AD's English Literature

Short notes on History of English Literature A Set of 26 Objective Questions & Answers 1.       Arcadia (1590), a pastoral romance in verse linked by prose passages; the first considerable work in English in this form, it became a model for later pastoral poetry. 2.       Ben Jonson’s first comedy, Everyman in His Humour , is a satiric picture of his own age, to write with cool irony of contemporary human foibles as he considered them and as Terence had done. 3.       Utopia , by Thomas More, is a powerful and original study of social conditions, unlike anything which have had ever appeared in any literature except some points of resemblance in Plato’s Repubilic .The book is divided into two parts. 4.       Utopia ’s influence is found in several important works of European literature, including Anglo-Irish writer Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels (1726) and French ph...

                                                         The first Indian poet in English Henry Louis Vivian Derozio was born in 1809. By the early influence of his mother and teacher, establishing the dimension of his thinking and writing, he wrote The Fakir of Junghera, a Metrical Tale (1828) inspired by the gigantic rock rising out of a river and woven around a young Brahmin widow. Read More Men That Keep Attention This poem launched him on his rewarding poetic car eer- he came into contact with john Craft, Editor of The Examiner who helped him to get an important position in The Indian Gazette .    Henry L . V . Derozio As a poet, creditable are his achievements , Derozio is to be chiefly a...

Introduction   The Victorian era is known for the galaxy of female novelists. CHARLOTTE BRONTE, EMILY BRONTE, Mrs. Gaskell and GEORGE ELIOT are in prime focus.  They also include Mrs. Trollope, Mrs. Gore, Mrs. Maroh, Mrs. Bray, Mrs. Henry, Charlotte younger, Miss Oliphant, and still more. However, the four most important women novelists, who yet are quite important, are Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, Mrs. Gaskell and George Eliot. Of the four, the two first named were sisters, and their methods and achievement as novelists met at many places. But each of the remaining two priced her own line and made herself known in the field of English novel in her own way. 

The Rise of Poetic Drama: Influences and Innovations in England and Ireland The poetic drama had a late start in England. During the thirty years from 1890 to 1920 the pure poetic play was almost non-existent in England. However, in Ireland, it attracted some of the Abbey theatre authors. Stephen Philips remained strictly faithful to the verse form. His Paolo and Francesca , which was modeled upon Dante's famous episode in Inferno , was a great success in 1900. His other plays we re H errod, A Tragedy, Ulysses, The S in of David and Nero . John Drinkwater also endeavored to re-establish the poetic play in his earlier career. His notable plays Rebellion and The S torm   are wri tten in this style. W.B. Yea t s, the great poet, whose work belongs to the Iris h Literary Movement and the Abbey Theatre also wrote plays in this style. His finest achievement in this sphere is The Countess K athleen . J.M. S y nge is the other important name in the history of the poetic drama. He ev...

Biography: A Very Difficult From of Art It is almost an axiomatic truth that biography is a very difficult from of art. A biographer, unlike a historian, has to collect all the relevant and necessary documents and facts. He should construct his biography in such a way that it ultimately assumes the status of an art-form. Johnson has very pertinently observed: “ History  can be formed from permanent monuments and records: but lives can only be written from personal knowledge, which is growing everyday less, and in short time is lost forever.” Writing A Biography: Historical Survey It is a strenuous and uphill task, indeed to collect all the requisite materials for a biography. Again, compared to other genres of Literature i.e. drama, fiction, etc, biography is too young. Its origin dates back to 18 th century. The simple reason for this belated origin of biography is that until 18 th century, there was a death of genuine interest in and a becoming curiosity about the private lives...

A Solid Human- Relationship: Need at the Time of   British-India E.M. Forster's  A Passage to India   is indeed a great work which has encompassed several significant topics that had some bearing upon the society during the   British rule   in India. But Forster’s greatest contribution lies in the fact that in this novel he has raised the problem of human relationship and has discussed the pros and cons of the same at great length. The major fault or lacuna of the British Empire was that the polished and highly tutored dignitaries who were empowered by the British imperialist Government to rule over the Indians failed to realize the value of human relationship. But Forester has again and again sought to pinpoint this axiomatic truth that of a need a solid human- relationship, the most essential need at the time of   British-India .   Forster wholeheartedly believed in the value of personal relation, ‘the holiness of the heart’s affection'. But he ...