English 333
The English Novel: Early and Middle 19th Century

Course Introduction

Welcome to English 333, The English Novel: Early and Middle Nineteenth Century. Imagine yourself as an American at the portal of a very old castle or cathedral somewhere in Europe—say, for instance, England. You're waiting for the official guide. You see him; he does not look much younger than the building he stands beside. He crushes a carefully pinched cigarette butt under his heel, trudges up to you, and draws in his breath once more for yet another tour. Together you step into the beautiful past. You gape at stained glass; he rattles on about names and dates and makes a few claims for the primacy of the place, though he barely glances at it.

May I say, that's not us. For one thing, I don't smoke. For another, I'm still gaping. I've probably read each novel in this course—cover to cover—ten to fifteen times since I was a freshman, 40 years ago. I'm still dazzled and I'm often surprised. I've also studied the history of this period pretty thoroughly; yet I'm still perplexed by many of its twists and turns and what it has to say to us more than a century after it all happened.

So, we may not be the innocent American and the weary guide, but there is much in a course like this that reminds me of travel. For one thing, you'll get lost from time to time. What we're calling the "Online Course Guide" will help you get your bearings. It indicates the major sights, why they were selected, and what you should expect to do at every stop. But my function, of course, goes beyond the function of the Course Guide that simply prepares you for the journey. I'm here for the whole trip, and whenever you get lost in the text, if what I've written just doesn't make sense, or when you're not lost but found, and have a private revelation, let me know. To obtain information about how to contact me, follow the link on the syllabus to the "About the Instructor" page.

Course Objectives

Upon completion of this course, I hope you will:

• know more about British fiction in the first half of the nineteenth century, especially in reference to our four authors;
• understand more about British social history and culture of the first half of the nineteenth century;
• better analyze prose fiction through close reading for its main elements of plot, character, theme, point of view, and imagery;
• feel increasingly able to write a clear, persuasive argument using texts as a basis for proof; and
• want to read more!

About the Online Environment

Your online course offers several advantages to the traditional classroom, including the comprehensive Online Student Handbook, the ability to communicate electronically with students and with your instructor, and links to a rich array of online resources.

Online Student Handbook

This handbook answers questions about your online learning course, such as how to purchase your text, schedule an exam, obtain a transcript, and get technical help if you need it. The handbook also provides additional resources, such as how to order books or journals from the library and how to study for an online course.

Communication with Your Instructor and Student Peers

• Online Discussion Forums, designed by the University of Washington award winning Catalyst team, allow you to communicate with other currently enrolled students and with your instructor. We encourage you to use the discussion forum to exchange ideas, resources, and comments about your course work with other students in this course. This unstructured forum is monitored by your instructor.
• You can use e-mail to ask me a question or preferably post your question on the discussion forum. I will reply to all discussion forum questions on the forum, and to e-mail questions via e-mail.

Online Resources

As an online student, you have access to a wealth of Web resources compiled to provide fast, easy access to information that supports your online learning experience. Organized by subjects, Online Resources link you to sites with help for writing and research, study skills, language learning, and library reference materials. All links have been assessed for credibility and reliability, and they are regularly monitored to ensure their usability.

Scope of the Course

The material for the course is not a castle, nor a cathedral, but a short stack of novels written in England between 1815 and 1860—explosive times. 1815, Waterloo: The outer limit of the French Revolution and an early assertion of English imperial muscle. The Industrial Revolution is in full swing, always first and foremost in England. 1848: A new outburst of revolution all over Europe, only slightly more subdued in England. The Chartists deliver their last massive petition in London where Karl Marx is busily writing his famous Manifesto. By 1860 England had fought the Crimean War (1854-5), Charles Darwin had published his Origin of Species and J. S. Mill his On Liberty (both 1859). Our job is to learn as much as we can about the novels themselves, how they work as fiction, and how they emerge from what is generally called an Age of Revolution—political, social and industrial.

This course is an upper-division course, and I have certain expectations about your familiarity with close reading, literary terms, and writing academic papers. However, I have included in the course some general reviews of key concepts that should not be entirely new to you. These include the major elements of prose fiction—plot, character, theme, imagery, point of view—and some of the important characteristics of good academic essays—responsiveness, thesis, support, as well as a "readable style." The course assumes you have a general background in these skills and it intends to hone these. If analyzing fiction or writing academic papers is new to you, or if you feel you need more than the review provided in this course, don't hesitate to let me know—either in the student information sheet you turn in at the beginning of the course, by e-mail or by phone.

Choice of Texts

It is safe to say that England in the nineteenth century had, over the years, printed and distributed more literature than all other periods in the entire world up to that time. Selection isn't easy, but I have tried to pick books and authors that are among the best and most representative of this period. The fact that three of our four authors are women does not represent a twenty–first–century bias but rather, a nineteenth–century reality. In addition to quality and representation, I have identified novels that, I believe, speak to each other even when they seem to differ in theme, imagery, character, and plot. The way novels of a period speak to each other is how we get to know a period and its particular spirit. Frankenstein is a gothic fantasy set in the all but unvisitable fringes of Europe; Great Expectations guided its first readers into the recent and memorable past and through a familiar geography in and around modern London, and yet Dickens finds in the fantasy of Frankenstein a usable model for his brand of social realism.

The first two novels, Emma and Frankenstein, while written at about the same time, are very different from one another—unless you want to say that Emma's bungled effort to make (and influence) friends resembles the equally misbegotten effort of young Frankenstein to make . . . a friend. What appears to be most distinct about the two early novels—that is, the difference between social satire and gothic romance—will feed equally the fiction that would follow toward the end of this period. Austen's as well as Charlotte Brontë's novels are both, in part at least, about the obligation of unprotected young women named Jane to get work as governesses in English country houses. However, in Jane Eyre we see the same demonic elements that drive Frankenstein to the North Pole invade the otherwise comfortable interior of one of those country houses. While Emma and Jane Eyre center themselves in rural England, south and north, Dickens (in Great Expectations) turns the attention of British fiction to the newly enlarged city and describes the very process by which it was enlarged—to a great extent by migration from the smaller towns and the countryside. Here I am suggesting a thematic rationale behind my choices; as we enter into close reading we will see that both common idiom and diversity govern the style of the early nineteenth –century novel.

There are many excellent modern editions of all of these texts. Although I am inclined to use the most recent Penguin editions, you should feel free to use any available edition. Indicate your choice under "Work Cited" at the end of your essays, and include chapter and page numbers in parentheses after any quotation. Nineteenth century novels were often divided into three "volumes" or "books" and I will preserve this distinction in my "Reflections." I will cite only volume and chapter numbers—but not page numbers—to help you find passages in any edition.

Lessons

Each lesson is devoted to an entire novel. I have divided each lesson into sections following the model of the two or three volume nineteenth-century novel. That is how they were distributed, in separately bound volumes that could be passed around the family in a way that permitted both easy handling and multiple readership. You can imagine the Victorian household in which sibling rivalry takes this form: "Are you about done with Volume 2, Mistress Snail!" Keep these divisions in mind because each volume tends to develop a shape of its own. In other words, the format could dictate the shape of the fiction, leaving the reader with small climaxes and new problems to solve in the next volume. Dickens typically distributed his novels in much shorter monthly sections followed by the publication of single volumes, some very large. Many modern editions show these divisions.

Every lesson begins with a short introduction in which I try to link the novel and novelist you are about to read to the subject of the previous lesson. Here you will find biographical details, though beyond that I make few appeals to the private lives of our authors. Every section after the introduction begins with study questions (see "Hints For How to Study") which are followed by my "reflections." I chose this word because they are neither lectures nor finished essays but rather a sequence of linked fragments, the journal entries of an experienced reader. I stress my experience not to pull rank but to remind you, for instance, that I know how the novels end (though I try not to reveal that along the way). Also, I am drawing on my experience in order to make connections, recognize shared themes, and pare down data. Another reason for calling my contribution "reflections" is that your ideas bounce off mine as our shared experience grows and we produce further reflections that neither of us would have achieved alone.

Assignments and Examination

There are five main assignments in the course: four essays and one examination. Each set of "Reflections" ends with suggested paper topics. You may wish to alter a particular question in the direction of your analysis; in that case it would be a good idea to try me out with a short statement of your thesis. That way I'll know your point of departure, and I might be able to help. The four papers will focus on specific texts; the final examination will be comprehensive in its range. It will give you a chance to think over the entire course. The final exam will include two essays questions. By way of preparation you will be shown a model exam meant to cover the first two novels. You can use that as a study guide to prepare for the final.

For each assignment there will also be small preliminary assignments. These smaller assignments serve a few functions: they let me know you and I are on the same track; they give you and me a chance to interact in a less "formal" way than the essays or exams; also, they allow me to give you credit for intermediary steps in the course.

Guidelines for Submitting Assignments

All essays should be typed in an easily readable font and point (size), and double-spaced, with adequate margins for comments (one inch is fine). Your name and the assignment number should appear on the top of each page. All assignments should be sent to me through e-mail as Word attachments. Please do not submit more than one assignment at a time: each step of the course is intended to be cumulative, and I would like you to have comments on your writing for one essay before you move to the next. (This does not mean you shouldn't start the next novel once you've submitted the essay for the previous one.)

Criteria for Grading

The breakdown for grading the whole course is as follows:

• Preliminary assignments: 20%
• Four essays: 15%
• Final exam: 20%

. . . all of which should add up to 100%. The points for the preliminary assignments you get just for showing up—any feedback I give on these assignments is not reflected in the grade. The essays and exams, however, are evaluated and graded accordingly. Besides all my comments, there will be a grade that sits somewhere from 0.0 to 4.0. I take grades seriously—as a way to communicate with you. They are a way for me to let you know how your performance rates in relation to other students, past and present, who've taken this course. They are also a means of letting you know how well you've communicated your ideas. I will never grade you down because I disagree with your idea, as long as you have carefully argued your point. If you can muster creditable evidence, you may say anything with impunity.

The following is how I understand the meaning behind the numbered grades in relation to writing:

4.0-3.6: The best writing to be found at the college-level. The writing is clear, ordered, easy to understand. There is a central thesis, which is cogent and interesting, and responds to the assignment. All ideas are supported by well-chosen evidence from the text under discussion, and the writing anticipates the reader's questions. The authorial voice is engaged and lively, and displays an ease and facility with verbal expression. There are no, or very few, errors of spelling, grammar or typing.

3.5-3.0: Good, respectable college writing. The central idea or thesis is clear and strong, and there is good evidence presented to support it. There may be one or two flaws that weaken the argument, (e.g. in the order of ideas presented or in the evidence chosen), but these flaws do not critically impede the flow of argument. There may be some errors of spelling or grammar, but not so many that meaning is interrupted or impeded.

2.9-2.5: Average, if not distinguished, college writing. There is a central thesis, and an attempt to support it with appropriate texts has been made. The argument may not be strong, but it is clear enough to follow. There may be some problems with spelling or grammar, and problems of structure. If the paper does not shine throughout, there are moments of clarity, which make the reading worthwhile.

2.4-2.0: A bit below the average for college writing. The central idea of the paper may not be clear, or the evidence may not seem appropriate. There may be a lot of spelling, grammar, or typing mistakes. Writing at this level can still be "passable" if some understanding of the literary text is evident.

Hints for How to Study

Each novel will be broken down into sections. You will find "Preliminary tasks and questions for further thought" for each part preceding my reflections for that section. I recommend you read the questions before you read, and formulate your answers before reading my thoughts. These study questions are not meant to be exhaustive—they will not cull every bit of meaning out of the novel. Rather, they are meant to aid you in becoming an active reader, thinking through the information presented (and perhaps what remains unsaid). If you take the time to answer these questions carefully and jot down the page numbers of supportive texts, you will have a very good base from which to write a paper or study for a test.

Everyone has a different style for reading actively. Some people write little notes in the margin or at the top of the page: the benefit of this is that it is easy to go back and find a passage you selected as being important. Some prefer to write notes on separate pieces of paper: the benefit here being more space to do more thinking. Whichever appeals to you—unless you have photographic memory—you will need to read with a pencil in your hand to jot down ideas, page numbers, and questions. If you don't do this, chances are you'll have to read the whole text again when it comes to writing the paper or studying for the exam.

Show your talent for active readership in your reading of my reflections. Note and highlight the themes that seem to recur and try to add your own. My tendency to organize ideas around fragmentary quotations should suggest the dependence of ideas on the evidence of the text. You needn't use the exact model but do use the hint: the proof is in the text.

This course is normally taught in a twelve week quarter. That leaves three weeks to read each novel, and write a paper and take the exam. I highly recommend you take this as a model and make a study calendar now (there is a calendar included in the syllabus materials to help you plan your time). Any one of these texts could be studied for a year or more, its depths appreciated and meanings culled. But this degree of mastery is not required for the completion of this course. You are simply expected to read the texts through once, do some thinking, and mine enough meaning from them to produce an essay or respond to an exam.

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