The nineteenth century was the great age of the novel, when the realist novel achieved its highest level of development. The novel form began in the 18th century, with Defoe's Robinson Crusoe frequently named as the first novel; but it was still a fairly crude form until Jane Austen came along and perfected the device of an omniscient narrator who can tell us everything everybody is thinking. Just as important, Austen gave her plots in a more unified structure than earlier novelists had achieved. Following Austen, the novel form developed further in the hands of great writers like Emily and Charlotte Bronte and Charles Dickens, until we reach the highest achievement of the realist novel in Mary Ann Evans's Middlemarch (Evans wrote under the pen name George Eliot, and is still known by that name).
These novels are long and take time to read, so we will only read four: Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, Eliot's Middlemarch, and Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray. I will also provide you with some scholarly background materials.
Course requirements: a 5-6 page mid-term, and a 5-6 page final paper to be turned in during finals week. There will be near-daily unannounced reading quizzes. The papers will each count 30 per cent of your grade, and the quizzes and class participation the other 40 per cent. I will drop your three lowest grades on quizzes, and you will have the opportunity to make up for missed quizzes by sending me detailed reading notes in your own handwriting on the assigned reading, within 24 hours. You will be graded on a 4-point scale.
I take a dim view of people coming in late to class. A little bit late is ok, as long as you don't make a habit of it, but more than that shows disrespect for the class.
Also, getting on the internet or on your phones while you're in class is strictly forbidden.
All four of our novels are easily available in many editions, but you should try to get the same editions I'll be using, because we're going to spend a lot of time in class looking at the words of the novels, and it will be hard for you find the page we're on if you have a different pagination.
My editions are: Pride and Prejudice (Bedford St. Martin’s, 1996), Middlemarch ((Oxford World’s Classics, 1998), Jane Eyre (Bedford St. Martin's, 1996); The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oxford World's Classics, 1998).