Answer the Questions. 1. Owing to what did Tennyson earn his high position in literature?

1. Owing to what did Tennyson earn his high position in literature?

2. When and where was he born?

3. What university did he study at?

4. Was he a popular poet?

5. What kind of life did he lead?

6. Where did Tennyson's influential place in the intellectual life of his age come from?

7. What are the most characteristic features of his descriptions of nature?

8. What is Tennyson's best work?

9. Tennyson's lyrics perfectly express emotion and experiences shared by all people, don't they?

10. What was Tennyson's most characteristic form of poetry?

7.5. William Makepeace Tiiackeeay William Makepcace Thackeray (1811—1863), was one of

the great novelists of the English Victorian Age. His «Vanity Fair» is one of the finest and best-known novels in English literature. Thackeray wrote in a colorful, lively style, with a simple vocab­ulary and clearly structured sentences. These qualities, combined with his honest view of life give him an important place in the history of realistic literature.

Early career. Thackcray was bom in Calcutta, India. In 1817, he was sent to England to live with relatives and begin his educa­tion. He later looked back on his school years with mingled affec­tion and dislike. Said Thackeray, «I have the same recollection of Greek in youth that I have of castor oil». He entered Trinity Col­lege, Cambridge University, in 1829. No great scholar, he left after a year and a half to travel abroad.

Thackeray had trouble finding a career. He studied law for a short time, and went to art school in Paris. Meanwhile, he had spent his inheritance, losing part of it to professional gamblers. To make a modest living he turned to writing book reviews, stories, and sa­tirical sketches for magazines.

In 1836, Thackeray married Isabella Shawe. She became men­tally ill following the birth of their third daughter in 1840. This tragedy affected Thackeray's natural good humor, making him lonely and depressed. But he needed money more than ever, and he continued turning out articles and stories.

Most of Thackeray's early writings were humorous, and were published under such ridiculous pen names as Michael Angelo Titmarsh. In 1848, he published «The Book of Snobs», a collection of his magazine writings.

Later career. Thackeray ensured his fame with «Vanity Fair» (1847—1848), probably his best novel. Like most of his books, it was first published in monthly parts. The novel traces the fortunes of upper-middlc-class Londoners of the early 1800's.

Thackeray called «Vanity Fair» «a novel without a hero», in keeping with his belief that most people are a mixture of the heroic and the ridiculous. He knew that men and women are complex, and he avoided oversimplifying them. He wrote with affection about kind and gentle Amelia Sedley. But he also called Amelia «a silly little thing». Becky Sharp, more clearly the «heroine», is selfish, cunning, and cynical. Becky is never bitter, however, and readers enjoy seeing her good-naturedly defeat people who are even less admirable than she.

The novel «Pendcnnis» (1848—1850) is partly autobiographi­cal. It has the mellow, reflective quality that colors much of Thackeray's writing.

«Henry Esmond» (1852) is set in England in the early 1700's, a period that Thackeray loved. The book describes the loves and ad­ventures of Esmond, who narrates the book. Henry is also only «part hero». Although well meaning, he is given to pious moraliz­ing, which sometimes makes him a most unheroic bore.

«The Newcomes» (1853—1855) is the complex story of three generations of the Newcome family. Ethel Newcome is one of Thackerays finest characters. She has gentleness and sympathy,

but also inlclligencc and spirit. Thackcray's later novels show the diminished energy of an author who was ill and tired.

Thackeray's view of life. Thackeray disliked people who were unduly impressed by birth and rank. His skillful ridicule of snobs and hypocrites is even evident amid the broad humor of his early works. His realistic temperament enabled him to see and satirize inconsistencies in life. He once said of one of his characters that he «failed somehow in spite of a mediocrity which ought to have ensured any man a success». Thackeray knew that rogues sometimes do well while the innocent suffer, and that virtuous people can be dull and rascals lively. Such ironic twists in his books were misunderstood by some people, who accused him of being cynical.

Others complained that Thackeray's writings were sentimental. For example, he seemed to admire womanhood as an abstract ide­al. When he wrote about young ladies who were gentle and affec­tionate but perhaps not very bright, he sometimes fell into a style of adoration. But his deep honesty made him show, at the same time, how these sentimental people were often stupid and dull. His crit­ics often fail to see that Thackeray really hated cruelty and greed, and admired goodness and warm-heartedness.