Prose writers of the Romantic age
Prose writers
The Romantic period was specialized in poetry.
But these were prose writers who ranked very high-
Namely lamb
Hazlilt
De Quincey etc.
The prose writers did not revolt against the 18th-century concepts like the poets.
But, yes there were changes.
These writers were more concerned with the subject - matter and emotional expression.
There was a decline in the grand style we find Coleridge, Wordsworth, and Austan writing fine prose. But Lamb and De Quincey were excellent.
Charles Lamb
Charles Lamb is one of the most lovable personalities in English literature.
He lived a humble, honest and most self-sacrificing life.
a) he did not marry but took great care of his sister Mary.
b) She was mentally retarded.
In his essay of Elia and Last Essays, he portrays his struggle and pains and misfortunes.
In his essays, he portrays with great insight and human sympathy the crowded life of joys and sorrows.
Lamb was a self-revealing essayist.
a) As a self-revealing essayist, Montaigne was original and-
b) Cowley the first exponent in England
Lamb adds in his essays the ‘solemn confessional’ manner of Sir Thomas Browne.
The style of lamb is called ‘quaint’.
It has a strangeness that we compare with something old-fashioned.
We find traces of the 15th-17th century in his essays.
He loved Milton, Fuller, Sir Thomas Browne, and Burton.
His style is in every change.
This is the secret and charm of his essays.
This prevents him from becoming monotonous and tiresome.
In his hand, the essay reached its perfection.
According to Johnson, Lamb’s essays are a loose sally of mind.
a) Charles started his essays in the personal model but-
b) gradually takes the reader to the universal world.
And with all these characteristics Lamb was given the title- “The prince among English essayists”.
William Hazlitt
Hazlitt was a man of a violent temper.
He was a man of strong likes and dislikes.
He gave Frank judgements about people, not caring for the effect.
Even when England was against Napoleon, Hazlitt worshipped him.
- Hazlitt wrote many essays.
The most effective essay was his ‘the spirit of the age’
Here he gave critical portraits of his contemporaries.
He has an acute power of observation in the interpretation of life.
In his light and essay style flows deep thought and feelings.
The style of Hazlitt has force, brightness and individuality.
We find sometimes stately music.
Like Lamb, Hazlitt’s work also echoes the style of other writers.
But his work never lapses into dullness.
Thomas De Quincey
De Quincey is famous as the writer of ‘impassioned prose’
Like his contemporaries, Quiency was also influenced by Browne and Taylor.
The speciality of his style was the description of the incidents in personal interest.
The reader gets attracted by his prose and poetry elements.
Here is the beauty of the English language.
He wrote mostly for journals.
He touched on nearly all topics- social and political.
Of his best-known work is his “Confessions of an English Opium Easter”
He wrote biographies of a number of historical and literary personages.
His most perfect essay is on ‘Joan of Are’
His essays on principles of literature are original and penetrating.
The knocking at the gate in Macbeth is most brilliant.
The splendour of his “poetic prose” gives its own special spell.
De Quincey is still one of the most fascinating prose writers in England.
The next topic is
Novelists of the Romantic Age
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