree with honours at London University. Then he took to teaching mostly as a private schoolmaster in biology. In 1893 he turned to journalism and literature.

Scores of novels, histories, philosophical books and scientific works followed. The end of the century made him famous as a writer.

The First World War brought a crisis in the outlook of the great writer. At the beginning he believed that the war would teach all nations to live in peace and that the peoples of the world would want to build up a new society. He expressed his ideas in a series of articles. They were later collected in the book called The War That Will End War (1914). But the book was not popular.

The October Socialist Revolution of 1917 shook Wells. He was greatly interested in the events going on in Russia. In 1920 he visited the Soviet Union. On his return to England he published his book Russia in the Shadows where he described the Soviet country ruined by the Civil War and foreign intervention.

During the Second World War Wells wrote against fascism. He lived to be nearly 80 years old. He died on the 13th of August, 1946.

Herbert Wells devoted more than fifty years of his life to literary work. He was the author of more than forty novels and many short stories, articles and social tracts. His novels are of three types: sci­ence fiction, realistic novels on contemporary problems and social tracts in the form of novels.

Wells belonged to the world of science. Science played an im­portant part in his best works, but the principal theme, even in these works is not science but the social problems of the day. His creative work is divided into two periods. The first period begins in 1895 and lasts up to the outbreak of the Word War I. His famous works are: The Time Machine (1895), The Invisible Man (1897), The War of the Worlds (1897), The First Men in the Moon (1901) and others.

The second period comprises works written from 1914 up to the end of World War II. His most important works are: The War That Will End War (1914), Russia in the Shadows (1920), The World of William Clissold (1926), MrBlettsworthy onRampoleIsland (1928), Experiment in Autobiography (1934) and many others.

Being greatly influenced by the outstanding achievements of the famous scientists of his day as Faraday, Darwin, Wells begins to explore in his works the new world opened up by modern science.

His books show not only the ability to make science the matter of a story, but a rare gift of scientific imagination. Wells's science-fic­tion novels are always built on a scientific basis. All of them are based on real scientific discoveries. The discovery of x-rays prompted Wells

to write The Invisible Man. Wells tried Ms best to make his fantasies convincing. For this reason he would give accurate description of non-existing machines, cite fictitious newspaper articles and scien­tific reports.

Some of his works show his scientific foresight. For instance in the novel The War in the Air (1908) Wells describes war planes which were first used during World War I. In the novel When the Sleeper Wakes (1899) Wells writes about A-bombs and their radio-active effect 30 years before their invention. These predictions show the author's imagination and profound scientific knowledge. The main trait of Wells's creative works is his concern for the fate of mankind.

The originality of Wells's science-fiction novels lies in their social problems.

Thus in 77ie Time Machine (1895) the theme of an unusual scientific invention — a machine capable of travelling through time — is connected with the theme of class struggle, class antagonism leading to the degeneration of mankind. The author describes a fantastic machine made of nickel, ivory and crystal and with great artistic mastery depicts the flight through time when days and nights seem like the flapping of a black wing and the sun and the moon become streaks of fire in the sky. However, it is not the main theme in the story. The principal idea of the book is the contrast of the two degenerated races — the Eloi and the Morlocks into which mankind has been divided. Having reached the year 802701, the Time Traveller meets the Eloi — beautiful and graceful, but quite helpless creatures who live in old buildings. They are the descendants of the ruling classes, the product of luxurious life and aversion for work. The other race, the horrible and pale Morlocks are the descendants of workers who had lived in the dark underground factories many years before. They continue working for the Eloi, they provide them with clothes and food, but hunt the Eloi at night and feed on their meat.

The more remote future visited by the Time Traveller is even worse. He sees a desert land of monster crabs creeping out of the sea.

In The Time Machine one can feel Wells's pessimism. The writer does not see any ways of saving mankind from war and moral degradation. Wells thought the working class was too

ignorant to fight for its happiness. This idea gave birth to the horrible figures of the Morlocks. Despite his pessimism Wells hoped that mankind would be able to escape degeneration and build life on more rational basis. The dreadful scenes depicted by the author serve as a warning to mankind.

The Invisible Man deals with another theme — the loneliness of the scientists in the bourgeois world and the danger of science in the hands of individualists.

The action is set in a small town in the south of England. The talented physicist Griffin who becomes invisible having discovered the secret of the colouring of tissue perishes. He turns into a savage and commits horrible crimes. A great scientist becomes a dangerous maniac and murderer.

Thus, Wells showed how tragic the achievements in science could be if they were used with destructive intentions.

He saw very clearly the contradictions that surrounded him but he did not see the way out.

Wells's contribution to literature becomes quite clear when we view him as a scientist. He is not a pure scientist, who works for the experiment only. He is much more interested in the fate of humanity than in science as such.

Wells's aim was to show* today through what might happen tomorrow. Man should realize that the future depends on what he is doing today.

One must admire his courage and his faith in written word. "We are going to write about the whole of life", he announced, and so he did.

Vocabulary

bachelor ['bagtfata] n бакалавр cite [salt] v ссылаться; цитировать comprise [ksm'praiz] v охватывать concern [k9n's3:n] n тревога creep [kri:p] v (crept) ползать crystal [knstl] n хрусталь degeneration [di^djens'reijan] n вы­рождение

ivory ['aivan] n слоновая кость luxurious [kg'zjuangs] а роскошный originality [э,пазГп8е1Ш] п оригиналь­ность outbreak ['autbreik] n начало outlook ['autluk] л взгляд на жизнь prediction [pn'dikjbn] n предсказание

Questions and Tasks

1. Relate the main facts of Wells's life.

2. Name Wells's different kinds of literary works.

3. What are the three types of his novels?

4. What themes did Wells touch upon in his works?

5. Name the two periods of his creative activity.

6. What is the peculiarity of Wells's science fiction?

7. Give a brief summary of the contents of The Time Machine.

8. Comment on the novel The Invisible Man.

9. What is the contribution of Wells to world literature?

10. Why is Herbert George Wells called the great English writer who looked
into the future?

John Galsworthy (1867-1933)

Among the English authors of the close of the last century and the beginning of the 20th century John Galsworthy f go:lzw3:6i] is one of the outstanding representatives.

He was a novelist, dramatist, short-story writer and essayist. He created brilliant realistic pictures of life and typical characters.

John Galsworthy was born in a well-to-do family in Surrey¹. His father was a rich lawyer, and he wanted his son to follow the career. John Galsworthy got his first edu-

Surrey ['sAn] — графство Суррей (Англия)

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