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The English Novel
Published in 1913, Saintsbury's study of the history of the novel in England examines its influences and origins. His critical essays include discussions on the works of Swift, Scott, Thackeray, Austen, Dickens, as well as writers of the late-nineteenth century.
332 pages, ebook
First published January 1, 1913
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About the author
George Saintsbury
1,103 books13 followersGeorge Edward Bateman Saintsbury was an English scholar, writer, literary historian and critic.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
December 13, 2022
It's so, so nice to read about Victorian fiction from this moment in time and from this person—Saintsbury loves the Victorian novel, has read them and followed their development all the way through its era, but is writing just after the period is clearly over and even the iconoclasts of it like Sheridan are dead. Setting aside what a perceptive and generous critic he is, this specific positioning would be (obviously) impossible to recreate now, no matter how widely you read.
In addition to that, he has opinions about stuff that just no longer exists for us. It is wonderful to read someone who cares about 18th century novels enough to hate so many of them. And he goes back before that—he's read all the English romances, and the English translations of French romances. I've got so much new stuff to read just from his off-hand mentions of novels.
What's interesting to me is the picture of what it's like to live before, like, fictional abundance. Every novel George Saintsbury had access to (almost) is available for free on Gutenberg or Google Books, and 15 years more of them too, and then 100 more years of professional writing if you want to pay for it, plus everything that people write for free and put online right now.
Saintsbury has read, in effect, every English novel—in his Oxford Thackeray intro he mentions he's read Pendennis dozens of times. (I'm on #3.) He's able to trace the English novel's development so closely in part because it's so much smaller as a subject—the profusion of writers and genres and publishers makes a survey like this one practically impossible. But he's also the man for the job because he's been in situations that are impossible for us to imagine; how could any of us ever find ourselves with so little in front of us that we have to try reading a Z-tier 13th century romance for pleasure, and can say "well, there's a little good description in there, and I haven't seen that specific effect any earlier in English." You just wouldn't bother; so much of what is alive to him is dead to us as anything except anthropology, because we have so much more we can do instead.
If a flawed novel has some pleasant passage in it, or appealing quality, well, Saintsbury's library is a physical library, and his bookstores aren't open overnight, and he has to pay for everything he reads. Sometimes he's trapped in someone else's house and he doesn't have his phone, he just has the books they have. I think it might be impossible for someone living in a time of endless Content to understand the history of this vein of content as well as he does, because it's just not as important for us. If something isn't the best along the increasingly narrow lines we're looking for we don't need it.
In addition to that, he has opinions about stuff that just no longer exists for us. It is wonderful to read someone who cares about 18th century novels enough to hate so many of them. And he goes back before that—he's read all the English romances, and the English translations of French romances. I've got so much new stuff to read just from his off-hand mentions of novels.
What's interesting to me is the picture of what it's like to live before, like, fictional abundance. Every novel George Saintsbury had access to (almost) is available for free on Gutenberg or Google Books, and 15 years more of them too, and then 100 more years of professional writing if you want to pay for it, plus everything that people write for free and put online right now.
Saintsbury has read, in effect, every English novel—in his Oxford Thackeray intro he mentions he's read Pendennis dozens of times. (I'm on #3.) He's able to trace the English novel's development so closely in part because it's so much smaller as a subject—the profusion of writers and genres and publishers makes a survey like this one practically impossible. But he's also the man for the job because he's been in situations that are impossible for us to imagine; how could any of us ever find ourselves with so little in front of us that we have to try reading a Z-tier 13th century romance for pleasure, and can say "well, there's a little good description in there, and I haven't seen that specific effect any earlier in English." You just wouldn't bother; so much of what is alive to him is dead to us as anything except anthropology, because we have so much more we can do instead.
If a flawed novel has some pleasant passage in it, or appealing quality, well, Saintsbury's library is a physical library, and his bookstores aren't open overnight, and he has to pay for everything he reads. Sometimes he's trapped in someone else's house and he doesn't have his phone, he just has the books they have. I think it might be impossible for someone living in a time of endless Content to understand the history of this vein of content as well as he does, because it's just not as important for us. If something isn't the best along the increasingly narrow lines we're looking for we don't need it.
Displaying 1 of 1 review