英国文学史及作品选读习题集(6)

6 English Literature in the 19th Century

Ⅰ. Essay questions.

1. Discuss John Ruskin?s works on art.

2. What is the theme of Charles Dickens?s novel A Tale of Two Cities?

3. Talk about Charles Dickens?s character portrayal, especially child character portrayal.

4. Please retell the story of Jane Eyre and make a comment on it.

5. Please talk briefly about Charles Dickens?s literary career, and the main features of his works.

6. Please make a comment on Thomas Hardy?s contributions to English literature.

7. Make a comment on critical realism.

8. Please retell the story of Tess of the D’Urbervilles and make a brief comment on it. Ⅱ. Define the following terms.

1. English critical realism

2. Victorian period

3. Autobiography

4 .Regional novel

5. Dramatic monologue

6. Dramatization

7. Disinterestedness

8. Idyll

9. Psychological novel

10. The Pre-Raphaelites

11. Künstlerroman

12. Aestheticism

13. Naturalism

Ⅲ. Fill in the blanks.

1. The comic element is strong in Charles Dickens?s first novel, which appeared in monthly sections between April 1836 and November 1837. It records the adventures of Mr. and his companions as they journey about the country.

2. is one of Charles Dickens?s best works. It is written in the first person and is the most autobiographical of all his books. In writing the novel, Dickens threw into it deep feelings and much of his own experience in his younger days.

3. In the Victorian period, and moral propriety, which were ignored by the Romanticists, became the predominant preoccupation in literary works.

4. William Makepeace Thackeray?s first literary success came with a series of satirical sketches entitled , published in1846～1847.

5. Daniel Deronda, written in1876, is ?s last novel. The mastery of the subtler complexities of psychological analysis is revealed thoroughly.

6. Mrs. Gaskell was one of the first English writers to make the class struggle between the and the the theme of a novel.

7. George Eliot?s is largely autobiographical in its early chapters. Against the background of rural life, the author traces the fate and tragedy of

a young girl, Maggie, whose noble aspirations run counter to the philistine narrow-mindedness of those around her.

8. Written in 1837-38, tells the story of an orphan boy, whose adventures provide material for a description of the lower depths of London.

9. In the Victorian period, the became the most widely read and the most vital and challenging expression of progressive thought.

10. Although writing from different points of view and with different techniques, the Victorian novelists shared one thing in common, that is, they were all concerned about the fate of the people.

11. Robert Browning?s poetic experiments transferred the thematic interest of poetry from mere narration of the story to revelation and study of characters?and brought to the Victorian poetry some element.

12. Wuthering Heights is written by . It is a morbid story of love, but a powerful attack on the bourgeois marriage system. It shows that true love in a class society is impossible of attainment.

13. George Meredith is a master of ; he tries to load his books with wit and wisdom; many of his characters are people with ideas who are determined to voice them.

14. In his works, Dickens sets out a full map and a large-scale criticism of the19th century England, particularly .

15. “Culture and Anarchy”is Matthew Arnold?s representative work in social criticism. It deals with the whole structure of and .

16. Matthew Arnold regarded the quality of “”as the principal virtue of poet. He paid great attention to the moral values of poetry, giving a secondary place to poetry in which “the form is studied and exquisite”.

17. “” is Thomas Macaulay?s masterpiece. Macaulay did not intend to be an objective historian. His purpose of writing it is to eulogize the “Glorious Revolution”, and he interprets men and events with a partisan prejudice.

18. Between1859and1885AlfredTennysonworkedathisnarrativepoems based on the stories of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. Those poems were gathered together as .

19. , novelist and poet, is one of the representatives of English critical realism at the turn of the 19th century.

20. Dickens made his first attempt at a historical novel in ,seemingly anxious to do for London what Scott had done for Edinburgh in The Heart of Midlothian.

21. , one of the century?s finest novels, traces the rise and fall of Michael Henchard, a tough, egotistical fellow who, having committed the folly of drunkenly selling his wife and baby at a fair, turns teetotal and by sheer perseverance rises to wealth as a corn-factor and to respectability as Mayor of Casterbridge.

22. Oliver Twist presents Oliver Twist as Dickens?s first hero and Fagin the first figure.

23. John Ruskin?s was written to defend J. M. W. Turner, the English landscape painter, against the attacks on his paintings made by the conventional critics of the day.

24. The purpose of both The Seven Lamps of Architecture and The Stones of Venice is to glorify , a style distinguished by its high and sharply-pointed arches, which had prevailed in Western Europe from the 12th to the 16th centuries.

25. The most intensely engaging themes in the Palliser novels are the stories of the .

26. Jane Eyre represents those working women, who are struggling for the recognition of their basic rights and equality as a human being.

27. The Happy Prince and Other Tales and The House of Pomegranates are two collections of written by Oscar Wilde.

28. In her novels, George Eliot seeks to present the of a soul and to reveal the motives, impulses and hereditary influences which govern human action.

29. Middlemarch provides a panoramic view of life in a small English town and its surrounding countryside in the century.

30. The book News from Nowhere is a , telling the story of a man who falls asleep after an evening at a Socialist League meeting. He wakes in the future to find England transformed into a communist paradise where men and women are free, healthy, and equal.

31. is considered as Samuel Butler?s masterpiece. In it, he succeeded in giving a devastating picture of the bourgeois family and the hypocrisy of the British middle class. This novel is a strong challenge of the moral claims of the ruling classes of England.

32. The poem “A Shropshire Lad”recalls the pessimism of , the poet?s favorite novelist. The lines are so simple and beautiful that musicians look to them for songs to set.

33. The two most predominating poets of the Victorian period are and .

34. In many of Hardy?s later novels, the conflict between the and the is brought to the center of the stage.

35. As a woman of exceptional intelligence and life experience, George Eliot shows a particular concern for the of women.

Ⅳ. Choose the best answer.

1. Which is NOT a character in Dombey and Son?

A. Carker

B. Dombey

C. Edith

D. Martin

2. , the pioneering woman, according to D. H. Lawrence, was the first novelist that “started putting all the actions inside”.

A. George Eliot

B. Jane Austen

C. Charlotte Bronte

D. Emily Bronte

3. The Victorian poetry was mainly characterized by experiments with new styles and new ways of expression. Among these famous experimental poets was who created the verse novel by adopting the novelistic presentation of characters.

A. Charles Dickens

B. Alfred Tennyson

C. Robert Browning

D. Thomas Hardy

4. Which one is NOT William Makepeace Thackeray?s works?

A. Sylvia’s Lover

B. The Newcomes

C. The Virginians

D. The History of Pendennis

5. These works are written by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell EXCEPT .

A. Mary Barton

B. Ruth

C. LittleDorrit

D. North and South

6. Which one is William Makepeace Thackeray?s historical novel?

A. Vanity Fair

B. The History of Henry Esmond

C. Denis Duval

D. Round about Papers

7. ?s works are characterized by a mingling of humor and pathos.

A. Thomas Hardy

B. Charles Dickens

C. Charlotte Bronte

D. George Eliot

8. The following are the common characters shared by the three Bronte sisters EXCEPT .

A. unmarried

B. literary

C. talented

D. dying young

9. Which one is NOT Charlotte Bronte?s novel?

A. Professor

B. Villette

C. Shirley

D. Agnes Grey

10. Mrs. Gaskell, George Eliot, Charlotte Bronte and Emily Bronte are NOT all .

A. women novelists

B. regional novelists

C. Victorian novelists

D. pseudonymous novelists

11. Which one is NOT written by George Meredith?

A. Middlemarch

B. Evan Harrington

C. Emiliain England

D. The Ordeal of Richard Feverel

12. “History of the French Revolution” is written by .

A. John Ruskin

B. Charles Dickens

C. William Makepeace Thackeray

D. Thomas Carlyle

13. ?s first literary success was the publication of his “Essay on Milton” in the Edinburgh Review in1825.

A. Thomas Macaulay

B. Thomas Carlyle

C. Matthew Arnold

D. John Ruskin

14. Which one is NOT John Ruskin?s major works in the sphere of art criticism?

A. Modern Painters

B. The Seven Lamps of Architecture

C. Sesame and Lilies

D. The Stones of Venice

15. ?s works are all about the struggle of an individual consciousness towards self-realization, about some lonely and neglected young women with a fierce longing for love, understanding and a full happy life.

A. George Eliot

B. Charlotte Bronte

C. Thomas Hardy

D. Jane Austen

16. is one that introduces to the English novel the first governess heroine.

A. Jane Eyre

B. Wuthering Heights

C. Middlemarch

D. Agnes Grey

17. is an elaborate and powerful expression of Alfred Tennyson?s philosophical and religious thoughts.

A. Idylls of the King

B. Ulysses

C. Poems, Chiefly Lyrical

D. In Memoriam

18. Hardy?s principal works are the Wessex novels, i.e., novels describing the characters and environment of his native countryside. is NOT included.

A. A Pair of Blue Eyes

B. Jude the Obscure

C. Under the Greenwood Tree

D. The Return of the Native

19. Which one is Thomas Hardy?s first collection of poems?

A. Time’s Laughing stocks

B. Satires of Circumstance

C. Poems of the Past and the Present

D. Wessex Poems

20. is based on the Celtic legends of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table.

A. In Memoriam

B. Ulysses

C. Idylls of the King

D. The Princess

21. The short novel The Warden was written by .

A. Anthony Trollope

B. George Meredith

C. Thomas Macaulay

D. Matthew Arnold

22. Which one is NOT included in the Barsetshire novels?

A. The Warden

B. Barchester Towers

C. The Last Chronicle of Barset

D. Autobiography

23. Which one is NOT included in the Palliser novels?

A. The Eustace Diamonds

B. Doctor Thorne

C. As He Knew He Was Right

D. The Way We Live Now

24. Which one does NOT belong to Robert Louis Stevenson?s writings manipulating the genres associated with children?

A. A Child’s Garden of Verses

B. Prince Otto

C. T he Black Arrow

D. Kidnapped

25. Oscar Wilde?s first play, opened in February1892.

A. A Woman of No Importance

B. The Importance of Being Earnest

C. An Ideal Husband

D. Lady Windermere’s Fan

26. initiates a new type of realism and sets into motion a variety of developments, leading in the direction of both the naturalistic and psychological novel.

A. Charles Dickens

B. George Eliot

C. Charlotte Bronte

D. Thomas Hardy

27. Henry James considered his most “perfect” work of art.

A. Daisy Miller

B. The Portrait of a Lady

C. The Ambassadors

D. The Wings of the Dove

28. is a remarkably penetrating study of a young girl?s awakening.

A. Roderick Hudson

B. The Turn of the Screw

C. The Golden Bowl

D. What Maisie Knew

29. Which one is NOT written by Dante Gabriel Rossetti?

A. Jenny

B. Prophyria’s Lover

C. The Last Confession

D. The Woodspurge

30. ?s works are known as “novels of characters and environment”.

A. Charles Dickens

B. Thomas Hardy

C. Jane Austen

D. George Eliot

31. ?s book, Chartist Songs, was published in August1846.

A. George Julian Harney

B. Thomas Hood

C. A. E. Housman

D. Ernest Jones

32. While in prison Ernest Jones produced his epic poem, .

A. The Battle day

B. The Emperor’s Vigil

C. The Revolt of Hindostan

D. The Beldag on Church

33. The Defence of Guenevere and Other Poems is written by .

A. William Morris

B. John Ruskin

C. Edward Burne-Jones

D. Dante Gabriel Rossetti

34. Morris devoted a lot of his time to political writing. Which of the following is NOT included in the political writings?

A. Chants for Socialists

B. The Pilgrims of Hope

C. Dream of John Ball

D. The Life and Death of Jason

35. The satire Erewhon is written by .

A. Henry Jones

B. Samuel Butler

C. Georage Meredith

D. R. A. Streatfeild

36. opposed Darwin?s explanation of evolution, finding it too mechanistic, and he expounded his own theories in Evolution Old and New, Unconscious Memory, and Luck or Cunning.

A. Samuel Butler

B. Henry Jones

C. Oscar Wilde

D. A.

E. Housman

37. could be classified to be both a naturalistic and a critical realistic writer.

A. Charles Dickens

B. George Eliot

C. Thomas Hardy

D. T. S. Eliot

38. believes that man?s fate is predeterminedly tragic, driven by a combined force of “nature”, both inside and outside.

A. Charles Dickens

B. Thomas Hardy

C. George Bernard Shaw

D. T. S. Eliot

39. The major concern of ?s fiction lies in the tracing of the psychological development of his characters and in his energetic criticism of the dehumanizing effect of the capitalist industrialization on human nature.

A. Charles Dickens

B. D. H. Lawrence

C. Thomas Hardy

D. John Galsworthy

40. The statement “It reveals the dehumanizing workhouse system and the dark, criminal underworld life” may well sum up the main theme of Dickens?s .

A. David Copperfield

B. Bleak House

C. Great Expectations

D. Oliver Twist

41. “Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless?...And if God had gifted me with some beauty, and much wealth, I should have made it a shard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you.”

The above quoted passage is most probably taken from .

A. Pride and Prejudice

B. Jane Eyre

C. Wuthering Heights

D. Great Expectations

42. “My Last Duchess” is a poem that best exemplifies Robert Browning?s .

A. sensitive ear for the sounds of the English language

B. excellent choice of words

C. mastering of the metrical devices

D. use of the dramatic monologue

43. Tess of the D’Urbervilles, one of Thomas Hardy?s best-known novels, portrays man as .

A. being hereditarily either good or bad

B. being self-sufficient

C. having no control over his own fate

D. still retaining his own faith in a world of confusion

44. Which of the following best describes the speaker of T. S. Eliot?s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”?

A. He is a man of an action.

B. He is a man of a pathy.

C. He is a man of passion.

D. He is a man of inactivity.

45. “For a week after the commission of the impious and profane offence of asking for more, Oliver remained a close prisoner in the dark and solitary room...”(Dickens, OliverTwist)

What did Oliver ask for?

A. More time to play.

B. More food to eat.

C. More books to read.

D. More money to spend.

46. “Come to me—come to me entirely now, ”said he; and added, in his deepest tone, speaking in my ear as his cheek was laid on mine, “Make my happiness—I will make yours.”

The above passage presents a scene in .

A. Emily Bronte?s Wuthering Heights

B. Charlotte Bronte?s Jane Eyre

C. John Galsworthy?s The Forsyte Saga

D. Thomas Hardy?s Tess of the D’Urbervilles

47. Which of the following best describes the nature of Thomas Hardy?s later works?

A. Sentimentalism.

B. Tragic sense.

C. Surrealism.

D. Comic sense.

48. In what region of England was Emily Bronte raised?

A. Sussex

B. Gloucestershire

C. Yorkshire

D. Warwickshire

Ⅴ. Short-answer questions.

1. Emily Bronte used a very complicated narrative technique in writing her novel Wuthering Heights. Try to tell Bronte?s way of narration briefly.

2. Vanity Fair is Thackeray?s masterpiece. Please talk briefly about the origin of the title and the writer?s intention about the title.

3. What is Robert Browning?s principal achievement in English poetry?

4. Please make a brief comment on David Copperfield.

5. Charlotte Bronte is a writer of Realism combined with Romanticism. Why is Jane Eyre by her a successful novel?

6. Please make a brief comment on George Meredith?s The Egoist and its character origin.

7. Please talk briefly about Thomas Carlyle?s classification of heroes in his work “Heroes and Hero-Worship”.

8. How is naturalism reflected in Thomas Hardy?s novels?

9. Based on Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, discuss the theme of her works and the image of women protagonists.

10. What is the theme of Hardy?s Wessex novels?

11. What is the main characteristic of Thomas Macaulay?s prose style?

12. Talk briefly about the themes of Henry James?s novels and his style.

13. Analyze the character of Dorothea Brooke in George Eliot?s work Middlemarch.

14. Talk briefly about the symbols and images in Great Expectations.

15. Please make a comment on George Eliot?s character portrayal.

16. Tess of the D’Urbervilles is one of the greatest works of Thomas Hardy. Try to comment briefly on the fate of Tess in this work.

Ⅵ. Answer the questions according to the following passages.

Passage1

“What now?”said Catherine, leaning back, and returning his look with a suddenly clouded brow—her humour was a mere vane for constantly varying caprices. “You and Edgar have broken my heart, Heathcliff! And you both come to bewail the deed tome, as if you were the people to be pitied! I shall not pity you, not I. You have killed me—thriven on it, I think. How strong you are! How many years do you mean to live after I am gone?”

Heathcliff had knelt on one knee to embrace her; he attempted to rise, but she seized his hair, and kept him down.

“I wish I could hold you,”she continued, bitterly, “till we were both dead! I shouldn?t care what you suffered. I care nothing for your sufferings. Why shouldn?t you suffer? I do! Will you forget me—will you be happy when I am in the earth? Will you say twenty years hence, …That?s the grave of Catherine Earnshaw. I loved her long ago, and was wretched to lose her; but it is past. I?ve loved many others since—my children are dearer to me than she was, and, at death, I shall not rejoice that I am going to her, I shall be sorry that I must leave them!? Will you say so, Heathcliff?”

“Don?t torture me till I?m as mad as yourself,” cried he, wrenching his head free, and grinding his teeth.

Questions:

1.Where is it taken from?

2. Analyze the character of Heathcliff briefly.

3. What is the theme of the story?

Passage2

Break, Break, Break,

Break, break, break,

On thy cold grey stones, O Sea!

And I would that my tongue could utter

The thoughts that arise in me.

O well for the fisherman?s boy,

That he shouts with his sister at play!

O well for the sailor lad,

That he sings in his boat on the bay!

And the stately ships goon

To their haven under the hill;

But O for the touch of a vanished hand,

And the sound of a voice that is still!

Break, break, break,

At the foot of thy crags, O Sea!

But the tender grace of a day that is dead

Will never come back tome.

Questions:

4. Who is the author of the poem?

5. Why did the author write this poem?

6. Please analyze the stress of each line and that of the stanza.

7. What effect has been achieved by the variation of the stress?

Passage3

So runs my dream; but what am I?

An infant crying in the night;

An infant crying for the light,

And with no language but a cry?

I falter where I firmly trod,

And falling with my weight of cares

Upon the great world?s altar-stairs

That slope through darkness up to God.

I stretch lame hands of faith, and grope,

And gather dust and chaff, and call

To what I feel is Lord of all,

And faintly trust the larger hope.

(the larger hope: the hope of an after-life)

Questions:

8. It is taken from In Memoriam, Alfred Tennyson?s long elegiac poem. What?s

the theme of it?

9. What?s the rhythm of the poem?

10. What?s your understanding of “I” in the poem?

11. What message does the poet convey about his religious belief?

12. Please make a brief comment on In Memoriam.

Keys

Ⅰ. Essay questions.

1. Ruskin?s works on art expound his aesthetic thoughts and principles which may be summed up briefly as follows:

(1) The object of art is to find and express the truth in nature; and art, in order to

express the truth, must copy nature and so often break away from old and set rules and conventions.

(2) Art is allied with morality, and there exists a close relation between goodness

and beauty, and between wickedness and ugliness. A careful study of the art of any nation reveals them oral strength or weakness of the people that produce it.

(3) The main purpose of art is not to delight a few cultured people but to serve the

practical ends of people?s daily life: “The joy which is indeed a joy forever must be a joy for all.”

(4) Ruskin had a strong dislike for modem capitalist civilization which was to him

“ugliness itself”. He condemned the modern “monetary asceticism, consisting in the refusal of pleasure and knowledge for the sake of money”. He aimed at reviving by art the kind of society in which a worker could express himself freely and enjoy “work-pleasure”.Ruskin was himself fan artist, skilled in drawing and painting. When he wrote on art, he knew what he was talking about. Moreover, he wrote in a rhythmical style and his sentences are full of picturesque detail and color. All this makes him “the apostle of beauty”who helps the reader to see and appreciate the beauty of the world around him.

2. The theme underlying A Tale of Two Cities is the idea “Where there is oppression,

there is revolution”.Had there been no Bastille, and no privileged and lawless aristocrats, there would have been no French Revolution, and likewise no story of

Dr. Manette. The revolutionaries are represented in the novel by Defarge, Dr.

Manette?s servant, who is one of the suffering poor and has taken the Doctor?s wrongs more to heart than the Doctor himself, and Madame Defarge the younger sister of the wronged and murdered sister and brother, victims of the evil house of Evremond. The Defarges have been working with never-ceasing diligence to prepare the Day of Wrath and are in the fore front of the assault on the Bastille.

They are relentless revolutionaries, seeking the people?s vengeance on the criminal noble lords.

The novel ranks as villains the feudal aristocrats and their lackeys, and exalts as heroes the oppressed and suffering peasants, the industrious professional men, and the faithful and honest people everywhere, including the “failures”such as Sidney Carton. Dickens has taken care to show that the people?s lust for vengeance is but the direct result of the ruling classes? monstrous atrocities. It is their iniquitous rule that has converted simple, honest people into avenging furies like the Defarges. By Carton, Dickens shows how a very good-natured and generous youth may sink, through lack of regard and of self-regard, into a drifter, and finally a waster, in an evil society.

A Tale of Two Cities takes, as dearly as Dickens?s earlier works, the side of

the common people against that of the privileged classes. But it adds, more plainly than any of his other novels, a warning of an Avenging Fate, from fear of which all the privileged, and all oppressors of the people, would do well to reconsider their ways.

3. Dickens is a comprehensive novelist. His character-portrayal is the most

distinguishing feature of his creation. His world seems to be fuller and richer than many other novelists. Among his vast range of various characters, there are both types and individuals. They are impressive not because they are true to life, but because they are mostly larger than life, seldom to be found in real life. Often they are humorous exaggerations of some well- marked human traits—sometimes one?s personal manner of speech, sometimes his habitual gesture or behavior and sometimes just some physical peculiarity. In many cases, universal experience becomes individualized in types.

Dickens is best at child character portrayal. Almost all his child heroes and heroines are innocent, virtuous, persecuted or helpless. They are spotless in their thoughts, intentions and wishes. In the very heart and soul, they are pure, refined and gentle-hearted. Some of the most unforgettable characters like Oliver Twist, Little Nell, Paul Dombey, David Copperfield, Little Dorrit, and Little Pip, have become famous type characters.

His success with children lies in his writing from a child?s point of view.

Children are instinctive, and they have strong imaginations, vivid sensations; they see life as black and white, and bigger than reality; their enemies seem demons, and their friends angels; and their joys or sorrows absolute and eternal. They do not look at life with the eyes of the wise, the intellectual or the instructed observer;

they are not ashamed of sentiment. In fact, they see life very much like Dickens and he certainly does have an extraordinary understanding of them. The first

halves of David Copperfield and Great Expectations are among the most profound pictures of childhood in English literature. Here Dickens seems not only living, but life-like, for though the world is more exaggerated, lit by brighter lights, darkened by sharper shadows than those of grown-up?s, it is exactly the world as it is seen through the eyes of a child.

Dickens is also famous for the characterization of horrible and grotesque figures and he is able to portray a character with just a few words or by highlighting or exaggerating some peculiar features of his characters.

4. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte?s masterpiece, tells the story of an orphan girl, Jane

Eyre, the daughter of a poor parson. She loses her parents shortly after birth. Her aunt, Mrs. Reed, a harsh, unsympathetic woman, is rude and unjust to the poor orphan. Mrs. Reed?s own children also find pleasure in teasing and mocking Jane.

One day, unable to bear the ill-treatment any longer, Jane tells straight to her aunt?s face what she thinks of her. Mrs. Reed is furious and gets rid of Jane by sending her to a charity school for poor girls in Lowood. Maltreated by the authorities and leading a half-starved existence, Jane stays here for eight long years, six in studies, and two in the capacity of a teacher. Then Jane gets the position of governess in the family of Mr. Rochester, a rich squire. Rochester falls in love with Jane, and she with him. They are about to be married when Jane breaks the engagement on the wedding day, learning that Mr. Rochester has a wife,

a raving lunatic who is secretly kept under lock and key in the house. Shocked by

the news, Jane flees from the house. She goes through many hardships. Nearly perishing on the moors, she is taken in and cared for by a parson, Rev. Rivers. He helps her get the job of a teacher in a village school. Meanwhile, a great misfortune be falls Mr. Rochester: he loses his sight during a fire which destroys the house, set by his mad wife who dies a tragic death by jumping off the roof in spite of his attempt to save her. Hearing that Mr. Rochester is penniless and disabled, Jane Eyre hurries back to him and becomes his wife.

Jane Eyre is Charlotte Bronte?s best literary production. The novel throbs with the heart-beats of its author. In the writing of it, Charlotte Bronte drew a great deal from her own life experience. One of the central themes of the book is the criticism of the bourgeois system of education. Bronte?s description of the horrors of Lowood charity school is not inferior to Dickens?s strongest passages portraying bourgeois educational institutions. In Lowood is depicted the charity school where Charlotte spent some years of her unhappy childhood and where her two elder sisters died of ill-treatment and her younger sisters contracted consumption, of which they died afterwards. The Lowood School is the embodiment of the bourgeois principles of education, the aim of which is to bring up obedient slaves for the rich. Not less severe is her description of the English country squires. She compares them to the uncultivated and narrow-minded Philistines. Rochester is, however, a mere exception. Another problem raised in the novel is the position of woman in society. Jane Eyre, the heroine of the novel, maintains that women should have equal rights with men. In her novel, Charlotte Bronte attacked the greed, petty tyranny and lack of culture among the

bourgeoisie and sympathized with the sufferings of the poor people. Her realism was coloured by petty-bourgeois philanthropy. Like Dickens, she believed that education was the key to all social problems, and that by the improvement of the school system and teaching, most of the evils of capitalism could be removed.

5. Altogether, Charles Dickens wrote 17 novels. Their creation covers a range of over

twenty years. For the convenience of study, his literary career can be divided into three periods. The first period of youthful optimism leads to the second period of excitement and irritation, from which emerges in turn the third period of steadily intensifying pessimism. This sequence of Dickens?s works shows his ideological development in relation to the history of his time. His early period coincides with the period of the rise and culmination of the Chartist Movement. His middle period covers the period of the temporary revival of Chartism and the tempestuous years of 1848-49. It ends with the triumph of European reactionin1850. That is why the last period is one of profound pessimism. His three periods reflect exactly the moods of the English petty-bourgeois progressive movements in those years.

Charles Dickens is one of the greatest critical realist writers of the Victorian Age. It is his serious intention to expose and criticize in his works all the poverty, injustice, hypocrisy and corruptness he saw all around him. In his works, Dickens sets a full map and a large-scale criticism of the 19th century England, particularly London. A combination of optimism about people and realism about the society is obvious in these works. His representative works in the early period include Oliver Twist, David Copperfield and so on.

His later works show a highly conscious modern artist. The settings are more complicated, and the stories are better structured. Most novels of this period present a sharper criticism of social evils and morals of the Victorian England, for example, Bleak House, Hard Times, Great Expectations and so on. The early optimism could no more be found.

Charles Dickens is a master story-teller. His language could, in a way, be compared with Shakespeare?s. His humor and wit seem inexhaustible.

Character-portrayal is the most outstanding feature of his works. His characterizations of child (Oliver Twist, etc.), some grotesque people (Fagin, etc.) and some comical people (Mr. Micawber, etc.) are superb. Dickens also employs exaggeration in his works. Dickens?s works are also characterized by a mixture of humor and pathos. He seems to believe that life is itself a mixture of joy and grief;

life is delightful just because it is at once comic and tragic.

6. Thomas Hardy is a great poet as well as a great novelist. His novels are all

Victorian in date. Most of them are set in Wessex, the fictional primitive and crude rural region which is really the home place he both loves and hates. They are known for the vivid description of the vicissitudes of people who live in an agricultural setting threatened by the forces of invading capitalism. His best local-colored works are his later ones, such as The Return of the Native, The May or of Casterbridge, Tess of the D’Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure. These works, known as “novels of characters and environment,” are the most representative of him as both a naturalistic and a critical realist writer. Hardy experienced a change

from being cheerful and optimistic to despairing and pessimistic in his writing career. Living at the turn of the century, Hardy is often regarded as a transitional writer. His writing shows the influence from both the past and the modern. As some people put it, he is intellectually advanced and emotionally traditional.

Influenced by Darwinism, Hardy believes that man?s fate is predeterminedly tragic, driven by a combined force of “nature”, both inside and outside. This pessimistic view of life predominates most of Hardy?s later works and earns him a reputation as a naturalistic writer. Though Naturalism seems to have played an important part in Hardy?s works, there is also bitter and sharp criticism and even open challenge of the irrational, hypocritical and unfair Victorian institutions, conventions and morals which strangle the individual will and destroy natural human emotions and relationships.

Hardy is not an analyst of human life or nature, but a meditative story-teller or romancer. He tells very good stories about very interesting people but seldom stops to ask why. He is a great painter of nature. His heroes and heroine, those unfortunate young men and women in their desperate struggle for personal fulfillment and happiness, are all vividly and realistically depicted. They are not only individual cases but also of universal truth. And

finally, all the works of Hardy are noted for the rustic dialect and a poetic flavor which fits well into their perfectly designed architectural structures. They are the products of a conscientious artist.

7. Critical realism was the main current in English novel in the middle of the 19th

century, an age which witnessed a great development in capitalist industry and commerce in England. Replacing the feudal aristocracy, the bourgeoisie had assumed ruling power. The working people lived in poverty and misery, and the conflict between labor and capital became the fundamental class contradiction in society. The working class movement made rapid progress in the forties of the century, finding expression in the mass movement of Chartism. Under the impetus of a cute class conflicts, progressive intellectuals voiced their dissatisfaction with capitalism in their essays and pamphlets. All this, together with the rich tradition of the realistic novel of the 18th century, helped to produce the English novel of critical realism in the 19th century.

The English realist novelists of the 19th century supplied a panoramic picture of the bourgeois society. They gave a biting exposure of the greed, hypocrisy and sordidness of the bourgeoisie. They also described the sufferings of the common people under capitalism. Their depth of interpretation and description pushed the art of novel-writing to new heights, hitherto not attained by the19th-century novelists.

Gorky once asserted the historical role of “the most out standing creators of critical realism”, saying: “All these are apostates, who have wandered from the fold of their class, noble men ruined by the bourgeoisie, or children of the petty bourgeoisie, who have escaped from the stifling atmosphere of their class. Books by members of this group of European writers have a double and indisputable value for us, first, as technically model works of literature, and second, as documents that

explain the rise and decline of the bourgeoisie, documents created by apostates to this class, who depict its way of life, traditions and acts from a critical angle.” (“On Literature”) The classist and of the critical realists has been pointed out by Gorky to be that of “the petty bourgeoisie, on the basis of liberal and humanitarian ideas”. Owing to this class limitation, the critical realists failed to find a correct answer to the solution of the social problems of their time. They usually tried to explain the social conflicts in terms of morality and ethics, and put forward peaceful reform and reconciliation as the way to solve acute class contradictions. Their great contribution to world literature lies chiefly in their exposure and criticism of the bourgeoisie and in their sympathetic description of the small, common people of the lower classes.

8. Tess of the D’Urbervilles is Hardy?s most famous novel, telling the tragic life story of a beautiful county girl, Tess Durbeyfield. Tess is the daughter of a poor villager. In her youth she is seduced by Alec D?Urbervilles, the son of an aristocrat. Tess gives birth to an illegitimate child who died soon after birth, thus scandalizing the narrow-minded people around her. So she leaves home and works at a distant farm as a dairymaid. There she meets Angel Clare, a clergyman?s son, who has broken with the traditions of his family to seek the ideal in a quiet rural life. The young people fall in love and are engaged to each other. On their wedding night, Tess confesses to Angel her previous misfortune. Angel, himself a sinner who has had some affair with a bad woman, will not take Tess for a victim, and abandons her. Soon he leaves for Brazil. Misfortune and hardship come upon poor Tess and her family. Her father dies and the whole family are threatened with starvation. Now Alec D?Urbervilles has become a preacher. Tess has made some pathetic appeals to Angel abroad but in vain, and Alec presses his attentions upon her. Angel, returning from Brazil and repentant of his harshness to Tess, finds her living with Alec. Maddened by this second wrong that has been done her by Alec, she murders him in a fit of despair. After hiding with Angel in a forest for a short time, Tess falls into the claws of law. She is arrested, tried and hanged. At the end of the story, the author writes sarcastically: “Justice was done, and the President of the Immortals had ended his sport with Tess.”

The whole story is filled with a feeling of dismal foreboding and doom. Fateful circumstances and tragic coincidences abound in the book. These do not, however, eclipse the chief message of the truthful portrayal of the tragic lot of a poor country girl mined by the bourgeois society, which alone is responsible for the miseries and sufferings of the small people whom Hardy described in his books.

Tess of the D’Urbervilles, together with Jude the Obscure, could be regarded as the summit of Hardy?s realism. Both novels were at first given a

hostile reception by the bourgeois public. The malicious criticism which they incurred discouraged the author to such an extent that Hardy ceased writing novels altogether. At the end of the nineties, almost at the age of sixty, Hardy turned entirely to poetry.

Ⅱ. Define the following terms.

1. English critical realism: English critical realism o f the 19th century flourished in the forties and in the early fifties. The critical realists described with much vividness and artistic skill the chief traits of the English society and criticized the capitalist system from a democratic view point. The greatest English realist of the time was Charles Dickens. With striking force and truthfulness, he pictures bourgeois civilization, showing the misery and sufferings of the common people. Another critical realist, William Makepeace Thackeray, was a no less severe exposer of contemporary society. Thackeray?s novels are mainly a satirical portrayal of the upper strata of society. Other adherents to the method of critical realism were Charlotte and Emily Bronte, and Elizabeth Gaskell. In the fifties and sixties the realistic novel as represented by Dickens and Thackeray entered a stage of decline. It found its reflection in the works of George Eliot. Though she described the life of the laboring people and criticized the privileged classes, the power of exposure became weaker in her works. She seemed to be more morally than socially minded. The English critical realists of the 19th century not only gave a satirical portrayal of the bourgeoisie and all the ruling classes, but also showed profound sympathy for the common people.

2. Victorian period: The era of Queen Victoria?s reign (1837~1901). The period is sometimes dated from 1832 (the passage of the first Reform Bill), a period of intense and prolific activity in literature, especially by novelists and poets, philosophers and essayists. Dramatists of any note are few. Much of the writing was concerned with contemporary social problems: for instance, the effects of the industrial revolution, the influence of the theory of evolution, and movements of political and social reform. The following are among the most not able British writers of the period: Thomas Carlyle, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Alfred Tennyson, Charles Darwin, W. M. Thackeray, Robert Browning, Edward Lear, Charles Dickens, Anthory Trollope, Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, Anne Bronte, George Eliot, John Ruskin, Matthew Arnold, George Meredith, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Christina Rossetti, William Morris, Samuel Butler, Swinburne, Thomas Hardy, Robert Louis Stevenson, Henry Arthur Jones, Oscar Wilde.

3. Autobiography: An account of a person?s life by him or herself. The term appears to have been first used by Southey in 1809. In Dr. Johnson?s opinion no man was better qualified to write his life than himself, but this is debatable. Memory may be unreliable. Few can recall clear details of their early life and most are therefore dependent on other people?s impressions, of necessity equally unreliable. Moreover, everyone tends to remember what he or she wants to remember. Disagreeable facts are sometimes glossed over or repressed, truth may be distorted for the sake of convenience or harmony and the occlusions of time may obscure as much as they reveal.

4. Regional novel:A regional writer is one who concentrates much attention on a particular area and uses it and the people who inhabit it as the basis for his or her stories. Such a locale is likely to be rural and or provincial. Once established, the regional novel began to interest a number of writers, and soon the regions described became smaller and more specifically defined. For example, the novels of Mrs.

Gaskell (1810~1865) and George Eliot (1819~1880) centered on the Midlands, and those of the Bronte sisters were set in Yorkshire. There were also “urban”or “industrial” novels, set in a particular town or city, some of which had considerable fame in the 19th century. Notable instances are Mrs. Gaskell?s Mary Barton (1848), Charles Dickens?s Hard Times(1854) and George Eliot?s Middlemarch (1871~1872).

5. Dramatic monologue: Dramatic monologue is a kind of poem in which a single fictional or historical character other than the poet speaks to a silent “audience” of one or more persons. Such poems reveal not the poet?s own thoughts but the mind of the impersonated character, whose personality is revealed unwittingly; this distinguishes a dramatic monologue from a lyric, while the implied presence of an auditor distinguishes it from a soliloquy. Major examples of this form in English are Tennyson?s “Ulysses” (1842), Browning?s “Fra Lippo Lippi” (1855), and T. S. Eliot?s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” (1917). Some plays in which only one character speaks, in the form of a monologue or soliloquy, have also been called dramatic monologues; but to avoid confusion it is preferable to refer to these simply as monologues or as monodramas.

6. Dramatization: The act of making a play out of a story in another genre, from a chronicle, novel, short story and so forth. In medieval drama the Bible was dramatized into the Mystery Plays. In the Tudor period dramatists “lifted”plots, stories, and ideas from historians like Plutarch and Holinshed, and novelists like Lodge and Nashe. But it was not until the 18th century that dramatization really began to flourish. Then novels provided the material. For example, Richardson?s Pamela, dramatized by James Dance, was extremely popular. There followed dramatization of novels by Mrs. Radcliffe, Alpole, Godwin, “Monk”Lewisand Clara Reeve. In the 19thcentury.DickensandScottweretheauthorsmostused; so were Lord Lytton, Charlotte Bronte, Charles Reade, Wilkie Collins, and many more. The arrival of a group of original dramatists towards the end of the century saved the theatre from this deadening activity. But it is a practice by no means extinct, as television and recent theatrical history amply demonstrate.

7. Disinterestedness: (In criticism) “Disinterestedness”is an important term in Matthew Arnold?s essay The Function of Criticism at the Present Time, first delivered as a lecture in1864 and later published in Essays in Criticism (1865). Arnold spoke of the need, in the study of all branches of knowledge, to see the object “as in itself it really is”. This depended on the attitude of the critic, which, in his view, ought to be objective and open-minded, a kind of involved detachment.

8. Idyll:Idyll is a short poem describing an incident of country life in terms of idealized innocence and contentment, or any such episode in a poem or prose work. The term is virtually synonymous with pastoral poem. The title of Tennyson?s Idylls of the King(1842~1885), a sequence of Arthurian romances, bears little relation to the usual meaning. Browning in Dramatic Idylls (1879~1880) uses the term in another sense, as a short self-contained poem.

9. Psychological novel: A vague term to describe that kind of fiction which is for the most part concerned with the spiritual, emotional and mental lives of the characters

and with the analysis of characters rather than with the plot and the action. Many novelists during the last two hundred years have written psychological novels. 10. The Pre-Raphaelites: Pre-Raphaelites is a group of English artists and writers of the Victorian period, associated directly or indirectly with the self-styled Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood of young artists founded in 1848 by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais, and William Holman Hunt.

The PRB (as it is usually abbreviated) rebelled against the conventional academic styles of painting modeled upon Raphael (1483～1520), seeking a freshness and simplicity found in earlier artists, along with a closer fidelity to Nature. The organized Brotherhood itself lasted only a few years, but Pre-Raphaelitism as a broader current survived in the paintings of Edward Burne-Jones, the designs of William Morris, and the art criticism of John Ruskin, as well as in the poetry of Christina Rossetti, D. G. Rossetti, Morris, and A. C. Swinburne—the last three being dubbed “The Fleshly School of Poetry”in a hostile review by Robert Buchanan (Contemporary Review, 1871). Pre-Raphaelite poetry is often characterized by dreamy medievalism, mixing religiosity and sensuousness, notably in D. G. Rossetti?s “The Blessed Damozel”(1850), Morris?s The Defence of Guenevere (1858), and Swinburne?s Poems and Ballads (1866).

11. Künstlerroman: A novel which has an artist (in any creative art) as the central character and which shows the development of the artist from childhood to maturity and later. In English literature the most famous example of a Künstlerroman is James Joyce?s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

12. Aestheticism: The term aesthetic has come to signify something which pertains to the criticism of the beautiful or to the theory of taste. An aesthete is one who pursues and is devoted to the “beautiful”in art, music and literature. And aestheticism is the term given to a movement, a cult, a mode of sensibility (a way of looking at and feeling about things) in the 19th century. Fundamentally, it entailed the point of view that art is self-sufficient and need serve no other purpose than its own ends. In other words, art is an end in itself and need not be (or should not be) didactic, politically committed, propagandist, moral or anything else but itself; and it should not be judged by any non-aesthetic criteria (e.g. whether or not it is useful).

13. Naturalism:Naturalism is a post-Darwinian movement of the late 19th century that tried to apply the”laws”of scientific determinism to fiction. The naturalist went beyond the realist?s insistence on the objective presentation of the details of everyday life to insist that the materials of literature should be arranged to reflect a deterministic universe in which a person is a biological creature controlled by environment and heredity. Major writers include Crane, Dreiser, Norris, and O?Neill in America; Zola in France; and Hardy and Gissing in England. Crane?s “The Blue Hotel” (1898) is perhaps the best example in this text of a naturalistic short story.

Ⅲ. Fill in the blanks.

1. The Pickwick Papers, Pickwick

2. David Copperfield

3. Common sense

4. The Snobs of England

5. George Eliot

6. workers; capitalists

7. The Millon the Floss8. Oliver Twist

9. novel https://www.wendangku.net/doc/9117071141.html,mon

11. Inner world, psycho-analytical 12. Emily Bronte

13.irony 14. London

15. English civilization, culture 16. High seriousness

17. History of England 18. Idylls of the King

19. Thomas Hardy 20. Barnaby Rudge

21. The May or of Casterbridge22. child, grotesque

23. Modern Painters24. Gothic architecture

25. women 26. middle-class

27. Children?s stories 28. inner struggle

29. mid-19th 30. Utopian fantasy

31. The Way of All Flesh32. Thomas Hardy

33. Alfred Tennyson, Robert Browning

34. traditional, modern 35. destiny

Ⅳ. Choose the best answer.

1. D

2. A

3. C

4. A

5. C

6. B

7. B

8. A

9. D 10. D

11. A 12. D 13. A 14. C 15. B

16. A 17. D 18. A 19. D 20. C

21. A 22. D 23. B 24. B 25. D

26. B 27. C 28. D 29. B 30. B

31. D 32. C 33. A 34. D 35. B

36. A 37. C 38. B 39. B 40. D

41. B 42. D 43. C 44. D 45. B

46. B 47.B 48.C

Ⅴ. Short-answer questions.

1. There are complicated narrative levels in Wuthering Heights. The main narrative is told by Nelly, Catherine?s old nurse, to Mr. Lockwood, a temporary tenant at Grange. The latter too gives an account of what he sees at Wuthering Heights. In the main narrative by Nelly inserts the sub-narrative told through Isabella?s letters to Nelly. While the central interest is maintained, the sequence of its development is constantly disordered by flashbacks. This makes the story all the more enticing and genuine.

2. Vanity Fair was published in 1847~1848 in monthly installments, showing a picture of the life of the ruling classes of England. The title was taken from Bunyan?s Pilgrim?s Progress. The following quotation from Bunyan?s allegory may show Thackeray?s opinion of the English bourgeois and aristocratic society, when he called his work “Vanity Fair”: The pilgrims in Bunyan?s work arrive at the city of Vanity, where they find Vanity Fair, that is, “ a fair, wherein should be sold all sorts of vanity .... Therefore at this fair are all such merchandise sold, as houses, lands, trades, places, honors, preferment, titles, countries, kingdoms, lusts, pleasures, and delights of all sorts, as whores, bawds, wives, husbands, children,

masters, servants, lives, blood, bodies, souls, silver, gold, pearls, precious stones, and what not” . The sub-title of the book, A Novel Without a Hero, suggests the fact that the writer?s intention was not to portray individuals, but the bourgeois and aristocratic society as a whole.

3. Browning?s principal achievement lies in his introducing to English poetry the dramatic monologue. He defined the feature of his poems as “though for the most part Lyric in expression, always Dramatic in principle, and so many utterances of so many imaginary persons, not mine”. “My stress”, he wrote, “lay on incidents in the development of a human soul.”

4.David Copperfield is one of Dickens?s best works. It was his own favorite. It is written in the first person and is the most autobiographical of all his books. In writing the novel, Dickens threw into it deep feelings and much of his own experience in his younger days. In the story of David?s miserable boyhood Dickens depicts his own sufferings as a child-laborer in a blacking factory. The novel was written at a time when his creative powers had reached their height. All this gives the book a combination of verisimilitude, familiarity and artistic maturity seldom met with in his other novels. That is why David Copperfield has been loved by so many, and especially by young readers.

5. (1) The story opens with the titular heroine, Jane Eyre, a plain little orphan.

(2) This novel sharply criticizes the existing society, e.g. the religious hypocrisy of

charity institutions such as Lowood School where poor girls are trained.

(3) The success of the novel is also due to its introduction to the English novel the

first governess heroine Jane Eyre.

6. The Egoist is generally accounted Meredith?s supreme masterpiece, and indeed in shapeliness of plot, in density of texture, in virtuosity of psychological analysis, and in the scintillation of the wit, the novel is an astonishing achievement. It traces the humbling of the arch-egotist, the insufferably conceited and yam gentleman, Sir Willoughby Patterne, whose search for the woman truly worthy to be his wife eventually lights upon Clara Middleton, the daughter of Dr. Middleton, a character modeled on Meredith?s father-in-law, Thomas Love Peacock. A notable study is that of the scholar Vernon Whitford, modeled on Leslie Stephen (1832~1904) in his younger days, which the reader will wish to compare with Mr. Ramsay, modeled on the older Leslie Stephen by his daughter Virginia Woolf in To the Lighthouse (1927). The central theme, the dissection and unmasking of arrogance, involves a good deal of acerbity, but Clara Middleton is an attractive character who thinks for herself, is conscious of women?s rights, and fiercely resistant to acceptance of Victorian feminine submissiveness.

7. “Heroes and Hero-Worship”was written by Carlyle to prove, with the help of portraits of heroes, his favorite view of history: “The History of the World is the Biography of Great Men.”According to him, history is merely the record of the thoughts and actions of heroes, and the quality of heroism can show itself in any sphere of human activity. Carlyle sums up history in six divisions: (1) The hero as Divinity, in which Odin, the supreme god in Northern mythology, is taken for example; (2) The Hero as Prophet, in which Mohammed is taken as the type; (3)

英国文学史及选读__期末试题及答案

考试课程：英国文学史及选读考核类型：A 卷 考试方式：闭卷出卷教师: XXX 考试专业：英语考试班级：英语xx班 I.Multiple choice (30 points, 1 point for each) select from the four choices of each item the one that best answers the question or completes the statement. 1._____，a typical example of old English poetry ,is regarded today as the national epic of the Anglo-Saxons. A.The Canterbury Tales B.The Ballad of Robin Hood C.The Song of Beowulf D.Sir Gawain and the Green Kinght 2._____is the most common foot in English poetry. A.The anapest B.The trochee C.The iamb D.The dactyl 3.The Renaissance is actually a movement stimulated by a series of historical events, which one of the following is NOT such an event? A.The rediscovery of ancient Roman and Greek culture. B.England’s domestic rest C.New discovery in geography and astrology D.The religious reformation and the economic expansion 4._____is the most successful religious allegory in the English language. A.The Pilgrims Progress B.Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners C.The Life and Death of Mr.Badman D.The Holy War 5.Generally, the Renaissance refers to the period between the 14th and mid-17th centuries, its essence is _____. A.science B.philosophy C.arts D.humanism 6.“So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,/So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.”(Shakespeare, Sonnets18)What does“this”refer to ? A.Lover. B.Time. C.Summer. D.Poetry. 7.“O prince, O chief of my throned powers, /That led th’ embattled seraphim to war/Under thy conduct, and in dreadful deeds/Fearless, endangered Heaven’s perpetual king”In the third line of the above passage quoted from Milton’s Paradise Los t, the phrase“thy conduct”refers to _____conduct. A.God’s B.Satan’s C.Adam’s D.Eve’s

英国文学史及选读 复习要点总结

《英国文学史及选读》第一册复习要点 1. Beowulf: national epic of the English people; Denmark story; alliteration, metaphors and understatements （此处可能会有填空，选择等小题） 2. Romance （名词解释） 3. “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”: a famous roman about King Arthur’s story 4. Ballad（名词解释） 5. Character of Robin Hood 6. Geoffrey Chaucer: founder of English poetry; The Canterbury Tales (main contents; 124 stories planned, only 24 finished; written in Middle English; significance; form: heroic couplet) 7. Heroic couplet (名词解释)8. Renaissance（名词解释）9.Thomas More——Utopia 10. Sonnet（名词解释）11. Blank verse（名词解释）12. Edmund Spenser “The Faerie Queene” 13. Francis Bacon “essays” esp. “Of Studies”（推荐阅读，学习写正式语体的英文文章的好参照，本文用词正式优雅，多排比句和长句，语言造诣非常高，里面很多话都可以引用做格言警句，非常值得一读） 14. William Shakespeare四大悲剧比较重要，此外就是罗密欧与朱立叶了，这些剧的主题，背景，情节，人物形象都要熟悉，当然他最重要的是Hamlet这是肯定的。他的sonnet也很重要，最重要属sonnet18。（其戏剧中著名对白和几首有名的十四行诗可能会出选读） 15. John Milton 三大史诗非常重要，特别是Paradise Lost和Samson Agonistes。对于Paradise Lost需要知道它是blank verse写成的，故事情节来自Old Testament，另外要知道此书theme和Satan的形象。 16. John Bunyan——The Pilgrim’s Progress 17. Founder of the Metaphysical school——John Donne; features of the school: philosophical poems, complex rhythms and strange images. 18. Enlightenment（名词解释） 19. Neoclassicism（名词解释） 20. Richard Steele——“The Tatler” 21. Joseph Addison——“The Spectator”这个比上面那个要重要，注意这个报纸和我们今天的报纸不一样，它虚构了一系列的人物，以这些人物的口气来写报纸上刊登的散文，这一部分要仔细读。 22. Steel’s and Addison’s styles and their contributions 23. Alexander Pope: “Essay on Criticism”, “Essay on Man”, “The Rape of Lock”, “The Dunciad”; his workmanship (features) and limitations 24. Jonathan Swift: “Gulliver’s Travels”此书非常重要，要知道具体内容，就是Gulliver游历过的四个地方的英文名称，和每个部分具体的讽刺对象; （我们主要讲了三个地方）“A Modest Proposal”比较重要，要注意作者用的irony 也就是反讽手法。 25. The rise and growth of the realistic novel is the most prominent achievement of 18th century English literature. 26. Daniel Defoe: “Robinson Crusoe”, “Moll Flanders”, 当然是Robinson Crusoe比较重要，剧情要清楚，Robinson Crusoe的形象和故事中蕴涵的早期黑奴的原形，以及殖民主义的萌芽。另外注意Defoe的style和feature，另外Defoe是forerunner of English realistic novel。 27. Samuel Richardson——“Pamela” (first epistolary novel), “Clarissa Harlowe”, “Sir Charles Grandison” 28. Henry Fielding: “Joseph Andrews”, “Jonathan Wild”, “Tom Jones”第一个和第三个比较重要，需要仔细看。他是一个比较重要的作家，另外Fielding也被称为father of the English novel. 29. Laurence Sterne——“Tristram Shandy”项狄传 30. Richard Sheridan——“The School for Scandal” 31. Oliver Goldsmith——“The Traveller”(poem), “The Deserted V illage” (poem) (both two poems were written by heroic couplet), “The Vicar of Wakefield” (novel), “The Good-Natured Man” (comedy), “She stoops to Conquer” (comedy),

2014-2015英国文学史及选读期末试题B

····································密························封························线································ 学生答题不得超过此线

····································密························封························线································ 学生答题不得超过此线

····································密························封························线································ 学生答题不得超过此线

班级_________________学号姓名考试科目英美文学史及作品选读【（1）】B卷闭卷共 5 页 学生答题不得超过此线····································密························封························线································

班级_________________学号姓名考试科目英美文学史及作品选读【（1）】B卷闭卷共 5 页 学生答题不得超过此线····································密························封························线································

(完整word版)吴伟仁--英国文学史及选读--名词解释

①Beowulf: The national heroic epic of the English people. It has over 3,000 lines. It describes the battles between the two monsters and Beowulf, who won the battle finally and dead for the fatal wound. The poem ends with the funeral of the hero. The most striking feature in its poetical form is the use if alliteration. Other features of it are the use of metaphors(暗喻) and of understatements(含蓄). ②Alliteration: In alliterative verse, certain accented(重音) words in a line begin with the same consonant sound(辅音). There are generally 4accents in a line, 3 of which show alliteration, as can be seen from the above quotation. ③Romance: The most prevailing(流行的) kind of literature in feudal England was the Romance. It was a long composition, sometimes in verse(诗篇), sometimes in prose(散文), describing the life and adventures of a noble hero, usually a knight, as riding forth to seek adventures, taking part in tournament(竞赛), or fighting for his lord in battle and the swearing of oaths. ④Epic: An epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significantly to a culture or nation. The first epics are known as primacy, or original epics. ⑤Ballad: The most important department of English folk literature is the ballad which is a story told in song, usually in 4-line stanzas(诗节), with the second and fourth lines rhymed. The subjects of ballads are various in kind, as the struggle of young lovers against their feudal-minded families, the conflict between love and wealth, the cruelty of jealousy, the criticism of the civil war, and the matters and class struggle. The paramount(卓越的) important ballad is Robin Hood(《绿林好汉》). ⑥Geoffrey Chaucer杰弗里.乔叟: He was an English author, poet, philosopher and diplomat. He is the founder of English poetry. He obtained a good knowledge of Latin, French and Italian. His best remembered narrative is the Canterbury Tales(《坎特伯雷故事集》), which the Prologue(序言) supplies a miniature(缩影) of the English society of Chaucer’s time. That is why Chaucer has been called “the founder of English realism”. Chaucer affirms men and women’s right to pursue their happiness on earth and opposes(反对) the dogma of asceticism(禁欲主义) preached(鼓吹) by the church. As a forerunner of humanism, he praises man’s energy, intellect, quick wit and love of life. Chaucer’s contribution to English poetry lies chiefly in the fact that he introduced from France the rhymed stanza of various types, especially the rhymed couplet of 5 accents in iambic(抑扬格) meter(the “heroic couplet”) to English poetry, instead of the old Anglo-Saxon alliterative verse. ⑦【William Langland威廉.朗兰: Piers the Plowman《农夫皮尔斯》】

英国文学史及选读第一册复习题.doc

History and Anthology of English Literature I Multiple Choices 1.The story of _________ is the culmination of the Arthurian romances. A.Sir Gawain and the Green Knight B. Beowulf C. Piers the Plowman D. The Canterbury Tales 2.Chaucer died on October 25th, 140(), and was buried in __________ ? A.Flanders B. France C. Italy D. Westminster Abbey 3?Utopia was written in the form of _________ ? A. prose B. drama C? essay D. dialogue 4.________ i s the leading figure of Metaphysical poetry. A. John Donne B. George Herbert C. Andre Marvell D. Henry Vaughan 5.________ i s not written by William Blake. A. The Marriage of Heaven and Hell B. Songs of Experience C. Auld Lang Syne D. Poetical Sketches 6."Some book are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested： This sentence is taken from __________ . A. Swifts A Modest Proposal B. Dickens\ Oliver l\vist C. Fielding 9s Tom Jones D. Bacon's Of Studies 7.Which poet is not the "Lake Poet"? A. William Wordsworth B. S. T. Coleridge C. Southey D. Keats 8.Generally, the Renaissance refers to the period between the 14th and mid-17th centuries, its essence is _________ ? A. Science B. Arts C. Philosophy D. Humanism 9.Romance, which uses verse or prose to describe the adventures and life of the knights, is the popular literary form in _________ . A? Romanticism B. Renaissance C. medieval period D? Anglo-Saxon period 10.Gothic novels are mostly stories of _________ , which take place in some haunted or dilapidated Middle Age castles? A.love and marriage B. sea adventures C. mystery and horror D. saints and martyrs II? The Houyhnhnms depicted by Jonathan Swift in Gull iver's Travels arc _______ ?A? horses that are endowed with reason B.pigmies that are endowed with admirable qualities C.giants that are superior in wisdom D.hairy, wild, low and despicable creatures, who resemble human beings not only in appearance but also in some other ways 12. John Milton's masterpiece 一Paradise Lost was written in the poetic style of ___________ ? A. rhymed stanzas B. blank verse C. alliteration D? sonnets 13? Which of the following has / have associations with John Donners poetry? A. reason and sentiment B. conceits and wits C. the euphuism D. writing in the rhymed couplet 14.Generally, the Renaissance refers to the period between the 14th and mid-17th centuries, its essence is

英国文学史及选读2017期末复习名词解释中英

名词解释 ENGLISH LITERATURE--DEFINITION OF TERMS 1 were passed down from generation to generation. 3) Robin Hood is a famous ballad singing the goods of Robin Hood. Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a 19th century English ballad. 2Critical Realism of the 19th century flourished in the forties and in the beginning of fifties.2)The realists first and foremost set themselves the task of criticizing capitalist society from a democratic viewpoint and delineated the crying contradictions of bourgeois reality. But they did not find a way to eradicate social evils.3) Charles Dickens is the most important critical realist. 3With the advent of the 18th century, in England, as in other European countries, there sprang into life a public movement known as the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment on the whole, was an expression of struggle of the then progressive class of bourgeois against feudalism. The social inequality, stagnation, prejudices and other survivals of feudalism. They attempted to place all branches of science at the service of mankind by connecting them with the actual deeds and requirements of the people. 启蒙主义：启蒙主义是在18世纪在英国发生的。总体上，启蒙主义是当时的资产阶级对封建主义，社会的不平等、死寂、偏见和其他的封建残余的一种反对。通过将科学的各个分支与人民的日常生活和需要联系起来，启蒙主义者们努力将他们变成为人民大众服务的工具 4-of-Consciousness” or “interior monologue”, is one of the modern literary techniques. It is the style of writing that attempts to imitate the natural flow of a character’s thoughts, feelings, reflections, memories, and mental images as the character experiences them. It was first used in 1922 by the Irish novelist James Joyce. Those novels broke through the bounds of time and space, and depicted vividly and skillfully the unconscious activity of the mind fast changing and flowing incessantly, particularly the hesitant, misted, distracted and illusory psychology people had when they faced reality. The modern American writer William Faulkner successfully advanced this technique. In his stories, action and plots were less important than the reactions and inner musings of the narrators. Time sequences were often dislocated. The reader feels himself to be a participant in the stories, rather than an observer. A high degree of emotion can be achieved by this technique.

英美文学史试题.docx

文档来源为 :从网络收集整理.word 版本可编辑 .欢迎下载支持. 台州学院外国语学院学年第学期 级英语本科专业《英国文学史及选读II 》期末试卷（11）( 闭卷 ) 题号分值得分姓名班级学号 考试时间 :120 分钟I II III IV V VI VII总分10101015201025100 I. Multiple choice . Choose the best out of the four. (10%=1*10) 1.The subject matters of Romanticism include the following But ____. A. strong-willed heroes B. mysticism C. moderation D. exotic pictures 2. “O, wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn’s being, ”is from____. A. Ozymandias B. Ode to the West Wind C. She Walks in Beauty D. The Isles of Greece 3.____is one of the Satanic“school ” poets. A. John Keats B. Percy Bysshe Shelley C. Leigh Hunt D. S. T. Coleridge 4.Dickens ’ first true novel is ____. A. David Copperfield B. Bleak House C. Oliver Twist D. Hard Times 5.The following novels are all written by Jane Austen Except. A. Pride and Prejudice B. Emma C. Mansfield Park D. Far from the Madding Crowd https://www.wendangku.net/doc/9117071141.html,wrence revealed Oedipus complex in his novel __________. A. Sons and Lovers B. For Whom the Bell Tolls C. The Sun Also Rises D. The Old Man and the Sea 7.____historical novel paved the path for the development of the realistic novel of the 19th century. A. Jane Austen’ s B. Walter Scott’Cs. Henry Fielding’ s D. Charles Lamb’ s 8.The title of Thackeray ’novels ____was borrowed from The Pilgrim s ’Progress by John Bunyan . A. The Roundabout Paper B. The Newcomers C. Vanity Fair D. The Four Georges 9.,which was written by Charlotte Bronte, is a poetic, imaginative story of the love of a young governess for her married employer . A. Wuthering Heights B. Jane Eyre C. The Professor D. Agnes Grey 10.___is considered to be the best-known English dramatist since Shakespeare, and his representative works are plays inspired by social criticism. A. Richard Sheridan B. Oliver Goldsmith C. Oscar Wilde D. Bernard Shaw II. True or False? Put a T before the statement if you think it is true and put an F if you think it is false.(10%=1*10) ____1. The glory of the Romantic Age lies in the prose of Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley and Keats. ____2.The Lakers include Byron, Shelley and Wordsworth . ____3.Childe Harold Pilgrimage made Byron famous overnight.

英国文学史及作品选读自测题1

Test Paper One Ⅰ. Identification. 1. Identify each on the left column with its related information on the right column. (1) Ernest Jones A. euphuism (2) Oscar Wilde B. Lake poet (3) John Lyly C. Chartist poetry (4) Robert Louis Stevenson D. tragedy (5) Robert Southey E. sentimentalism (6) George Eliot F. critical realism (7) Laurence Sterne G. art for art’s sake (8) Pamela H. Kunstlerroman (9) A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man I. epistolary novel (10) Macbeth J. neo-romanticism 2. Identify the author with his or her work. (1) Charles Dickens A. A Passage to India (2) E. M. Foster B. Paradise Regained (3) Virginia Woolf C. The Garden Party (4) John Milton D. Of Studies (5) Shelley E. Jonathan Wild the Great (6) Francis Bacon F. Jude the Obscure (7) Katherine Mansfield G. The Waste Land (8) Henry Fielding H. Hard Times (9) T. S. Eliot I. To the Lighthouse (10) Thomas Hardy J. Prometheus Unbound Ⅱ. Fill in the blanks. 1. was one of the most prominent of the 20th century English realistic writers. The Man of Property is one of his works. 2. As a literary figure, Stephen Dedalus appears in two novels written by . 3. Of Human Bondage is a naturalistic novel by , dealing with the story of a deformed orphan trying vainly to be an artist. 4. , T. S. Eliot’s most important single poem, has been hailed as a landmark and a model of the 20th century English poetry, comparable to Wordsworth’s Lyrical Ballads. 5. Henry James’ most famous short story is , a ghost story in which the question of childhood corruption obsesses governess. 6. The pessimistic view of life that p redominates most of Hardy’s later works earns him a reputation as a writer. 7. is regarded as the oldest poem in English literature. 8. The most famous English ballads of the 15th century is the Ballads of , a legendary outlaw. 9. The greatest and most distinctive achievement of Elizabethan literature is ________.

《英国文学史及选读》课程教学大纲

《英国文学史及选读》课程教学大纲 一．课程基本情况： 1．编号：01015065, 01015096 (翻译方向)； 02015055,02015106 (教育方向) 2．层次与学制：本科, 四年制 3．总学时：68 4．学期与周学时：第五，六学期；周学时: 2 5．学分：2 6．执笔人：夏丹 二、课程性质与任务： 本课程为英语（翻译，教育方向）专业必修课。 该门课程在英语专业人才培养中旨在使学生从英国历史、语言、文化发展的角度，掌握英国文学各个时期的主要文学、文化思潮，文学流派，主要作家及其代表作，同时帮助学生对英国文学的发展有深刻的了解和认识，并通过介绍一些最基本的文化理论和批评方法，对部分在思想上艺术上有代表性，有影响的作家及作品进行分析、导读，增强学生对英国文学的形成和发展的理解，提高他们对文学作品的鉴赏能力和文学修养。 三、课程的基本要求 1．课程的要求：学完本课程，学生应该掌握如下能力： ①对于英国文学史有整体性的把握； ②掌握分析和鉴赏文学作品的能力； ③独立完成千字左右的文学作品评析的英文论文； ④掌握文学概念和相关文学流派的专业知识。 2．质量标准：在第五学期完成英国文学史中从中古时期到启蒙时期的文学流派及相关作家，完成两篇以上的英文作品分析论文；第六学期完成从浪漫主义时期到现代主义文学相关内容的学习，并整体把握整个英国文学史的脉络，完成三篇以上的英文作品分析论文。同时检验学生是否了解、认识英国文学各个时期的主要文化、文学流派、主要作家及其代表作品，了解英国文学的发展历史，并能够用最基本的文化理论和批评方法，理解、分析文学作品，提高文学鉴赏力、语言表达能力，提高文学修养。 四、课程内容与学时分配 第五学期： 第一章序言 (2 学时) 使学生对英国文学史和主要流派具有提纲挈领的认识。 第二章中古世纪时期（2学时） 使学生掌握英国文学的起源及其形式和主要代表作品 第三章杰弗里?乔叟 (2学时)

英国文学史及选读试题及答案

英国文学史及选读试题 Ⅰ. Multiple Choice（1′×20=20分） 1.______ was respected as “father of English poetry” and one of the greatest narrative poets of England. A.William Shakespeare B. Geoffrey Chaucer C. John Milton D.John Donne 2.In terms of influence upon England, ____ brought French civilization and French language to England. A. Anglo-Saxons B. Romans C. Anglo-Normans D. Teutons 3. According to Thomas More, “it was a time when sheep devoured men”. It refers to____. A. Industrialization B. Religious Reformation C. Commercial Expansion D. Enclosure Movement 4. It was ____who introduced sonnet into English literature. A. Thomas Wyatt B. William Shakespeare C. Edmund Spenser D. Philip Sidney 5. Which of the following is NOT Shakespeare’s tragedies? A. Hamlet B. King Lear C. The Merchant of Venice D. Othello 6. In 1649 ____ was beheaded. England became a commonwealth under the leadership of Oliver Cromwell. A.James I B. Henry VIII C. Elizabeth I D. Charles I 7. Which comment on John Donne is wrong? A. He is the leading figure of metaphysical poetry. B. His poetry is characterized by mysticism and peculiar conceit. C. John Donne usually employs traditional and regular poetic form. D. His attitudes toward love are both positive and negative. 8. Friday in The Adventuous of Robinson Crosue can be termed as EXCEPT____. A. a kind-hearted person B. a person with colonial mind C. a smart person D. a friendly person 9. Thomas Gray is the representative of _____. A. Sentimentalism B. Pre-Romanticism C. Romanticism D. English Renaissance 10. William Blake’s ____is a lovely volume of poems, presenting a happy and innocent world, though not without its evils and sufferings. A.Poetical Sketches B. The Book of Thel C. Songs of Experience D. Songs of Innocence 11. ____, the national peasant poet in Scotland, and his poem____ shows his passionate love for his Beloved. A.William Blake, Lodon B. William Wordsworth, I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud C. Robert Burns, A Red, Red Rose D. Robert Burns, Auld Lang Syne 12. English Romanticism begins with____ and ends with____. A. the publication of Lyrical Ballads, John Keats’s death B. French Revolution, Walter Scott’s death C. the publication of Lyrical Ballads, Walter Scott’s death D. Industrialization, John Keats’s death 13. ____ are named as Lake Poets and Escapist Romanticists. A. Wordsworth, Shelley and Keats B. Wordsworth, Byron and Shelley C. Wordsworth, Coleridge and Shelley D. Wordsworth, Coleridge and Southey 14. Which of the following statement is NOT correct? A. Romantic literature is decidely an age of poetry. B. Dramma was fully developed during the Romantic period. C. The general feature is a dissatisfaction with the bourgeoise society. D. Romanticists paid great attention to the spiritual and emotional life of man.Personified nature plays an important role in the pages of their works. 15. ____ was the founder of the novel which deals with unimportant middle class people and of which there are many fine examples in latter English fiction.