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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Beryl Margaret Bainbridge is one of the highly influential British novelists in the contemporary British literature. She is probably the most widely recognized living woman writer in Great Britain. Her novels have wide range of subjects. Beginning writing at the age of just nine, she has become the Dame of British Empire. She has tried to portray middle-class and lower-middle-class morality in her novels. She is an entertaining and insightful observer of human condition. Beryl Bainbridge falls in the category of the realistic writers. She has enormous respect for the objects, particularly those with the past. Her earlier works deal with her own childhood experiences in Liverpool countryside whereas her later writings deal with some of the great historical figures. Her autobiographical writings are quite entertaining. As a result she has been recognized as one of the assets of Great Britain.

A] LIFE-SKETCH OF BERYL BAINBRIDGE: Beryl Margaret Bainbridge was bom on November 21, 1934 in i Liverpool, England to Winifred Baines and Richard Bainbridge. Beryl’s childhood was decidedly unhappy. Her father was a 2

commercial traveller, who went in eventual bankruptcy. Her mother had married him years before when he was wealthy. Beryl’s mother lived her life in a romantic fashion. There was a continual state of quarrelsome atmosphere in the family. As a result Beryl was irritated by the unstable and unhealthy atmosphere at home. She used to escape to the shore to get relief from the rigid interrelations at home. She didn’t get love and affection from her parents in her childhood days. When Beryl was six-months old she moved with her parents and a six- year-old brother to a small, semidetached house in Thomby on the seacoast about twelve miles from Liverpool. The household atmosphere was very tense. She described her father as a morose man who loved poetry and radio. Her father went into eventual bankruptcy. He taught his daughter the fascination for the past. She came to know about his bankruptcy only after his death when she was 23. Beryl’s father was moody, dictatorial and bad tempered. Beryl’s mother was a class-conscious lady. She hated her working-class husband, who was a salesman. The result was frequent clashes between the couple. Beryl Margaret Bainbridge was educated at Merchant Taylor’s School in Liverpool. Beryl began dancing at the age of six and worked as a child performer. She was expelled from the school for writing and illustrating a dirty rhyme and for corrupting moral influence. Then she was sent to Ballet School. Her father wanted her to be a doctor or journalist, but she was not at all serious about the studies. She v/orked as an actress at Liverpool Repertory Theatre. Beryl’s mother was a 3

stage-managing mother and Beryl enjoyed a theatrical career which began with her tap-dancing at the age of six and included instruction at The Arts Educational Schools Ltd., at Tring. By ten she was on the radio and by fifteen she was in the theatre. She worked for Liverpool, Windsor, Salisbury, London and Dunbee. At the age of sixteen she met Austin Davies, who later became her first husband. He was an Arts student at the Liverpool Playhouse. He used to paint scenery. Sensing the hopelessness of the affair Bainbridge ran away to London again and continued with her acting career at the theatres, television and radio. She foresaw a problematic marriage and in an attempt to avoid it she went to Scotland where she could become a Catholic before the age of twenty-one without paternal consent. Finally on April 24, 1954, she married Austin Davies and forgot about being a Catholic after that. Beryl had two children Aaron and Jo-Jo. But soon after Jo-Jo’s birth she found that Austin was having an affair and chucked him out. Once, in an interview she said, “If I’d just kept quiet and shut my eyes I could be happily married now. But I knew he didn’t really love me. I took years to get over.” (Willa Petschek, Beryl Bainbridge and Her Tenth Novel, March 01,1981). Austin Davies was a good provider and always supported Beryl and the children. He moved them all down to London in 1963 and bought 'her present house in Camden Town. When the last child was six-weeks old Austin Davis ran off to New-Zealand. 4

Like D. H. Lawrence, whom she admires, Beryl was the child of a father from the working class and a middle-class mother. Her father was a self-made man and commercial traveller and mother was always engaged in shopping. The Bainbridges stayed together for appearances sake, but their tiny house was full of frightening emotions. Beryl’s childhood was threatening. The tyranny of her parents and the grotesque claustrophobia of family-life form the basis of her novels. She says, “I write to make sense of my childhood experiences. Childhood is a thing that happens so early you don’t forget it. Everything else you grow out of, but you never recover from childhood. So I go over it again and again.” (Willa Petschek, Beryl Bainbridge and Her Tenth Novel, March 01, 1981). Every day was a spoiled one for Beryl. She was a stubborn child who fought for her family. To escape the tensions she wandered along the beach. She read a lot. She filled penny notebooks with stories and poems. The strongest source of her writing was the radio which was always kept on at home by her parents, hoping that the fine plays and civilized talks on The Third Programme would draw her out of the quarrels.

In the year 1967 there was a remarkable incident in Beryl Bainbridge’s life. She fell for a writer Alan Sharp and had a daughter Rudi, by him. Sharp told her about his first wife but not his second, nor 5

even the fact that he got another girl pregnant at the same time, (the story is told in her novel, Sweet William (1975)). Alan showed up for Rudi’s birth, but went downstairs saying he was going to get a book out of the car and never came back. Austin Davis supported Rudi as if she were his own child; whereas Alan Sharp went off to America to become a successful screenwriter. In the year 1972 Beryl’s son Aaron brought home a playmate who happened to the son of Colin Hay craft, Head of the publishing firm of Duckworth. After working at Duckworth as a clerk she took a job in a bottle factory, sticking on wine labels at 4£ a week. The Bottle Factory Outing (1974) describes her experiences here. Since then she hasn’t looked back. At present Beryl Bainbridge is one of the most famous and widely regarded living writers in England. Her books have the biggest draws in the literary circles. She has got a very good reader. Her readers have appreciated her autobiographies, her histories and the screenplays too. In the year 2000 Beryl Bainbridge was made the Dame of British Empire.

B] INFLUENCES ON BERYL BAINBRIDGE: Beryl Bainbridge began her literary career as early as she was nine-years-old. And now she has become one of the most highly regarded fiction writers in Great Britain. She began her writing career as a writer of humorous, biting fiction depicting people of lowered 6

expectations. There are number of factors which have influenced this great novelist. She has been greatly influenced by English Romanticism and Idealism which serve as escapes from poverty and boredom. She has been influenced by some important historical figures and also the autobiographical writings. The contemporary society bears lot of influences on the people living in it and it comes through the writings of the creative talents. The best way to reflect the reality of the society is through the literary forms. Bainbridge is in no way any exception to this universal fact. She has been greatly influenced by the contemporary society. Bainbridge has worked as an actress in her early life. The stage where she worked has great influence on the mind of this featured author. The explosive family atmosphere prompted her to be alone. There were frequent quarrels between her parents. This resulted in Beryl’s escape from the family. To escape she wandered along the beach. She read a lot during her strolls along the beach. The horrid childhood memories became a part of her personality throughout. Beryl’s father, a salesman by profession passed on his reading habits to his daughter. Beryl’s mother also encouraged her to write from an early age. Beryl’s father’s emotional state and her mother’s class-consciousness and a sense of female superiority influenced her a lot. She tried to imitate Charles Dickens and Robert Louis Stevenson, and at the age of ten, began a novel based on her parents’ quarrelsome relationship. 7

At the age of eleven Bainbridge wrote her first book derived from parts of Dickens’s works and Stevenson’s Treasure Island. She also wrote love letters to her mother. Her theatrical career also influenced her way of thinking and served as the basis for her themes. Beryl Bainbridge is highly impressed and influenced by the writings of D. H. Lawrence. D. H. Lawrence has remained one of the highly influencing novelists of the 20th century. The discussions about the complex human relations and intrigues of sex in the novels of D. H. Lawrence influenced Beryl Bainbridge to much extent. All of the novels of her reflect the themes of child exploitation, sex exploitation and also the harassment of the lower-middle-class people in the hands of the upper class people. The complexities of human relations are best observed in the writings of D. H. Lawrence. Charles Dickens is among the novelists who have remained the milestones in the history of English novel. He has dealt with the themes of the evils in the society in his novels. The main focus of many of his novels is the lower-class people in the society and their problems. In his novels he has tried to bring forth the social vices through his novels. What influenced Bainbridge from the novels of Dickens is the treatment of history in his novel, A Tale of Two Cities (1859). Beryl’s later novels deal with the historical themes. The Post-World-War II has influenced Bainbridge to much extent. The influence of Crimean War has produced two of her important historical novels viz. Young Adolf (1978) and Master Georgie (1998). 8

The technological advancements, the gas masks, air-raid protection, shelters, bomb-blasts, aeroplanes, the threat of nuclear warfare gave a realistic picture of the society in the midst of 1940s. The loss of faith, loneliness, frustration, impact of mass media influenced the writers of the age. Beryl Bainbridge read the novels of Muriel Spark and Graham Greene. Their novels served as the inspirafion for her novel Harriet Said (1972). Graham Greene’s novel The Power and Glory (1940) reflects the false morality in the society. Bainbridge was deeply influenced by this novel. In Harriet Said (1972) she depicts the false morality of the society. The story is about two Australian girls who murdered the mother of one of them. Beryl Bainbridge is the product of number of influences from the contemporary society. The contemporary writers influenced her a lot and made her one of the highly regarded writers in the later half of the 20th century,

C] LITERARY CAREER OF BERYL BAINBRIDGE: Beryl Bainbridge began her literary career at the age of nine. She began her career by writing humorous, sarcastic fiction. The characters in her novels are mostly from middle-class or lower-middle-class background. As a result they provide background for their disappointment. But these characters are not away from romanticism and idealism, which serve as escape from poverty and boredom. Her later novels focus on the historical figures who have much in common 9

with the people in higher autobiographical fiction. Bainbridge’s characters are often angry, eccentric and adulterous. Some of her characters are even murderers and few are likable. Bainbridge began her working life as an actress and has remained an entertainer ever since as one of the Britain’s most popular and best loved novelists. Dame Beryl Bainbridge began writing books when she was nine-years old. She experimented with travel writing and many of her earlier books draw on her Liverpoolian childhood. Bulk of her writing is however, historical. She has blended all the modem techniques of writing in her novels. Her novel A Weekend with Claude (1967) is a grotesque and a kind of dreamy novel. Another Part Of The Wood (1968) makes Bainbridge a seductive writer. She has written a thriller of corrupt childhood with psychological virtues in Harriet Said (1972). Her novel The Bottle Factory Outing (1974) is a domestic comedy. The novel Sweet William (1975) is a strange, sly novel with a great deal to say about the mixture of resentment dependency often mistaken for love. Injury Times (1977) infuses the flotsam of modem industrialism with an almost depiction of 20th century ills. Young Adolf

(1978) is a historical comedy. Winter Garden (1980) is a quite funny kind of novel on art. The novel English Journey (1984) is a classic example of a good writer forcing out a poor uninspired project. Watson’s Apology (1984) deals with the historical facts. An Awfully Big Adventure (1989) deals with her own experiences as an actress. The Birthday Bovs (1991) depicts the ultimate reality of life. Every 10

Man for Himself (1996) deals with the sinking of the ship Titanic. It is in the first person narrative. Something Happened Yesterday (1993) is a political novel. Beryl Bainbridge’s first novel Harriet Said (1972) was written but was not published till the third novel was written. Harriet Said (1972) was the third published novel by her. It was rejected by'several publishers. It was published after, A Weekend with Claude (1967) and Another Part of The Wood (1968). Since then she has not looked back. She sits in a tiny room with a computer and goes on writing her novels. She remains for months together in the same room for producing her novels. She writes 12 pages of draft for every page of printing. Beryl Bainbridge is best known for creating spare, morbidly humorous fiction that examines strange, often violent turns of events that reflect the weak and dangerous quality of modem way of living. Bainbridge was initially known as a writer of thrillers. Her subjects vary from novel to novel. Her novels mostly deal with the themes like autobiography and history. Even some of her novels are in the category of horror fiction. The Birthday Bovs (1991) explains the polar expedition of Robert Falcon Scott. The novel Every Man for Himself (1996) deals with the sinking of the gigantic ship Titanic. Her novel According to Queenev was published in 2001. Her most recent work The Girl in the Polka Dot Dress was published in 2008. This featured author has been short listed for the prestigious ‘Booker Prize for Fiction’ for several times but hasn’t won it yet.. She 11

has won various other prestigious prizes for her contribution to the English fiction. Her contribution is surely noteworthy. She has received a worldwide critical acclaim for her works. Apart from writing novels she has showed her talent in writing short stories, television plays and other minor works. The chronological account of her published works is given in order:

A. NOVELS:

1. A Weekend with Claude (1967). 2. Another Part of the Wood (1968). 3. Harriet Said (1972). 4. The Dressmaker (1973). 5. The Bottle Factory Outing (1974). 6. Sweet William (1975). 7. A Quiet Life (1976). 8. Injury Time (1977). 9. Young Adolf (1978). 10. Winter Garden (1980). 11. Watson’s Apology (1984). 12. English Journey (1984). 13. Forever England (1985). 14. Filthy Lucre (1986). 15. An Awfully Big Adventure (1989). 16. The Birthday Boys (1991). 17. The Dolphin Connection (1991). 18. Every Man For Himself (1996). 19. Master Georgie (1998). 20. According to Queeney (2001).

B. SHORT STORIES

1. Mum and Mr. Armitage: Selected Stories (1985). 2. Collected Stories (1994).

C. TELEVISION PLAYS

1. Tiptoe Through The Tulips (1976). 2. Blue Skies From Now On (1977). 3. The Warrior’s Return (1977). 4. Words Mail Me (1979). 5. The Journal of Bridget Hitler with Philip Saville (1981). 6. Somewhere More Central (1981). 7. Evensong (1986).

D. OTHERS 1. English Journey or The Road to Milton Keynes (1984). 2. Forever England: North and South (1987). 13

3. Something Happened Yesterday (1993). 4. Foreword Scott’s Last Expedition (1996). 5. Contributor, Colin Haycraft 1929-1994 (1995). 6. Front Row: Evenings at the Theatre (2005). 7. The Girl in the Polka Dot Dress (2008). PRIZES AND AWARDS

1. 1973 : Booker Prize for Fiction (shortlist) The Dressmaker.

2. 1974 : Booker Prize for Fiction (shortlist) The Bottle Factory

Outing.

3. 1974 : Guardian Fiction Prize The Bottle Factory Outing.

4.1977 : Whitbread Novel Award Injury Time.

5. 1990 : Booker Prize for Fiction (shortlist) An Awfully Big

Adventure.

6. 1996 : Booker Prize for Fiction (shortlist) Every Man For

Himself.

7. 1996 : Whitbread Novel Award Every Man For Himself.

8. 1998 : Booker Prize for Fiction (shortlist) Master Georgie.

9. 1998 : James Tail Black Memorial Prize (for fiction) Master

Georgie.

MR. BAtASAHtB n LIBRARY SHIVAJi kLLHAUJR, 14

10. 1999 : Commonwealth Writers Prize (Eurasia Region, Best Book)

Master Georgie.

11.1999 : WH Smith Literary Award Master Georgie.

12. 2000 : Dame of British Empire.

13 .2003 : David Cohen British Literature Prize (jointly with Thom

Gunn).

D] FEATURES OF BERYL BAINBRIDGE’S WRITINGS; Beryl Bainbridge has received worldwide reader because of her varied subject matters and her middle-class and lower-middle-class characters. Her novels have got a good critical acclaim also. In her novels she has depicted effectively various themes like childhood, morality, bewilderment, discontent, history, autobiography, futility of the World Wars, evils of the society etc. In 2000 she has been made the Dame of British Empire for her contribution to the English fiction. Her family background, especially her father and mother influenced her to a great extent. She read a number of writers like Charles Dickens, D. H. Lawrence, Muriel Spark and Graham Greene. These readings helped to make herself a featured author. Describing Beryl Bainbridge Kathleen Wheeler says, “Beryl Bainbridge’s novels show considerable originality and stylistic accomplishment”. (A Guide to 20th Century Women Novelists, Oxford: Blackwell, 1997, p.335). 15

1. Portrayal of middie-class and lower-middle-class:

All of Bainbridge’s works before 1980s deal with the contemporary social problems. She has treated the contemporary social mores of the Post World War II British society in almost all her novels in one or the other way. Dominic Head in his survey of British Fiction from 1950 to 2000 observes the social novel closely. He regards Bainbridge as on of the most socialistic writers. She has portrayed her characters from the middle-class or lower-middle-class to represent the romantic attachment of the people living in such kind of society. Bainbridge’s examination of the British society is tempered by ‘frankly comic’ and ‘darkly funny’ perspective that pervades her fiction. The main matter of focus in most of her novels is the class-consciousness of these people that keeps them away from being ideals. The life of these characters is destroyed in the end. Bainbridge has remained an entertaining and insightful observer of the human condition. She depicts the people of lowered expectations who snatch at love and find it always disappointing. These characters, like many people can not see the truth. As her characters come from a poor background they escape themselves by their love towards romanticism and idealism. In some of her novels she brings forth how the inter-personal relations within a middle-class family are destroyed because of the members not being realistic. 16

2. True-to-life dialogues: Bainbridge is a master of language. Her dialogues are true- to-life. The reader is kept in tact all the time. Right from the beginning there is no space for diversions in her novels. The language is utterly convincing and persuasive. The simple and direct use of language helps in understanding the dialogues properly. The reader feels as if the things happen to him while reading her novels. The dialogues prompt the reader to empathize with the happenings in the story. The dialogues in Bainbridge’s novels are realistic. Her novels reflect the contemporary society mores. So the reader reads the problems of his own society through the mouthpieces.

3. Intricate plotting: Bainbridge’s plots vary in nature. She has presented a wide range of plots for her readers. Her novels have historical plots, autobiographical plots, realistic plots and also comic ones. Many of the novels by Bainbridge are over-crowded with characters. Many of her novels have main plot as well as sub-plot. As the number of characters is large it is definitely an intensive task to interlink all the characters on the part of the writer. Bainbridge is very skillful in the art of characterization. She interlinks her characters effectively with each other by establishing healthy relations. The characters are woven with the incidents in such a manner that they don’t have escapes from the 17

happenings. As a result her plots are also well-knit and well- constructed.

4. Humour: Humour is another important feature of Bainbridge’s writings. Her novels include number of humorous incidents. Her characters are comic and funny. The black humour in her novels comes to the reader through the humorous characters and incidents in her novels. She depicts the sordid realities of the middle-class people through her mouthpieces. Forgetting poverty, her characters live in the romantic world of their own. They don’t want to be realistic. These characters always pretend. They want to show to others what they are not at all in reality. This serves the theme of black humour in her novels. Only few characters tend to be realistic.

5. Use of Stream of Consciousness technique: The stream of consciousness is a technique exercised by the modem novelists. This technique helps the novelists to mingle the past, the present and the future very easily whenever they desire. The actions are switched over very easily. This technique is effectively used in the writings of Beryl Bainbridge. Many of her novels start and end at the same location. Flashback technique is used by her. An effective example is her novel A Quiet Life (1976). The novel begins in Lyceum Cafe and ends at the same location. 18

6. Shocking ends: Bainbridge’s plots are well-constructed. They keep the reader’s interest in tact through the chapters. The reader empathizes himself with the story told in the novel. But almost all the novels have shocking endings. The novels end even though the reader expects something more to read. This is one of the peculiar features of Bainbridge’s writings.

7. Convincing characters: Bainbridge is the master in the art of characterization. Her characters are the mouthpieces of the existing social norms and conditions. Bainbridge expresses the cold reality of middle-class life through her characters. Her characters are much depressing and eccentric. They create a certain and sudden impression on the minds of the readers. The characters in Bainbridge’s novels are down to the earth. Most of her characters come from poor background. As a result they try to forget their poverty and boredom by creating and living in the romantic world of their own. The readers feel the problems of the characters as their own. The sufferings of the characters in the novels get sympathy of the readers. The characters in Bainbridge’s novels appeal universally. Her characters suffer in the novels because of their own follies and mistakes. Thus Beryl Bainbridge is a leading fiction writer with peculiar features. Variations in subjects, excellent art of characterization, 19

portrayal of down-to-the-earth life-style, intricate plot structures and realistic themes make her a featured author. Owing to all these important features she has been ranked at the top among the living fiction writers of Great Britain.

E] THE TWENTIETH CENTURY BRITISH NOVEL: The novel is generally written in lofty and elevated language. The novel gives a familiar relation of things which happens everyday before our eyes. The readers feel deceived by the happenings while reading. The readers are persuaded as if all is real which is told in the novel and also persuaded to feel affected by the joys or distresses of the persons in the story. The novel has undergone number of developments since the Elizabethan Age. The Medieval Romantics like Sir Thomas Mallory, Arthur are the pioneers of the romances and stories. In the same period the Spanish influences are also observed. Sir Thomas More’s Utopia (1515-1516) is a very good example of an earlier romance. In Elizabethan England the moralized stories of Gower and Tasso and Aristo from Italy were popular. The subjects of these writers are interesting events of everyday life. Some of the novel writers are found writing about Elizabethan tragedy. Sir Philip Sidney’s Arcadia (1590- 1598) is a very good example of such type of romance. During the same years the French influences are also observed. Don Quixote (1628) by Cervantes is a pastoral and the treatment of love is ideal in 20

this romance. In Restoration England, Lyly and Greene have written about the wreckage of the civil wars. Richard Head wrote The English Rogue (1665-1671). John Bunyan is another important name in the development of English Novel. His Pilgrim’s Progress (1678-1684) is a milestone in the history of English Novel. Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe (1719) is the earliest English novel of incident. In the midst of the 18th century the ‘Novel’ form has flourished a lot in the hands of the ‘Four Pillars’ of the English Novel. These pillars are: Samuel Richardson, Tobias Smollett, Henry Fielding and Laurence Sterne. Samuel Richardson’s Pamela (1747-1748) is a novel in epistolary form. Henry Fielding’s Joseph Andrews (1742) is a parody on Richardson’s novel Pamela. Tobias Smollett’s Roderick Random (1748) and Perigrine Pickle (1751) and Laurence Sterne’s Tristam Shandy (1761) are the landmarks in the beginning of the novel as a genre. All these novelists have brought the ultimate reality of the society through their writings. These novelists are remembered as ‘The Realists of the- Eighteenth Century’. The Nineteenth Century is regarded as the age of ‘Romantic Fiction’ in the hands of Sir Walter Scott, Jane Austin, William Harrison Ainsworth, Kingsley, Thackeray, W. H. Maxwell, James Cooper, Mrs. Radcliff, Mary Shelley, Leigh Hunt, Sir Thomas Moore, Irving, Alan Poe, Horace Walpole, Hawthorne etc. Charles Dickens is considered as one of the humanitarian novelist. He has broadened and widened the scope of the novel form. A 21

Tale of Two Cities (1859) deals with the French Revolution. David Copperfield (1849-1850) is a social document. The novel depicts the condition of lower-middle-class society. Hard Times (1854) is an attack on the utilitarian. William Thackeray’s Vanity Fair (1847) deals with the denunciation of social pretentiousness. The Victorian Age (1832- 1901) has contributed mush in the development of the English Novel. The age is regarded as ‘The Age of Novel’. Charlotte Bronte, George Eliot, Emily Bronte and Annie Bronte have dominated the literary scene. Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre (1847) and Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights (1847) are the great contributions to the novel form. Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre (1847) is a social document with an autobiographical view. Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights (1847) presents an impressively harrowing picture of the restrictions on contemporary middle-class women seeking the only respectable form of paid employment. The Twentieth Century began simultaneously with the First World War. The Modem Age is generally regarded as the age of novel. This age has witnessed the wonderful performance of the great novelists like: Henry James, H. G. Wells, Arnold Bennet, John Galsworthy, Joseph Conrad, D. H. Lawrence, Aldous Huxley, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, William Golding, Graham Greene, John Wain, George, Eliot, Evelyn Waugh, David Storey, Muriel Spark, John Wyndham, Catherine Mansfield, Rudyard Kipling, C. P. Snow, Alan 22

Sillitoe, Angus Wilson, Irish Murdoch, George Orwell, Kingsley Amis etc. The novels of modem age cover wide range of subject matters. The modem novel has been experimented with various techniques. The modem novel therefore reveals different schools of fiction, different techniques of plot construction, different narrative techniques and different techniques of characterizations. It has also exposed different angles of approaching the problems of modem life. Referring to this change Frederick Karl and Marvin Magalaner have said, “.....the twentieth century novel, following the rapid instmction of new modes of thought in psychology, natural science and sociology has reacted boldly to absorb and transform this material into literary communication. Moreover the novel, while ever mirroring change in the larger world has like every other art medium, responded also to inner developments in its own form demonstrating that traditional together with innovation are the twin stuff of the genre. The traditional and the new determine the distinctive nature of the contemporary English novel; its difficulties are the difficulties of the age, sand its ideas are those that have by now become commonplaces in our society”. Modem novel has emerged with certain characteristics. The emergence of middle-class readers with leisure time has supported to the popularity of the genre. Modem novel reflects the contemporary society, human behaviour, knowledge, amusement and information 23

about the past, present and future. The Modem Novel has tried to focus all the aspects of the modem life style in realistic manner. The novelists like Sir Walter Scott, H. G. Wells, John Galsworthy and William Thackeray have tried to project the problems of the lower-middle-class and middle-class people in the contemporary society. The twentieth century has remained a period of sweeping social reforms and unprecedented progress. Rapid spread of education is observed in this age. The effect of growth in the rate of literacy is profound on the modem novel. In this period, for the first time in the history of English literature, the ‘novel’ form surpassed all other literary forms. Novel has been developed as the art form during this period. The novel has become cosmopolitan with the novelists’ intimacy with foreign schools. The poor have been specifically highlighted in the modem novel. The novelists have tried to produce fables of all kinds inquiring into the prospects of mankind and the problems of the day. These novels are called as: ‘Social Documentary Novels’. Henry James, John Galsworthy and Arnold Bennet have produced such kind of novels. The modem novel presents the photographic reality of life. Romance is observed in the novels of Arthur Doyle, H. Rider Haggard, Stanley J. Weyman and Antony Hope. The fiction of John Watson, GabrieLSetoun, G. D. Brown, Emily Lawless and James Joyce reflects the growth of regional fiction of Scotland and Ireland.

8abr. rxmm ww'* imwv 5&H / v-f ^ A- • V 1 - k n O 24

The loss of confidence is yet another important feature of the Twentieth Century Novel. The inventions in the field of science and technology have shaken the traditional values, beliefs and emotions. People have got embarrassed and lost their belief in everything. They have seen the ruins by the two World Wars. The futility of these wars has created a sense of threat in the minds of the people. The modern world is psychologically disturbed. This confusion is found in the novels Virginia Woolf and James Joyce. The modem novel reflects the perplexity and uncertainty of the happenings in the society. Joseph Conrad has explored the themes of material interest and corruption in his novels like: Lord Jim (1900)_and Under Western Eves (1911). The change in human behaviour is one more important subject matters of modem novel. E. M. Forster has remained the spokesman of such kind of ideology. He has exposed the deadness in human relationships in his The Longest Journey (1907). In A Passage to India (1924) he has tried to explore the relations between the Indians and the British during the early 1920s. D. H. Lawrence, Aldous Huxley, Somerset Maugham and James Joyce have concentrated upon primal human relations and passions. These novelists have presented physical side of sex without hiding the naked facts. D. H. Lawrence’s The White Peacock (1911), The Rainbow (1915), Sons And Lovers (1913) and Aldous Huxley’s Point Counter Point (1928) have concentrated on the portrayal of sex-life and man-woman relationship. 25

The Twentieth Century novel is also influenced by modem psychology. Sigmund Freud’s works Interpretation of Dreams (1913) and Psychology of Everyday Life (1914) have given way to explore the vast fields of unconscious and sub-conscious. Virginia Wolf, D. H. Lawrence and James Joyce are the pioneers of this class. Joyce’s A Portrait of an Artist as A Young Man (1916) and Ulysses (1922) are the masterpieces. Virginia Woolfs To The Light House (1927) is a marvelous example of psychological novel. In the midst of the 20 th century ‘Science Fiction’ has become very popular. H. G. Wells’ novels The Time Machine (1895) and The Invisible Man (1897) and Aldous Huxley’s The Brave New World (1932) are the masterpieces of this kind of novel. These novels deal with the satirical view on the conditions brought by science. The War Novel is yet another experiment in the modem age. The reflection of disillusionment after the First World War is depicted in the novels of C. E. Montague in his novels Disenchantment (1922) and Fiery Particles (1923). Richard Addington in his novel The Death of Hero (1929) handles the same kind of theme. The post-war follies of the society are also depicted in some of the modem novels. The shallowness of human civilization is also treated in the novels. The themes of exploitations are also dealt with by some of the novelists. Aldous Huxley’s first novel Crome Yellow (1921) satirizes the failures of the war. 26

The experimentation with humour and detective fiction has also remained an important theme of modem novel. A. A. Milne, A. P. Herbert and P. G. Wodehouse have been the outstanding humourists. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, K. Chesterton, Edgar Wallace and Dorathey Sayer have contributed to the detective fiction. The development in the biographical novels is another peculiar feature of modem novel. The biographical novels and the novels dealing with family life have won fame during the 20 century. Sir Obsert Sitwell and Lyton Starchey have presented the historical biographies. Philip Guedalla’s Palmerston (1926) and The Duke (1931) are the historical biographies. George Orwell has written about the political realities of his time. His novel Nineteen Eighty Four (1948) is a masterpiece. The English Novel declined gradually during the 1940s and 195f)s with the death of Virginia Woolf and James Joyce. It has been a great loss as if the creative writing has come to an end. With the futility of the Second World War in 1940s the fiction of the period gives the sense of the radical, historical and formal transformation. The Second World War has affected the economic system and financial resources. The establishment of total values has been totally broken down during the Second World War. The v/ar has brought the loss of faith, terror of war, death, poverty, starvation, fear, uncertainty and threat. It has also made the human relations more and more complex. People have lost their faith in their own religion, god and morals. The advancements in 27

the field of media and communication technologies have made the revolution. These all themes are successfully reflected in the writings of Evelyn Waugh, Iris Murdoch, Henry Williamson and Graham Greene. During 1950s Anthony Powell came with a series of twelve novels titled as A Dance to the Music of Time. He tried to portray the condition of lower-middle-class in his novels. His A Question of Upbringing (1951) depicts the condition of the contemporary society in England after the Second World War. He uses the imagery of workmen warming themselves in the street amid flurries of snow. William Golding is another important name in the post-modern British Novel. His novel Lord of the Flies (1954) is a moral allegory. The novel is set on a desert island on which a marooned party of boys from an English cathedral choir-school gradually falls from the genteel civilization that has so far shaped it and regresses into dirt, barbarism and murder. William Golding has experimented science and psychology in his novel Free Fall (1959). The novel deals with a tortuous exploration of free will and fallen humanity in relation to the scientific idea of the unrestrained movement of a body under the force of gravity. Wilson was an experimentalist. His novels Anglo-Saxon Attitudes (1956) and The Middle Age of Mrs. Eliot (1958) are the comments on the cultural, social and sexual tensions of a period struggling to come to terms with the conflicting claims of tradition and novelty. 28

Iris Murdoch is regarded as one of the influential women novelists of the contemporary Great Britain. She was deeply influenced by Beckett. Her novels deal with human relations and their complexities. Her novel Under the Net (1954) deals with the complex human relations. Her novel The Bell (1958) deals with the loss of faith in God and Christianity. The Sovereignty of Good is philosophical work by Iris Murdoch. Gerald Middleton was an ageing historian. In his novel Late Call (1964) he has introduced the idea of historical determination, alienation and liberalism. The contemporary novelist Muriel Spark commits herself with the moral issues. She shares much with Murdoch and Golding. Her first novel The Comforters (1957) is concerned with a neurotic woman writer, Caroline Rose. Delineation is an important theme in her novels. Her novel The Driver’s Seat (1970) is a carefully ordered, even meticulous, present-tense account of a woman with a death -wish who plots the circumstances of her own violent murder. Philip Larkin has located the stirrings of a sexual revolution in his novel Lady Chatterlev’s Lovers (1962). Germaine Greer’s novel The Female Eunuch (1970) provided a stimulus to the development of a newly outspoken and often provocative feminism in the period. Doris Lessing was highly influenced by the Russian Revolution and the Chinese revolution. She has heightened the alertness to the narrowing representations of women’s roles and women’s consciousness in society and its literature.

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Her novel The Children of Violence (1952-1969), a five-volume sequence deals with the developing political commitment and the later political disillusion. Angela Carter’s fiction presents its readers with a world of magic and theatre in which there is an infinite possibility for change. Her novel The Passion of New Eve (1977) brings her renegotiations of the elements that have shaped traditional accounts of male-female relationships. In comparison with their women contemporaries, the novels of John Fowles and Anthony Burgess seem strained, contrived and forced. Fowles’s novel The Collector (1963) is post-Freudian fantasy. His novel Mantissa (1982) deals with the espousal of the cause of psychic and sexual liberation wastes itself in an explosive, self-indulgent erotic fantasy. Anthony Burgess’s preoccupation with the theology and sociology of sin determines the argument of his most brilliant and experimental novel A Clockwork Orange (1962V Margaret Drabble is regarded as the most typical of the English novelists of the 1960s and 1970s in sociological sense. Her novel A Summer Bird-Cage (1963) is a first-person narrative describing the gossipy, sexually liberated, party-going worlds of a university-educated woman and her married sister. The novel Jerusalem the Golden (1967) deals with the moralities and cultural issues. Beryl Bainbridge is one of the highly influential and recognized contemporary women novelists of Great Britain. Her novels cover wide range of subjects. Her subjects mostly deal with the portrayal of lower- 30

middle-class and middle-class society in England. She has depicted the social evils through her novels. Her historical novels are subjective and highlighted through individual perspective. This links them to literary post-modernity. Her earlier novels are based on the real-life situations. Most of her earlier novels are autobiographical in nature. The Second World War has put many challenges before the world like frustration, pessimisms, loss of faith in God and Christianity, terror, fear etc. All these subjects get treatment in the novels of Beryl Bainbridge. As a contemporary novelist Bainbridge equals the talents of the other contemporaries like: John Wyndham, Evelyn Waugh, William Cooper, Alan Sillitoe, William Golding, Anthony Burgess, Graham Greene, Muriel Spark, Doris Lessing, Iris Murdoch and Margaret Drabble. In conclusion, it is true that Modem Novel has become a more complex genre. It has touched all the aspects of human life.

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