William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863)

This author was born in Calcutta, where his father was employed in the East India company. When he was 6, he was sent to England and was educated at Charter-house school. Then he studied at Trinity College Ireland and then at Cambridge. He spent some month in Weimar studying art. In search of a career he began to read for the bar (jurisdiction). But he didnt find law much to his taste. Later he studied drawing and became an able droughts-man (шаржист). He even published a collection of satirical drawings "Zephyr" (1836).

Thackeray started his literary career as a journalist writing stories, reviews and art criticism. The first major book attracted attention was “The Book of Snobs”, which deals with the upper classes and their ardent (passionate) followers in the middle classes. The book draws a gallery of English snobs of different circles of English society. A snob according to Thackeray is a person who bows down to and flatters his social superior and looks down with contempt (презирать) on his social inferior. In the book the author declares war on snobbery, vanity and selfishness. It is no surprise that the book of snobs was follower by and even sharper devoted to the same thing

“The Vanity Fair” (Ярмарка тщеславия). A Novel without a Hero - considered to be the pick of social realism.

The novel tells of the fates of 2 girls with sharply contrasting characters, Becky Sharp and Amelia Sedley. Amelia is a sweet honest, naive young girl, representing virtue without wit. Her friend Rebecca Sharp is clever, talented, charming, energetic girl, representing wit without virtue. Neither of the girls can be regarded as a heroine of the novel. Becky has neither real feeling nor honest aims. Amelia is too intelligent naive and simple hearted to understand qualities of the people surrounding her.

Vanity Fair was followed by “The History of Pendennis” (1848) and “The Newcomers” (1855). The novels of the later period of Thackerays creative activity are “Henry Esmond” and “The Virginians”, displaying his preoccupation with the social problems of that time.

The Bronte Sisters

There were 3 Bronte novelists in England: Charlotte (1816-1865), Emily (1818-1848), Ann (1820-1849). Their father was a clergyman. They received their education at a charity school and worked as governesses (гувернантки) most of the time. The life of the sisters was very hard and they tried to decorate it by the world of imagination. The decision to become writers was a difficult one for the sisters because at that time a female writer had to suffer a lot of troubles when it came to the publication of her works. Their first volume of verse was published under the masculine pseudonym, Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell (1846).

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Charlotte Bronte first attempt at prose was “The Professor” (1847). First it was rejected by the publishers but after the publication of her second novel “Jane Eyre” (1847). This book was also admitted by the publisher and the public. In 1849 she published “Shirley” about the life of workers at the time of Luddites movement.

The last novel was “Vilette” (1853), which contains a realistic description of her personal experiences at a boarding school in Brussels.

In her works Charlotte combined scenes from her own life with her far reacher and more romantic imagination. The main subject of her books is a soul of a woman a governess or a teacher. Her heroines are generous, intelligent, modest and gentle. She mostly attacks greed, lack of culture of the bourgeoisie. She also sympathizes with the workers and the peasants.

Emily Bronte's “Wuthering Heights” (Грозовой перевал) is a novel of passion. It is considered to be one of the most successful in early psychological novels. The central characters Heathcliff and Cathy live out their passion in the windy countryside of Yorkshire. The landscape in the book is as wild as the relationship between the characters. The novel in general presents a new view of women and their emotions. She skillfully shows the reader the evolution of character, psychology of people, deep moral and social conflicts and human weaknesses.

Anne Bronte is known for her “Agnes Grey” and “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall” (1848). Her works are also prominent for their unusual central female character and involvement of complex relationship between the characters and complicated problems between the classes of society.

The Beginning of the Modern Literature