SATIRE IN THE VICTORIAN NOVEL
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
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SATIRE IN THE VICTORIAN
NOVEL
BY
FRANCES THERESA RUSSELL, Ph.D.
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH, STANFORD UNIVERSITY
SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENTOF THE REQUIREMENTS FORTHE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHYIN THE FACULTY OF PHILOSOPHY,COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
New York
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1920
All rights reserved
Copyright, 1920,
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.
Set up and electrotyped. Published January, 1920.
VIRO DOCTISSIMO
DAVID STARR JORDAN
ET
DIS MANIBUS
GUILELMI JAMES
SACRUM
QUI MIHI TEMPORE MEO GRAVISSIMO, NOVA SUPPEDITANTES
OFFICIA NOVAM VITÆ SEMITAM MONSTRAVERUNT
[vii]
PREFACE
If the following monograph were to be presented from the point ofview of a proponent, the author would be put triply on the defensivein relation to the theme. For, from one cause or another, the trio ofterms in the title lies under a certain blight of critical opinion.
Satire, being a thistle “pricked from the thorny branches of reproof,”cannot expect to be cherished in the sensitive human bosom with thewelcome accorded to the fair daffodil or the sweet violet. It must becontent to be admired, if at all, from a safe distance, with the coldeye of intellectual appraisal.
Victorianism has the distinction of being the only period in literaturewhose very name savors of the byword and the reproach. To be anElizabethan is to be envied for the gift of youthful exuberance andan exquisite joy in life. To be a Queen Annian (if the phrase maybe adapted) is to be respected for the accomplishments of maturemanhood,—a dignified mein, ripened judgment, and polished wit. To bea Victorian—that indeed provokes the question whether ’twere betterto be or not to be. The chronological analogy cannot, however, becarried out, for the Victorian, whatever the cause of his unfortunatereputation, can hardly be accused of senility. On the contrary, theimpression prevails that the startled ingenuousness, for instance,with which he opened his eyes at Darwin, Ibsen, and the iconoclasts inHigher Criticism; the vehemence with which he opposed and refuted andfulminated against everything hitherto undreampt[viii] of in his philosophy;the complacency with which he viewed himself and his achievements, wereattributes more appropriate to adolescence than to any later time oflife. Withal there was little of the grace and gayety of youth, andnot much more of the poise and humor of manhood. That the Victorianwas never at ease, in Zion or elsewhere, that he was