INTROVERSION AND EXTROVERSION IN CERTAIN LATE VICTORIAN WRITERS Jørgen Stepputat A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of St. Andrews 1985 Full metadata for this item is available in Research@StAndrews:FullText at: http://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/ Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/10023/2824 This item is protected by original copyright This item is licensed under a Creative Commons License I N T R 0 V E R S ION AND EXT R 0 V E R S ION INC E R T A I N L ATE V leT 0 R I A N W R I T E R S by J0rgen Stepputat Submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Arts at the University of St. Andrews in March 1985 A3STRhc~r This thesis deals with three writers, George Gissing, Edmund Gosse and Robert Louis Stevenson. I use the words "intro­ versionll and lIextroversion" partly in a geographical sense. George Gissing, for example, in spite of Continental in­ fluences remained a very English (in some ways almost insular) novelist, and in that sense an introvert. Edmund Gosse, on the other hand, WaS a very cosIDopolitan critic although his style was typically English. Robert Louis Stevenson provides a third angle. Having been born in Edinburgh he was forced into exile for most of his life, and obviously this had a great effect on his writings. Of the three writers most weight is given to Edmund Gosse. In my analysis of George Gissing I concentrate on some of his best known novels, The Unclassed, The Nether World, New Grub Street and Born in Exile. The Emancipated and By the Ionian Sea deal specifically with Italy. - There are four chapters on Edmund Gosse. The first concentrates on the early part of his long career when his main interest was Scandinavian literature. The next two chapters give an account of his im­ pressions of and writings on America and France. In the fourth chapter on Edmund Gosse I concentrate on the part of his career when he had become an established authority on his own country'f literature. Robert Louis Stevenson, too, is dealt with in' four chapters. First I write briefly about His Scottish works, all inspired by his childhood and youth. Next I deal with his two favourite countries, France and the United States, both associated with his Wife, Fanny. The last chapter follows Stevenson to the South Seas where he spent the last few years of his life and wrote some of his best books. The three writers are compared from time to time. Robert Louis Stevenson and Edmund Gosse knew each other well; George Gissing is the odd man out. But his reaction to foreign influences differs from that of the other two and this makes a comparison very interesting. COPYRIGHT In submitting this thesis to the University of St. Andrews I understand that r am giving permission for it to be made available for use in accordance with the regulations of the University Library for the time being in force, subject to any copyright vested in the work not being affected thereby. For legal reasons the contents of Appendix Rand Appendix C must not be co~ied. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Over the past five and a half years I have had cause to be grateful to many people for help directly or in­ directly with this thesis. I am grateful for all the help given to me by my family, especially my Mother, Lis Stepputat, and my Grandmother, Johanne Pedersen. They have displayed extra­ ordinary patience and encouragement without which I could not have completed this thesis. In St. Andrews I owe a great deal to Dr. R. P. Doig. He supervised my B.Phil. thesis when I first came to Scotland, and apprOximately the first half of my Ph.D. course. His help and guidance in all matters have been greatly appreciated. I am also very grateful to Dr. C. J.~MacLachlan, who bravely took over the supervision of my thesis. I have greatly benefited from his alert criticism. I must say a special thank you to the University Library of st. Andrews. Apart from providing me with my "tools", the staff here have also been my colleagues. All have helped me and listened to me for over five years! In addition I must express my gratitude towards Professor R. Crawford and St. Leonard's College for providing me with a study during the vital final stages of this thesis. Furthermore, I have benefited from the presence of many scholars, students and staff. Among them Dr. R. G. Cant, who has been a great source of information about anything Scottish. I also acknowledge the assistance of the British Library (Reference Division) and Cambridge University Library. The National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh as well as Edinpurgh University Library have been particularly helpful and it has always been a great pleasure to study there. Last but not least I am grate­ ful to the Reading Room staff of the Royal Library in Copenhagen, who have always been friendly and often amusing. St. Andrews March 1985 J0rgen stepputat INTROVERSION AND EXT:::IDVERSION Dl CERTAIN LATE VICTORI~~ WRITERS CON T E N T S Chapter 1 Introduction 1 2 The English Novelist: George Gissing 10 3 The World Critic: Edmund Gosse Scandinavia 56 4- The World Critic: Edmund Gosse America 107 5 The World Critic: Edmund Gosse France 125 6 The World Critic: Edmund Gosse The United Kingdom 145 7 The Exiled Scot: Robert Louis Stevenson '!'he United Kingdom 181 8 The Exiled Scot: Ro bert Louis Stevenson, France 195 9 The Exiled Scot: Robert Louis stevenson The United States 214 10 The Exiled Scot: Robert Louis Stevenson The South Seas 229 11 Conclusion 264 APPENDIX A: Robert Louis Stevenson's Biographers and Critics 268 APPENDIX B: Edmund Gosse: Scottish Journal, 1870 275 APPENDIX C: Edmund Gosse: Danish Diary, 1874 319 Notes 327 Bibliography 379 ERRATA p. 35. last par. a "modern": delete "a" p. 67. bottom line bareness: read "barenness" p. 69. main par. poetical climate: read "political climate" p. 94. long quote moevement: read "movement" p. 109, line 11 unqualied: read "unqualified" ,. 118, first par. Gosse Gilder: read "Gosse wrote Gilder" 159 imprimateur: read "imprimatur" p. 167, lines 9-12 read " ••• on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of Hardy's death. it was broadcast by the BBC. A reviewer in The Listener, as well as Richard Hoggart, who presented the talk, seems amused ••• " p. 189 read "Alan" throughout p. 204, second par. Phillistines: read "Philistines" p. 204, third par. different than: read "diffE'rent from that" p. 242. line after q. unmistable: read "unmistakable" , p. 329, n. 18 ascerbic: read "acerbic" p. 358, n. 106 in into: read "into" CHAPTER 1 INTROVERSION AND EXTROVERSION IN CERTAIN LATE VICTORIAN WRITERS INTRODUCTION The concepts of nationalism and patriotism are closely involved with the theme of this thesis. They often impinge on works of literature; this is sometimes re­ cognized although the connections have rarely been studied. In this thesis three Victorian writers are subjected to scrutiny, Robert Louis Stevenson, Ed~und Gosse and George Gissing. In the title of this work the terms "introversion II and "extroversion" are applied to the question of nationalism. I am not primarily concerned with psychology although my use of the terms cannot, of course, exclude that aspect. No doubt nationalism and patriotism are in many ways intimately related to the general psychological make-up of a writer. My main concern is to see how the three writers view t~eir own country and other countries, and also to demonstrate how this is reflected in their works. All three could be said to be collectively representative of the late nineteenth century but each of them was perhaps too unusual to be labelled a typical Victorian, with the possible exception of Edmund Gosse. They travelled extensively and all received imDortant Notes on p. 327 2 stimuli from abroad. Best documented are the travels of Robert Louis stevenson, who died on Samoa in the Pacific. As a young man he travelled widely in Europe and later he went on a famous cross-continental tour of the United States (The Amateur Emigrant) before embarking on his Pacific adventures. Wherever he went stevenson put his impressions into books. Even the surroundings of his honeymoon were turned to literary use in The Silverado Sauatters. A characteristic feature of stevenson's globe-trotting was his search for health. l ) Having escaped the dampness of his be­ loved Scotland, he went to live in Bournemouth, and when his father died he left the United Kingdom for good, except in spirit. The movements of George Gissing have received less attention. His clashes with the establishment made him more mysterious. Gissing too, starved in the United States, and later he visited the places of classical civilization, Italy and Greece. George Gissing died in France where he had settled down with Gabrielle Fleury. Edmund Gosse went to the United States in greater style than Stevenson or Gissing. Towards the end of l88~ when he sailed, he was already a respected and known literary critic. For a few months he travelled in eastern United States on an extremely successful lecture tour, not completely dissimilar to Dickens's experiences some years earlier. In the l870s Edmund Gosse had visited the Scandinavian countries and had reported his impressions in several articles. He grew very fond of France, went there often; in fact he had been to France shortly before his death.