THE PLAIN, THE GRAND, THE ROMANTIC AND THE ELEGANT

The style of writing people like -- like the clothes you wear -- changes with time. Though literary fashion may not change as fast as the fashion of clothes, yet literary fashion has changed a few times since prose became the more prominent vehicle of literature in the 18th century. First, we have the plain style, then the elevated, protested by the romantic, and followed by the elegant. And we in the present time, turn back to a preference to the plain language.

This is an interesting aspect of literature, and it enables us to enjoy different tastes in the styles of writing. For instance, writers at Johnson's time in the 18th century, liked grandiose diction and dignified phraseology, while we in the present days prefer simple words and easy sentences.


The Plain Style of Defoe and Swift

The 18th century is a very fruitful year for prose writing in the history of English literature. Besides witnessing the birth of the novel, this century was also famous for non-fiction prose. Daniel Defoe (1660-1731), one of the pioneers of the novel, also contributed greatly to the development of English journalism in his paper, The Review (1704-13).

Another great literary figure was Jonathan Swift (1667-1745). Have you read about lands where the people are only six inches tall, or where horses speak like humans? These and other fascinating tales are found in Gulliver's Travels (1716), which was originally meant to be a satire on European politics but is now best loved as a fantasy prose fiction. The author is Jonathan Swift. He also wrote some very powerful satires like The Battle of the Books (1704), A Tale of a Tub (1704), and Drapier's Letters (1724).

The following extract is from Swift's Gulliver's Travels, when Gulliver had just landed on Lilliput, the land of tiny people. It was written almost three hundred years ago.

    For as I happened to lie on my Back, I found my Arms and Legs were strongly fastened on each Side to the Ground; and my Hair, which was long and thick, tied down in the same Manner. I likewise felt several slender Ligatures across my Body, from my Armpits to my Thighs. I could only look upwards; the Sun began to grow hot, and the Light offended mine eyes. I heard a confused Noise about me, but in the Position I lay, could see nothing except the Sky. In a little time, I felt something alive moving on my left Leg, which advancing gently forward over my Breast, came almost up to my Chin; when bending mine Eyes downwards as much as I could, I perceived it to be a human Creature not six Inches high, with a bow and Arrow in his Hands, and a Quiver at his Back.
Both Defoe and Swift wrote in a very clear style which is easy to read and understand. But Dr Samuel Johnson, who came on to the scene about half a century later, thought that the plain style was not suitable for literature; he preferred polished, dignified diction, and balanced, elaborated sentence patterns.


The Grand Style of Dr Johnson

Dr Samuel Johnson (1709-84) is the dominating literary figure of the 18th century. He believed that literature should be written in grand, elevated language, with pompous, Latinized words, and adorned, balanced sentences. Although he also wrote poetry and novels, he is best remembered as a critic, essayist and lexicographer. His monumental work is the Dictionary of the English Language (1747-55), to which all later lexicographical works referred. Despite his pomposity, Johnson's style is often remarkable for its elegance and clarity. In the following example, taken from his Lives of the Poets (1779-81), Johnson describes the style of another famous writer.

    What he attempted, he performed; he is never feeble, and he did not wish to be energetic; he is never rapid, and he never stagnates. His sentences have neither studied amplitude, nor affected brevity: his periods, though not diligently rounded, are voluble and easy. Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, must give his days and nights to the volumes of Addison.
If somebody says that your writing is Johnsonian, he means you write like Dr Samuel Johnson, one of the best English writers of all time. But that is not a compliment, because he is referring to Johnson's weak points, according to today's writing fashion. He means you like to use big words and long sentences; and big words and long sentences are considered bad writing today, because they are difficult for people to understand.

But during Johnson's time, the grand, elevated style was much preferred. Two influential philosophers who used this style were George Berkeley (1685-1753) and David Hume (1711-76).

Berkeley expounded in An Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision (1709) that the physical world is unreal, and reality is the function of the mind. It is interesting to note that this profound theory, which has long been proposed by ancient masters of both the east and west, is now accepted by some modern scientists as the result of the latest discoveries from modern physics. In Essays Concerning Human Understanding (1748), the Scottish Hume suggested that the eternal self was an illusion, and the human mind was only the result of sensations and thoughts.

One of the most beautiful works in English prose, also written in the elevated style of Johnson, is The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776-88), by Edward Gibbon (1737-94). He took twelve years to write this classic, in which he discussed the break-down of the ancient western world and the establishment of modern civilization.

But at the start of the 19th century there was a protest movement, known as the "Romantic revival", against the grand, elaborated style. The Romantic revival proposed to use the language of the common people for literature.


The Romantic Poets

When I first came across the term "Romantic poets", I thought of young men and ladies holding each others' hands, looking into each others' eyes, while composing poetry beneath soft moon gleams. It didn't turn out that way, unfortunately. The term "romantic" has other connotations besides those of love and adventure, and here it suggests a freedom from form restrictions and an inclination towards strong feelings.

The "Romantic revival" started as a protest against the grandiose style of Samuel Johnson and Neo-classical poets like Milton and Pope. The Romantic poets believed that both the themes and language of poetry should be of and for the common people. They also had a deep concern for nature, which they considered to have an educational and spiritual influence on man.

The leading force of the Romantic movement was William Wordsworth (1770-1850), a poet laureate, who regarded poetry as "a spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling recollected in tranquility." His outstanding works are The Prelude (1850) and Lyrical Ballads (1798), which he collaborated with Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834). Coleridge was a mystical poet, critic and philosopher. His literary criticism is recorded in his Biographia Literaria (1817), and his representative poems are The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Kubla Khan, and Christabel (all in 1798).

If we associate romance with beauty, with freedom or with idealism, then we have excellent examples in John Keats (1795-1821), Percy Bysshe Shelley (1782-1822) and Lord Byron (1788-1824). Keats is famous for his poetry singing of beauty. His longer poems include Endymion (1818), Isabella (1820), and The Eve of St Agnes (1820). Shelley is a poet as prophet of freedom, and in his lyrical drama Prometheus Unbound (1820), he glorifies the human spirit using love as the guiding principle to break free from tyranny. Lord Byron lamented over what life was and what it could be. His best work is a long poem, Don Juan (1819-24), which shows his artistic display of satire, humour, sentiment and adventure.

For an example of romantic poetry, we shall now turn back to Wordsworth:

    My heart leaps up when I behold
    A rainbow in the sky:
    So was it when my life began;
    So is it now I am a man;
    So be it when I shall grow old,
    Or let me die!
    The Child is the father of the Man;
    And I could wish my days to be
    Bound each to each by natural piety.


The Romantic Prose Writers

Though the romantic period is best known for its poetry, there were also some brilliant essayists. Three figures stand out distinctively: Charles Lamb (1775-1834), William Hazlitt (1778-1830) and Thomas de Quincey (1778-1859). Lamb is noted for his Essays of Elia (1823) and Last Essays (1833). Hazlitt is best remembered for The Spirit of the Age (1825), wherein he described many great literary figures in fresh, colourful language. De Quincey gives us a poetic description in prose of his dream world in Confessions of an English Opium Eater (1821). In the example below, note Hazlitt's picturesque, almost sensual yet subtly sarcastic language in describing Pope:

    Pope's Muse never wandered with safety, but from his library to his grotto, or from his grotto into his library again. His mind dwelt with greater pleasure on his own garden, than on the garden of Eden; he could describe the faultless whole-length mirror that reflected his own person better than the smooth surface of the lake that reflects the face of heaven -- a piece of cut grass or a pair of paste buckles with more brilliance and effect, than a thousand dew-drops glittering in the sum. He would be more delighted with a patent lamp than with "the pale reflex of Cynthia's brow", that fills the skies with its soft lustre, that trembles through the cottage window, and cheers the watchful manner on the lonely wave. In short, he was the poet of personality and of polished life.
The two most outstanding novelists of this period are Jane Austen (1775-1817) and Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832). Jane Austen's novels are noted for their disciplined structure, natural dialogue, familiar setting and exposition of realism. Her famous works include Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), Emma (1816), Persuasion (1817), and Northanger Abby (1817). Though Jane Austen lived in the Romantic period, she was rather unromantic; but her novels are enjoyable to read.

Scott is a good contrast to Jane Austen. His manner of writing is unconventional, and he expresses the spirit of the romantic poet. He was also a poet and publisher, and the authorship of his early novels was kept secret because he considered novel-writing below the dignity of an eminent lawyer and country-gentleman he was. Scott was the originator of the historical novel, and many of his novels were set in 18th century Scotland, his homeland. He wrote profusely, and some notable examples are Waverley (1814), Guy Mannering (1815), Quentin Durward (1823), Ivanhoe (1829), and Castle Dangerous (1832).


The Victorian Age

If you wonder what poetic music is, you must read the poetry of Lord Alfred Tennyson (1809-92). He is one of the greatest lyrical poets in English literature, and was a poet laureate after William Wordsworth. Tennyson resorted poetry to a higher function, making poetry the description of a beautiful, enchanted world, thus changing poetry from an interpretation of common life to a distant charming illusion. It was because of such enchantment that despite the prevalent popularity of prose literature in the 19th century, Tennyson's poetry was still widely read.

Tennyson published some long poems, like The Princess (1847), In Memoriam (1850), and Idylls of the King (1859), but it was for his lyrics that he is now best remembered. Enjoy the music of words in the first stanza of his short poem Blow, Bugle, Blow:

    The splendour falls on castle walls
    And snowy summits old in story:
    The long light shakes across the lakes,
    And the wild cataract leaps in glory.
    Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying,
    Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying.
This period is often referred to as the Victorian age, named after another long reigning queen. Other famous poets are Robert Browning (1812-89), Matthew Arnold (1822-88), and Christina Rossetti (1830-94). The Victorian poets and other writers marked the end of the Romantic period, tampering the unrestricted, bounteous flight of emotions of the romantics with elegance, satire and realism.

Verse had lost its ground to prose in popularity since the previous century. This transition was well expressed in drama, whereby in the past plays were mostly written in verse, now they were written in prose.

Victorian drama is perhaps best represented by Oscar Wilde (1854-1900). He was also a poet and short story writer. His The Happy Prince and Other Tales written in 1888 is still popularly read and enjoyed today. His best remembered plays are Lady Windermere's Fan (1892), A Woman of No Importance (1893), and The Ideal Husband (1895). His masterpiece, however, is The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), which the dramatist himself referred to as "a trivial comedy for serious people." Oscar Wilde is well known for his satirical wit, memorable dialogues and comic characterization.

The most brilliant playwright spanning the 19th and the 20th centuries is George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950). Shaw was born at about the same time as Oscar Wilde, though he lived much longer. Yet their plays are very different in many ways.

Some people consider Shaw as the greatest English playwright besides Shakespeare. He was also a critic and essayist. If you are looking for plays where the characters speak on behalf of their creator, then Shaw's plays are a good choice. His characters are his mouth¬piece for his ideals of social justice and morality; yet his characters are very delightful and unforgettable, because they express Shaw's brilliant verbal wit. Shaw wrote many plays, and some of the more important are Mrs Warren's Profession (1893), Arms and the Man (1894), (1897), Caesar and Cleopatra (1898), Man and Superman (1905), Androcles and the Lion (1912), Pymalion (1913), Back to Methuselah (1921), St Joan (1923), and The Apple Cart (1929). Shaw refused many honours except the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925. The following dialogue from Arms and the Man between the hero and the heroine shows a typical feature of Shaw's satire, that is, a comic reversal of what people generally expect of some popular character types:

    The Man: Ive no ammunition. What use are cartridges in battles? I always carry chocolate instead; and I finished the last cake of that hours ago.
    Raina: (outraged in her most cherished ideal of manhood) Chocolate! Do you stuff your pockets with sweets -- like a schoolboy -- even in the field?
    The Man: (grinning) Yes: isnt it contemptible? (Hungrily) I wish I had some now.
    Raina: Allow me. (She sails away scornfully to the chest of drawers, and returns with the box of confectionery in her hand). I am sorry I have eaten them all except these. (She offers him the box).
    The Man: (ravenously) Youre an angel! (He gobbles the contents). Creams! Delicious! (He looks anxiously to see whether they are any more. They are none: he can only scape the box with his fingers and suck them.)
The non-fiction prose writing of the 19th century is well known for its elegance and balance. Three masters famous for their beautiful styles are Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-59), Thomas Carlyle (1795-1882) and John Ruskin (1819-1900). The following extract is taken from The History of England (1848) by Macaulay, regarded as the most fluent writer of his time:
    He cannot be convinced that his country does not pine for him as much as he pines for his country. He imagines that all his associates, who still dwell at their homes and enjoy their estates, are tormented by the same feelings which make life a burden to himself. The longer his expatriation, the greater does his hallucination become. The lapse of time which cools the ardour of the friends whom he has left behind inflames his. Every month his impatience to revisit his native land increases: and every month his native land remembers and misses him less.
Every great writer has his distinctive features; every age has its salient points. The 18th and 19th centuries discussed in this chapter marked a watershed in literature whereby prose replaced verse as the more popular form of writing preferred by general readers. Nevertheless, good poetry was still appreciated in these two centuries, as is in all times.

Hence, the great names in literature from these two centuries are novelists, essayists and dramatists, such as Defoe, Swift, Samuel Johnson, Oscar Wilde and Bernard Shaw -- all writers of prose -- though great poets like Wordsworth and Tennyson also stood out remarkably with their brilliant poetry.

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