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- Bu səhifədəki naviqasiya:
- 4. The Spy Novel in English Literature
- 4.1 The First Spy Novels and their Authors
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70 71 Sanders, Andrew.:Op.cit.,p.417-419 Ousby, Ian.: Op.cit.,p.1007-1009 72 73 Sanders, Andrew.:Op.cit.,p.463-466 74 Ousby, Ian.: Op.cit.,p.432-433 70 71
7 3and The Prime Minister (1876). The story from The Warden is set in the imaginary English county Barsetshore and tells about the clergyman whose comfortable life is destroyed when he is accused of misusing money, fraud. So this is also the story with a crime the me . Another later Troll ope´s novel The Way We Live Now (1877-73) is drawn as a social satire, which has found comparison with Thackera y´s Vanity Fair (1848). The central character is an Austrian Jewish financier who is involved in financial and political intrigues in London world. As a writer Trollope wrote in a very realistic way. Another Victorian realist, novelist and poet who is worth of mentioning is Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) who set the scene of his works (as Trollope did it) in the imaginary world of Wessex which he created for this purpose. He had a deep likings for the rural way of life which he had known as a child. For his main novels Tess of the d´Urbervi ll es (1891) and Jude the Obscure (1895) received much criticism for the presentation of the immoral woman and big sins, and the decline of class system and values. His main characters were mostly labeled with tragic, unfair, immoral and sometimes with obscene features. He worked with a crime as the theme, which was first of all the crime of rape and murder (see Tess of the d´Urbev il le ). As Trollope as Hardy didn´t gla mori ze the crime, b ut both of them saw it in his realistic substance and perception. Trollope even wit h a li ght sce nt of satire . Hardy´s another well-known works are The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), The Woodlanders (1887), Two on a Tower (1895). Tess o f the d´Ubervilles. Wikipedia Free Encyclopedia. Web 2 December 2009 26
4. The Spy Novel in English Literature 75 There has been spies as long as there has been war and war interests. While spies have a long history dating back to biblical times, in espionage literature it can be said that spies made their appearance relatively late. Espionage fiction is considered as a relatively recent invention. Spy story as a literary genre appeared before World War I at about the same time when the first modern intelligence services started to appear. The rise of spy novels can be associated with a perception of national insecurity in time of changing international relations. The world presented in these novels is a dangerous and Britain is presented as the target of the envy, hatred, hostility of the other European countries and spying was one of the activities of those countries which they do to cause any harm to Britain. Spy novel as the genre is difficult to be defined because its borders are not clear, something between the crime novel and adventure novel. Many books with spy theme contain all their elements. From that reason we can assume that the history of the spy novel is probably almost as long as the history of the crime novel itself. “ The earlier novels were mostly closely connected to the crime novel and the “ gentleman thief” novels. ” The spy story is a close but distinct variation on the tale of detection with the difference that there is no discrete crime involved but rather a covert action which, as John Cawelti and Bruce Rosenberg argue, transgresses convent ional,mora l, or le gal boundari es.” 76 The action of the story is mostly evidently political and the genre is featured and defined by its international subject. Another distinction from the detection genre is that the investigator is often an agent. The spy novel has a unique character, its first purpose, it can be said, is to entertain. A good spy novel enables a reader to feel the world from the inside perspective of the spy. 4.1 The First Spy Novels and their Authors “ The first novel to deal centrally with espionage was James Feni mo re Cooper´s The Spy (1821) which is set in the war between Britain and the newly independent United States. “ James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) was the first novelist to get involved in the theme of espionage. Cooper could not use examples and instead of them he applied the 75 Priestman, Martin.:op.cit. p.115 76 Priestman, Martin.:op.cit. p.115-116 27
elements of other genres – first of all, the romantic historical novels of Sir Walter Scott. 7778 His works The Spy: A tale of the neutral ground (1821) and The Bravo were set in the period of the American Revolution.79 Cooper´s The Spy was linked with the above mentioned Sir Wal te r Scott ´s Waverly series, and told an adventurous tale about the American Revolution, the righteousness of the uprising and the failure of the British army, set in Westchester country. The protagonist was Harvey Birch, who spied for George Washington. Scott inspired Cooper to draw stereotypes of light and dark, good and evil and separate the female into the fair and pure, the dark and tainted. Cooper introduced with Birch a typical American character figure into U.S. literature. Birch was a spy, who fought against the British, though he was captured several times by the Americans, mysteriously managed to escape each time. Harley Birch is a peddler and patriot with big amount of patriotism. His patriotism accompanied Birch to his destiny. 8081 Cooper used love and loyalty to the country as the main theme. Another Cooper´s book with a spy theme was The Bravo (1831). 82 “ In time of Co oper´s life spies and their activities were dangerous, morally tarnished, and prone to scandals, illegally, or both. Spies were considered to be liars, traitors, thieves or even worse – Cooper´s fictional context shifted public opinion toward viewing espionage as a patriotic duty, and seeing the spy in an entirely new light – “the unsunguinary hero”.83 After Coopers´ novel in 1821, there was no more spy fiction until Charles Dickens (1812-1870) published A Tale of Two Cities in 1859 which was a historical story set in the time period of the French Revolution. And 44 more years passed until the next spy 77 78 Franklin, Wayne. The New World of James Fenimore Cooper. New Haven: Yale University Press. 2007. p.8-10, 399-401 Drabble, Margareth. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. Oxford University Press. 1997. p.195 James Fenimore Cooper. Krjasto Web. 17 March 2009. < http://kirjasto:sci.fi/jfcooper.html > 79 Drabble, Margareth. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. Oxford University Press. 1997. p.195 James Fenimore Cooper. Krjasto Web. 17 March 2009. < http://kirjasto:sci.fi/jfcooper.html > 80 81 Franklin, Wayne. The New World of James Fenimore Cooper. New Haven: Yale University Press. 2007. p.8-10, 399-401 Ousby, Ian. The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press. 1992. p.221 82 Woods, Brett F. Revolution and Litera ture: Coop er´s Th e Sp y Revisited. Early America . 14 April 2009. Yüklə 0,5 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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