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In all cases we have filmed the best available copy. University Microfilms International 300 N. ZEEB RD., ANN ARBOR. Ml 48106 8128989 D i n i t z, Su s a n M arie "HENRY ESMOND" AND "THE VIRGINIANS": NOVELS WITHOUT HEROES? The Ohio Stale University Ph.D. 1981 University Microfilms International 300 N. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48106 Copyright 1981 by Dinitz, Susan Marie All Rights Reserved HENRY ESMOND AND THE VIRGINIANS; NOVELS WITHOUT HEROES? DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Susan Marie Dinitz, B.A., M.A. * * * * * The Ohio State University 1981 Reading Committee: Approved hy Dr. Richard Altick Dr. Arnold Shapiro Adviser Dr. James Phelan Department of English To Dr. Richard D. Altick for enabling me to experience the joys of a scholar adventurer i i VITA Sept. 29, 1952. Born - Akron, Ohio 1 9 7 ^ ............. B.A., Ohio Wesleyan University 1975-1980 Teaching Associate, The Ohio State University Columbus, Ohio 1976 M.A., The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1980-1981 Lecturer, The University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: Nineteenth-Century British Literature Victorian Literature. Professor Richard D. Altick Rhetoric and Composition. Professor Edward P. J. Corbett Renaissance Literature. Professor Edwin Robbins American Literature to 1900. Professor Richard Weatherford i i i TABLE OF CONTENTS Page DEDICATION............................................ ii VITA .................................................. iii INTRODUCTION .......................................... 1 Chapter I. THE THACKERAY BACKGROUND: THACKERAY AND THE HISTORICAL ROMANCE ............ 5 II. THE VICTORIAN HISTORICAL ROMANCE The Hero and The Plot............................ 20 The Fair Heroine............................... ^7 The Dark Heroine............................... 6l The Villain..................................... 69 III. THE HISTORY OF HENRY ESMOND: HENRY'S ATTEMPT AT AN HISTORICAL ROMANCE ........ 81 IV. THE VIRGINIANS: ANOTHER NOVEL WITHOUT A HERO?.................. 138 V. THE USE OF HISTORY............................. 155 History in the Victorian Historical Romance. 156 History in Henry Esmond..................... 172 History in The Virginians................ '. 182 FOOTNOTES.............................................. 193 BIBLIOGRAPHY.......................................... 201 iv INTRODUCTION Though widely acclaimed as a masterpiece ever since its publication in 1852, Thackeray’s Henry Esmond has continually posed difficulties in interpretation. The violent objection of a reviewer in Blackwood's Magazine to the marriage of Rachel and Esmond echoes that of many contemporary critics: "our most sacred sentiments are outraged, and our best prejudices shocked .... This error is monstrous and unredeemable."^ Some contemporary reviewers, perceiving Thackeray's portrayal of Rachel or Esmond or both as ironic, condemned Thackeray for his jaundiced view 2 of life. Others, failing to see any irony in the novel, praised 3 Thackeray for finally creating a noble hero and heroine. The question of whether or not, in Esmond. Thackeray was being ironic still divides modem critics. Some question the reliability of Esmond as narrator, finding evidence in the novel that Henry's memoir is actually an attempt at self-justification, an attempt to make himself into a hero by discrediting those surrounding him. Rather than being the culmination of Henry's education, his marriage to Rachel, according to these critics, marks his regression into the safety of his mother's arms. And rather than being the "crowning fulfillment of his life," this marriage results in the "bankruptcy of his heart" mentioned in The Virginians. Juliet McMaster offers the most extended ironic reading of the novel, which she conveniently summarizes: 1 2 If ... we read the novel as a sustained piece of dramatic irony, we notice not so much the god-like attributes as the wish to appear god-like. His humility is inverted pride, and his self- abnegation an elaborate glorification of self. He renounces a title because he finds more satisfaction in the debt than the ownership. He keeps two women at his feet by maintaining a pose of being at theirs, and he takes a secret pleasure in his knowledge of their adoration while pretending to be unaware of it. And, far from growing to maturity, he finally fulfils the infantile impulse to marry his mother.5 On the other hand, many readers take the narrative at face value, accepting Henry's estimation of himself. These critics often view the novel as a bildungsroman, in which Henry learns that the glittering world represented by Beatrix and the Pretender is only paste and that love alone has genuine value. Henry's choice of Rachel over Beatrix and retirement from the world of strife and ambition to a New World of domestic bliss is, according to these critics, the fitting conclusion to the novel.^ Robert Colby, in a review of Thackeray criticism, concludes that many of the "problems" in interpreting Esmond result from failure to view 7 the novel in its original rhetorical context. The nature of Thackeray's work prior to Esmond suggests that knowledge of the rhetorical context does allow a fuller appreciation of his fiction. In a 1963 dissertation, Chauncey Loomis studies Thackeray's work up through Vanity Fair and warns readers that Thackeray's own art was reactional in basis; he was constantly reacting against the prevailing state of things, and his reaction took the form of satiric realism. Appealing mainly to common sense, he roundly condemned the unnatural in fiction, poetry, political propaganda, and painting. Against the romantic ideal and the sentimental unnatural, he increasingly offered a form of realism which was essentially satiric in roots. ... Certainly in Thackeray's hands realism became a satiric weapon, laying open the inner pulp of degenerated romantic art. Even in his later fiction, claims Loomis, Thackeray's realism is largely satiric in impulse, and its source is to be found in his early reaction against romantic fiction. In his realism Thackeray constantly, if often only implicitly, satirized what he considered to be the delusions of romantic art and thought.9 Appreciation of Thackeray's satiric intent in works prior to Esmond. then, depends partly on a familiarity with the popular fiction of the day. Gordon Ray points out that from the first, Thackeray "operated on the bold assumption that his readers were alert, intelligent, and literate .... ... He expected his readers to appreciate the wicked fidelity with which he parodied the fiction and poetry of the day."^ This dissertation proposes that knowledge of the historical romances so eagerly devoured by readers in the 1830's and 40's results in a fuller appreciation and more accurate understanding of Thackeray's intent and achievement in Henry Esmond. and more specifically, that such a knowledge allows a reader to see how in Esmond, as in his previous works, Thackeray's realistic vision is achieved through implicit satire of popular romantic fiction. Several of the critics who read Esmond as a bildungsroman allege that the novel, with its noble hero and happy ending, differs from the rest of Thackeray's fiction. The reading of many Victorian historical romances leads me to conclude instead that Esmond is typical Thackeray— that is, ironic. In the first chapter, I attempt to show how familiarity with Thackeray's work prior to Esmond encourages the reader to consider an ironic interpretation of the novel, in particular, one based