Discussion. 1. In the minds of many, Queen Victoria personified the spirit of nineteenth-century England

I. Prove:

1. In the minds of many, Queen Victoria personified the spirit of nineteenth-century England.

2. By the middle of the nineteenth century, England dominated the world.

3. The tension between financial growth and social instability in Victorian England affected its literature.

4. Ideas and values had shifted.

II. Explain:

1. What did England's world power grow out of?

2. How did the middle class charge?

3. Why was literature important?

III. Discuss the ways social changcs can affect literature.

IV. Speak about:

1) the difference between treating social problems by poets and novelists;

2) the early Victorian literature;

3) the Victorian poets;

4) the leading late Victorian novelists;

5) the development of English drama at the end of the Victorian Age.

Extension

V. In a short essay express your opinion on the importance of literature during the years of social instability in the country.

7.2. Jane Austen Jane Austen (1775—1817), is usually considered the first great female novelist. She was born in Stevcnton, in Hampshire, En- gland. Her father was a well-to-do clergyman, and she received more education than most women of her time. Although she began writing as a girl and her family encouragcd her work, she did not publish until late in her life. Four of her six novels had been pub­lished, and she was winning wider recognition, when she died.

Jane Austen's works slowly became established as «classics». «Pride and Prejudice» (1813) and «Emma» (1816) arc probably her most famous books, but «Northanger Abbey» (1818), «Mansfield Park» (1814), «Sense and Sensibility» (1811), and «Per­suasion» (1818) arc also popular.

Austen's novels are set in her own upper middle-class English country environment. They all center on a young heroine and end in a happy marriage. The plots depend little on coincidence or ex­citing events. Instead, the author shows how much meaning and drama can result from misunderstood feelings, the neglect of social obligations, and ordinary human weaknesses. Her dry humor and witty elegance of expression delight even readers who find her sub­ject matter rather restricted. Austen's literary skill and moral un­derstanding convert her novels into something much greater than they at first seem.