English novel of the early 20th century

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English novel of the early 20th century Rudyard Kipling Arnold Bennet Joseph Conrad Henry James

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Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) “the bard of imperialism” Kim The Jungle Book

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Arnold Bennet (1867-1931) Under the influence of Zola and Flaubert,Bennett writes his novels in the manner of naturalism. The Old Wives’ Tale

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Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) One of the most original novelists of theearly 20th century The Heart of Darkness Lord Jim

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Henry James (1843-1916) A forerunner of the “stream ofconsciousness” literature.

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a forerunner of the “stream of consciousness” literature

For the old form of introducing anddescribing the characters in a story James substituted a gradual unfolding of characters by means of touches of their mental activities. He is regarded as a forerunner of the “stream of consciousness” literature.

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His ThemeHis fundamental theme was the innocence of the New World (i.e. America) and the corruption (and wisdom) of the Old (i.e. Europe), shown by the contrast and clash of American and European characters. Many of his characters are Americans living in Europe, or “the innocent abroad”, whose mental adventures in various forms are depicted in his representative works, as Daisy Miller, The Portrait of a Lady, The Wings of the Dove, The Ambassadors, and The Golden Bowl.

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William Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) Of the Human Bondage The Moon and Sixpences

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His Masterpieces His partially autobiographical novel Of HumanBondage (1915) is generally acknowledged as his masterpiece and is one of the best realistic English novels of the early 20th century The Moon and Six Pence (1919) is a story of the conflict between the artist and conventional society, based on the life of the French painter Paul Gauguin;

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Maugham His novels and short stories arecharacterized by great narrative facility, simplicity of style, and a disillusioned and ironic point of view.

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A Friend in Need Maugham, the famous British short writer, showsus how powerful contrast is in delineating a person’s character. When contrasts abound, it is

hard for readers to easily predict what will happen next.

Almost the entire Part two is devoted to thedescription of Edward Burton’s kindly appearance and pleasant manners. Neither the “I” in the story nor readers could imagine him hurting a fly. Yet in Part Three Burton recounts cold-bloodedly how he destroyed a human life.

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Narration Part One and Part Two are narrated by “I”,who offers his subjective opinion of Burton’s character. Yet in Part Three Burton himself takes over the narration to tell what happened between him and a friend in trouble. He sounds cool and objective; just because of this he is shown to be so vicious and so cold-blooded.

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Questions Does the title “A Friend in Need” help bringout the theme of the story? Do you think there is some truth in the saying “You can’t ju

dge a book by looking at its cover”?