Date of Award

6-1926

Degree Type

Bachelors Essay

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts (BA)

Department

Communication

First Advisor

Thomas P. Whelan

Abstract

Dickens once said, that a book of all things ought " to stand, by itself. It is a picture of life but one that not only portrays but shows the significance of its subject. Its form is uniquely elastic because its art is the handmaid of its purpose which is to illustrate the true and aggrandize the good, as well as to express the beautiful. Its sole artistic standard is fitness; its measure the adaptedness of means to end. Dealing in this way with all of life, it is not sufficient for the novelist to love like Keats "the principle of beauty in all things." He must love also the principle of the true and the principle of the good. To force the note of "art" in the novel is to circumscribe Its area of interest and limit its range of expression. It is a sacrifice to formalism. Hitherto the study of Victorian letters has been confined almost entirely to biography and aesthetics. Still, as a matter of fact that which distinguishes Victorian from other times, and explains the problems in its aesthetics, is the social and intellectual change which made the many arbiters of taste. It is a fact, too, that this revolution made novel and periodical the favorite literary forms. The specific ways in which it affected the writer of fiction, the opportunities and ideals it encouraged, the changes it accomplished in narrative form have been neglected. We acknowledge that our paper is but a beginning upon a decidedly controversial subject. The narrative is incomplete without reference to the French, who had earlier experimented with low prices for publications and periodical literature. Leaving aside the natural inclination of Dickens to be theatrical, the tradition of diabolism in English prose romance does not entirely account for his sensationalism. ...

Comments

A Thesis Submitted, in Partial Requirement for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts, College of Journalism, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

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