ENG 334 - Nineteenth Century English Novel (1)

More than a hundred years before the rise of the World Wide Web, the nineteenth-century novel tried to encompass the world within its pages. High life and low life, the country and the city, aristocrats and vagabonds-so many people and places occupy the work of the major British novelists. Because life is short and nineteenth- century novels are long, we will not try to cram five or six books into a single block. Instead, we will read one long, multiplot novel: Vanity Fair, by William Makepeace Thackeray. The point is to slow down, to live inside the pages, to relish Thackeray’s satirical wit and his understanding of life during wartime and peace. Assignments include a creative response in the form of an adaptation of one chapter. Overall, this course is designed for any student who wants to gain a richer understanding of English literary history, the development of the novel, and the professionalization of authorship. Prerequisite: writing-designated course (W), or ENG 201, ENG 202, or ENG 215. Alternate years.
(Humanities)