The Literature Book

ROMANTICISM AND THE RISE OF THE NOVEL

to his rise into upper-class echelons

via affairs with aristocratic women,

the book leads up to Sorel’s

eventual fall into disgrace. French

writer Stendhal (1783–1842) set his

novel in early 19th-century France,

both parodying and satirizing the

excesses of the Bourbon regime

prior to the July Revolution of 1830.

OLD GORIOT

(1834–1835), HONORÉ DE BALZAC

Set in Paris in 1819, Old Goriot

by Balzac tells of life during the

Bourbon Restoration. The 1789

revolution seems far away, though

class divisions are tense once more.

Balzac employed realist depiction

in recounting his brutal vision of

early 19th-century Paris society,

and in particular the social climbers

willing to tread on others to achieve

their ends. Considered by many to

be his finest novel, it was the first of

Balzac’s stories to feature characters

from his other books, a practice that

became a trademark of his fiction.

FAIRY TALES

(1835–1837), HANS CHRISTIAN

ANDERSEN

Danish writer Hans Christian

Andersen (1805–75) created some

of his fairy tales by retelling tales

he heard as a child and others by

inventing his own bold, original

stories. Published in three volumes,

Fairy Tales consists of nine tales,

including classics such as “The

Princess and the Pea,” “The Little

Mermaid,” and “The Emperor’s

New Clothes.” Andersen’s works

prefigured the explosion of children’s

literature in the 19th century and

continue to hold enormous cultural

significance today.

KALEVALA

(1835–1849), ELIAS LÖNNROT

Taken from folklore tales of the

Karelian and Finnish indigenous

peoples, the Kalevala—meaning

“the land of Kaleval”—is a collection

of epic poetry that is considered

one of the most significant works of

Finnish literature. Brought together

by the ethnographic research of

Finnish doctor and philologist Elias

Lönnrot (1802–84), who traveled

across the expanses of Finland and

Karelia recording oral folk songs, the

Kalevala is written in a distinctive

meter, with each line featuring four

pairs of stressed and unstressed

syllables. It retold mythological

tales, building a literary and cultural

heritage that awakened Finnish

nationalism in the 19th century.

OLIVER TWIST

(1837–1839), CHARLES DICKENS

In his second novel, English writer

Dickens (see p.147) paints a bold

depiction of the social underclass

of Victorian Britain, and of the poor

fending for themselves in a hostile

world. Seen as an early example of

the social protest novel, Oliver Twist

tells the story of Oliver as he flees

the workhouse for London and joins

a criminal child gang. Like many

of Dickens’ novels, it was published

serially, with cliff-hangers to keep

readers hungry for each installment.

A HERO OF OUR TIME

(1840), MIKHAIL LERMONTOV

In A Hero of Our Time, Russian

writer, poet, and painter Lermontov

(1814–41) introduces the protagonist

Grigory Pechorin, an idle, nihilistic,

“superfluous man” figure. Pechorin

acts as an antihero through a series

of adventures and love affairs set

against the landscape of the

151

Honoré de Balzac

One of France’s leading writers

of the 19th century, Balzac is

known for his development

of realism in the novel form,

especially in Old Goriot. Born

in Tours in 1799, he moved to

Paris as a child, attended the

Sorbonne from 1816, and was

heading toward law as a

profession when he turned to

writing. By 1832, he had plans

for La Comédie humaine—a

collection of nearly 150 of his

works, including essays, novels,

and a range of analytical and

philosophical texts. Balzac

intended this vast compendium

to capture the nature of the

human condition, but he died in

1850, his life’s work unfinished.

Key works

1829 The Chouans

1834–35 Old Goriot (see below)

1841– 42 The Black Sheep (see

p.152)

I was ready to love the whole

world—no one understood me:

I learned to hate.

A Hero of Our Time

Mikhail Lermontov

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