The Literature Book

ROMANTICISM AND THE RISE OF THE NOVEL

with the author’s own, although

places and settings were altered.

Characters such as great-aunt Betsy

Trottwood, the obsequious Uriah

Heep, and penniless Mr. Macawber

are among Dickens’ best-known

and best-loved creations.

THE SCARLET LETTER

(1850), NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

Set amid the Puritan world of

mid-17th-century Massachusetts,

Hawthorne’s historical romance tells

the tale of Hester Prynne, a young

woman found guilty of adultery and

forced to wear a scarlet letter “A” to

signify her crime. Her husband has

long disappeared, and is presumed

dead. She defiantly refuses to name

the father of her daughter, Pearl—

against the demands of her public

trial and her church minister—so

is sent to prison. Hester’s alienation

from the strict religious creeds of

Puritan society allows American

writer Hawthorne (1804–64) to

explore wider spiritual and moral

issues, such as attitudes to the

notion of sin. The Scarlet Letter was

an immediate success, becoming

one of the first mass-produced

books in American history.

UNCLE TOM’S CABIN

(1852), HARRIET BEECHER STOWE

The hugely successful antislavery

tale by American writer Stowe

(1811–96) helped persuade readers

that Christian beliefs and slavery

were incompatible. Uncle Tom’s

Cabin tells of noble slave Tom, who

is sold and forced to leave his wife

and family, yet never loses his moral

values. In its first year of publication

Stowe’s story sold some 300,000

copies in the US, highlighting the

country’s race issue and North–

South division. It was even seen by

some as a spark for the American

Civil War (1861– 65).

NORTH AND SOUTH

(1854–1855), ELIZABETH GASKELL

English novelist Gaskell despised

social inequality and poverty. Her

tale of heroine Margaret Hale’s

journey from prosperous southern

England to the north allowed readers

to see the dire state of the lowest

classes in Britain’s industrial

northern cities. The work graphically

depicts the division between the

north and south of England and

the lives of those who provided the

labor for the Industrial Revolution.

It was published serially just after

Hard Times by Dickens, at whose

request Gaskell wrote her novel.

meets Abbé Faria, who tells him

of hidden treasure on the island of

Monte Cristo. After escaping and

finding the treasure, Dantès rises

again as the Count of Monte Cristo.

VANITY FAIR

(1847–1848), WILLIAM

MAKEPEACE THACKERAY

Vanity Fair follows the fortunes of

two women—Amelia Smedley, from

a decent family, and the orphan

Becky Sharp—as they head out

into a swirling social world seeking

wealth and standing. They are polar

opposites: Amelia is innocent and

gentle, while Becky is ferocious in

her ambition to climb the social

strata. English author Thackeray

(1811–63) paints a vivid parody of

society and creates an essentially

amoral heroine in the impish Becky.

DAVID COPPERFIELD

(1849–1850), CHARLES DICKENS

Describing the coming of age of the

title character, David Copperfield

was first published in serial form,

and of all the novels of Dickens (see

p.147), it is the one closest to an

autobiographical work. The details

of Copperfield’s life show parallels

153

Elizabeth Gaskell

Born in London in 1810,

Gaskell was the daughter

of a Unitarian minister.

Married to a church minister

in industrial Manchester,

she began writing in her

30s after beginning a diary

to record the day-to-day life

of her family. Her first books

drew on her early life in rural

Cheshire, but it was her later

novels, set amid the poverty

and strife of the working class,

that made her name. She died

in 1865, her finest work—Wives

and Daughters—unfinished.

Key works

1848 Mary Barton

1853 Cranford

1854–55 North and South (see

above)

Vanity Fair is a very vain,

wicked, foolish place ...

Vanity Fair

William Makepeace Thackeray

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