Jane Austen was a Georgian era author, best known for her social

commentary in novels including 'Sense and Sensibility,' 'Pride and

Prejudice' and 'Emma.'
Who Was Jane Austen?

While not widely known in her own time, Jane Austen's comic novels of love among the landed
gentry gained popularity after 1869, and her reputation skyrocketed in the 20th century. Her
novels, including Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility, are considered literary classics,
bridging the gap between romance and realism. 

Early Life

The seventh child and second daughter of Cassandra and George Austen, Jane Austen was born
on December 16, 1775, in Steventon, Hampshire, England. Austen's parents were well-respected
community members. Her father served as the Oxford-educated rector for a nearby Anglican
parish. The family was close and the children grew up in an environment that stressed learning
and creative thinking. When Austen was young, she and her siblings were encouraged to read
from their father's extensive library. The children also authored and put on plays and charades.

Over the span of her life, Austen would become especially close to her father and older sister,
Cassandra. Indeed, she and Cassandra would one day collaborate on a published work.

To acquire a more formal education, Austen and Cassandra were sent to boarding schools during
Austen's pre-adolescence. During this time, Austen and her sister caught typhus, with Austen
nearly succumbing to the illness. After a short period of formal education cut short by financial
constraints, they returned home and lived with the family from that time forward.

Literary Works

Ever fascinated by the world of stories, Austen began to write in bound

notebooks. In the 1790s, during her adolescence, she started to craft her own
novels and wrote Love and Freindship [sic], a parody of romantic fiction
organized as a series of love letters. Using that framework, she unveiled her
wit and dislike of sensibility, or romantic hysteria, a distinct perspective that
would eventually characterize much of her later writing. The next year she
wrote The History of England..., a 34-page parody of historical writing that
included illustrations drawn by Cassandra. These notebooks, encompassing
the novels as well as short stories, poems and plays, are now referred to as
Austen's Juvenilia.
In 1801, Austen moved to Bath with her father, mother and Cassandra. Then,
in 1805, her father died after a short illness. As a result, the family was thrust
into financial straits; the three women moved from place to place, skipping
between the homes of various family members to rented flats. It was not until
1809 that they were able to settle into a stable living situation at Austen's
brother Edward's cottage in Chawton.

Now in her 30s, Austen started to anonymously publish her works. In the
period spanning 1811-16, she pseudonymously published Sense and
Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice (a work she referred to as her "darling child,"
which also received critical acclaim), Mansfield Park and Emma.

Legacy

While Austen received some accolades for her works while still alive, with her
first three novels garnering critical attention and increasing financial reward, it
was not until after her death that her brother Henry revealed to the public that
she was an author.

Today, Austen is considered one of the greatest writers in English history,

both by academics and the general public. In 2002, as part of a BBC poll, the
British public voted her No. 70 on a list of "100 Most Famous Britons of All
Time." Austen's transformation from little-known to internationally renowned
author began in the 1920s, when scholars began to recognize her works as
masterpieces, thus increasing her general popularity. The Janeites, a Jane
Austen fan club, eventually began to take on wider significance, similar to the
Trekkie phenomenon that characterizes fans of the Star Trek franchise. The
popularity of her work is also evident in the many film and TV adaptations
of Emma, Mansfield Park, Pride and Prejudice, and Sense and Sensibility, as
well as the TV series and film Clueless, which was based on Emma.

Austen was in the worldwide news in 2007, when author David Lassman
submitted to several publishing houses a few of her manuscripts with slight
revisions under a different name, and they were routinely rejected. He
chronicled the experience in an article titled "Rejecting Jane," a fitting tribute
to an author who could appreciate humor and wit.
Over the course of less than a decade of her tragically short
life, Jane Austen changed the literary world forever. Here’s
our guide and timeline to all of Austen’s major published
works in order of publication, including expert commentary
and insight from Austen expert Devoney Looser, author
of The Daily Jane Austen (2019) and The Making of Jane
Austen (2017). Plus, find out when you may have seen
adaptations of Austen’s famous works on MASTERPIECE in the
past!

1811: Sense and Sensibility

 What It’s About: Sense and Sensibility tells the story of the
Dashwoods, sisters Elinor and Marianne, and their romantic
endeavors. Marianne wears her heart on her sleeve,
plunging headfirst into love. Elinor, on the other hand, is
cautious and cares about social convention.
 

Did You Know? When she was 35 years old, Jane Austen

published Sense and Sensibility, her first major work, to
critical acclaim and success. It was the first of her six
published novels, four of which were published
anonymously during her lifetime.
 

Austen Connections: “Austen published just one novel–her

first novel, Sense and Sensibility (1811)—using the tagline,
‘By a Lady’,” explained Looser. “After that, she began to
publish as ‘By the author of Sense and Sensibility’ and then
‘By the author of Sense and Sensibility and Pride and
Prejudice,’ and so on. What this move suggests is that she
wanted loyal readers to be able to follow her from one book
to another and for each novel to advertise and affiliate with
her others.”
 

The decision to publish anonymously wasn’t an uncommon

one. “About half of all novels in this period were published
with some form of anonymity,” Looser noted. “And some
novelists started out publishing anonymously but then
ended up putting their names on their works after the books
gained acclaim, as late as the fourth or fifth edition. Had
Austen lived longer than 1817, it’s possible that she would
have decided to follow suit and put her name on her works
as her own. It doesn’t seem likely, but it’s possible.”
 
 Some Austen fans have wondered if the plot was based on
Austen’s close-knit relationship with her sister Cassandra.
“Jane Austen was incredibly close to her older sister
Cassandra, so it’s not surprising that her fiction would
explore the confidences and conflicts of sisters,” Looser
said. “Readers have long wondered if Jane and Cassandra
might have had opposite temperaments, just like Elinor and
Marianne. There isn’t a lot of evidence for this theory, but
the little we do have suggests something else. Older brother
James Austen once wrote a poem to Jane, as the reputed
author of Sense and Sensibility, saying he thought that she
herself combined the strengths of the two oldest Dashwood
sisters. He says Jane resembles Elinor in mind and Marianne
in feelings. That’s a beautiful tribute to a sister, describing
her as uniting the strengths of sense and sensibility. So
perhaps in creating these characters, Jane Austen was
drawing on two sides of her own personality.”
 

On MASTERPIECE: Fans may remember when Sense and

Sensibility premiered in 2008 starring Dominic Cooper,
Janet McTeer, Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey), Lucy Boynton
and more.
 

[Illustration: “‘Sense and Sensibility’ by Jane Austen –

Marianne coming hastily out of the parlour past Mrs.
Dashwood and her two sisters.”  Illustration by Hugh
Thomson (1860-1920) , 1896.]
1813: Pride and Prejudice
1. What It’s About: The renowned novel Pride and
Prejudice tells the story of the Bennet family,
consisting of five daughters whom Mrs. Bennet is
anxious to see married off. The story focuses heavily
on Elizabeth Bennet, and her complicated, turbulent
romance with Fitzwilliam Darcy.
 

Did You Know? In October 1796 (at the age of 20),

Austen first began writing First Impressions, that
would later become Pride and Prejudice. She
completed it in August 1797, and at the time, her
father submitted it to a publisher with no luck. Not one
to be deterred, Austen then worked on a version with
extensive revisions, which was bought by a publisher in
1812, thanks to the success of her first novel. The
novel, officially titled Pride and Prejudice, debuted in
January 1813 to  more critical acclaim and success.
 

Austen Connections: Rumor has it, Elizabeth Bennet

was Austen’s favorite among all of her heroines. “I
think we imagine her as Austen’s favorite heroine
because of a line from Jane’s letter to Cassandra,”
Looser explained. “Jane writes of her creation,
Elizabeth Bennet, ‘I must confess that I think her as
delightful a creature as ever appeared in print.’ Two
centuries of readers agree!”
 

On Screen: Many adaptations of Pride and

Prejudice have hit the big and small screens, but
perhaps the most popular premiered in 1995 on BBC,
famously starring Colin Firth, Jennifer Ehle and more—
and was also penned by Sanditon (and Les Misérables)
creator Andrew Davies! An earlier version was
broadcast on MASTERPIECE in 1980.
1814: Mansfield Park
What It’s About: Mansfield Park tells the story of Fanny
Price, a young woman whose family sent her to live with
her wealthy (and unkind) aunt and uncle when she was just
a child. The novel focuses on the romantic adventures of
Fanny and those around her.
 

Did You Know? Austen had begun writing Mansfield Park in

1811, the very same year as the publication of Sense and
Sensibility and her revision work on Pride and Prejudice.
Then in 1813, Mansfield Park was completed and accepted
for publication, on the heels of Pride and Prejudice’s
publication just the year before.
 

Austen Connections: While many of Austen’s stories and

characters have prompted speculation about real-life
inspirations, Looser explains that it’s all just that—
speculation—with the exception of one tidbit
from Mansfield Park.
 

“I wouldn’t argue that any of Austen’s characters are based

‘for certain’ on real individuals. Still, it’s fun to speculate,”
she said. “Austen’s naval brothers, Charles and Francis,
would certainly have been inspirations for naval men in her
novels [such as Persuasion]. There is one real-life
connection between life and fiction. Charles bought each of
his sisters, Jane and Cassandra, a piece of jewelry—topaz
crosses. In Mansfield Park, William buys his sister Fanny a
piece of jewelry—an amber cross. Readers have long been
thrilled by this connection between life and fiction.”
 

Though Austen wasn’t officially identified by name on her

books during her lifetime, after Mansfield Park was
published, Austen’s identity was becoming something of an
open secret, Looser explained. “She was publishing
anonymously, but she was not unknown. Her brother Henry
Austen even wrote about how Jane was invited to a literary
evening by ‘a nobleman, personally unknown to her, but
who had good reasons for considering her to be the
authoress of that work’ and ‘was desirous of her joining a
literary circle at his house.’ She turned down the invitation,
but the fact that it came in the first place shows that her
authorship was less private than we usually describe it to
be.”
 

On MASTERPIECE: Back in 2007, an adaptation of Mansfield

Park premiered on MASTERPIECE starring Billie Piper
(Doctor Who), Hayley Atwell (Howard’s End, Captain
America: The First Avenger) and more.
Summary analysis of master piece
Pride and Prejudice Summary. Pride and Prejudice is set primarily in the county
of Hertfordshire, about 50 miles outside of London. The story centers on the the Bennet family ,
particularly Elizabeth. The novel opens at Longbourn , the Bennet family's estate. Mr. and Mrs.
Bennet have five children: Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty, and Lydia.

Critical Novel Analysis The novel Sense and Sensibility is an amazing piece of literary

art developed by Jane Austen . The author intended to tell us a great story of a certain
family known as the Dashwoods lived through times of poverty through
common sense and sensibility. Their situation gets worse when their dad leaves home
and dies.

Mansfield Park. Summary. A young girl named Fanny Price comes to live with her
wealthy uncle and aunt, Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram. Fanny's family is quite poor; her
mother, unlike her sister Lady Bertram, married beneath her, and Fanny's father, a
sailor, is disabled and drinks heavily.
Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens was a British author who penned beloved classics
such as ‘Hard Times,' 'A Christmas Carol,' 'David Copperfield' and
'Great Expectations.'
Who Was Charles Dickens?

Charles Dickens was a British novelist, journalist, editor, illustrator and social
commentator who wrote such beloved classic novels as Oliver Twist, A
Christmas Carol, Nicholas Nickleby, David Copperfield, A Tale of Two
Cities and Great Expectations. 

Dickens is remembered as one of the most important and influential writers of

the 19th century. Among his accomplishments, he has been lauded for
providing a stark portrait of the Victorian-era underclass, helping to bring
about social change.

Early life and Education

Dickens was born Charles John Huffam Dickens on February 7, 1812, in

Portsmouth, on the southern coast of England.

The famed British author was the second of eight children. His father, John
Dickens, was a naval clerk who dreamed of striking it rich. Charles' mother,
Elizabeth Barrow, aspired to be a teacher and school director.

Despite his parents’ best efforts, the family remained poor. Nevertheless, they
were happy in the early days. In 1816, they moved to Chatham, Kent, where
young Dickens and his siblings were free to roam the countryside and explore
the old castle at Rochester.

In 1822, the Dickens family moved to Camden Town, a poor neighborhood in

London. By then the family’s financial situation had grown dire, as John
Dickens had a dangerous habit of living beyond the family’s means.
Eventually, John was sent to prison for debt in 1824, when Charles was just
12 years old.
Following his father’s imprisonment, Dickens was forced to leave school to
work at a boot-blacking factory alongside the River Thames. At the run-down,
rodent-ridden factory, Dickens earned six shillings a week labeling pots of
“blacking,” a substance used to clean fireplaces. It was the best he could do to
help support his family.

Looking back on the experience, Dickens saw it as the moment he said

goodbye to his youthful innocence, stating that he wondered “how [he] could
be so easily cast away at such a young age.”

He felt abandoned and betrayed by the adults who were supposed to take
care of him. These sentiments would later become a recurring theme in his
writing.

Much to his relief, Dickens was permitted to go back to school when his father
received a family inheritance and used it to pay off his debts.

But when Dickens was 15, his education was pulled out from under him once
again. In 1827, he had to drop out of school and work as an office boy to
contribute to his family’s income. As it turned out, the job became a launching
point for his writing career.

Journalist, Editor and Illustrator

Within a year of being hired, Dickens began freelance reporting at the law
courts of London. Just a few years later, he was reporting for two major
London newspapers.

In 1833, he began submitting sketches to various magazines and newspapers

under the pseudonym “Boz.” In 1836, his clippings were published in his first
book, Sketches by Boz.

In the same year, Dickens started publishing The Posthumous Papers of the

Pickwick Club. His series, originally written as captions for artist Robert
Seymour’s humorous sports-themed illustrations, took the form of monthly
serial installments.
The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club was wildly popular with
readers. In fact, Dickens’ captions were even more popular than the
illustrations they were meant to accompany.

He later edited magazines including Household Words and All the Year

Round, the latter of which he founded.

Charles Dickens' Books

Throughout his career, Dickens published a total of 15 novels. His most well-
known works include:

'Oliver Twist' (1837-1838)

Oliver Twist, Dickens first novel, follows the life of an orphan living in the
streets. The book was inspired by how Dickens felt as an impoverished child
forced to get by on his wits and earn his own keep. 

As publisher of a magazine called Bentley’s Miscellany, Dickens began

publishing Oliver Twist in installments between February 1837 and April 1838,
with the full book edition published in November 1838. 

Dickens continued showcasing Oliver Twist in the magazines he later edited,

including Household Words and All the Year Round. The novel was extremely
well-received in both England and America. Dedicated readers of Oliver
Twist eagerly anticipated the next monthly installment.

Dickens penned the book in just six weeks, beginning in October and finishing
just in time for the holiday celebrations. The novel was intended as a social
criticism, to bring attention to the hardships faced by England’s poorer
classes. 

The book was a roaring success, selling more than 6,000 copies upon
publication. Readers in England and America were touched by the book’s
empathetic emotional depth; one American entrepreneur reportedly gave his
employees an extra day’s holiday after reading it. Despite literary criticism, the
book remains one of Dickens’ most well-known and beloved works.
'Dealings with the Firm of Dombey and Son' (1846 to 1848)
From October 1846 to April 1848, Dickens published, in monthly
installments, Dealings with the Firm of Dombey and Son. The novel, which
was published in book form in 1848, centers on the theme of how business
tactics affect a family’s personal finances. 

Taking a dark view of England, it is considered pivotal to Dickens’ body of

work in that it set the tone for his other novels.

'David Copperfield' (1849 to 1850)

David Copperfield was the first work of its kind: No one had ever written a
novel that simply followed a character through his everyday life. From May
1849 to November 1850, Dickens published the book in monthly installations,
with the full novel form published in November 1850. 

In writing it, Dickens tapped into his own personal experiences, from his
difficult childhood to his work as a journalist. Although David Copperfield is not
considered Dickens’ best work, it was his personal favorite. It also helped
define the public’s expectations of a Dickensian novel.
Dickens confessed to having a "favorite child" among his novels, and critics have largely agreed,
calling David Copperfield his masterpiece and his triumph. It is also the most autobiographical of
Dickens's novels—a story about coming of age, ambition, family, and second chances. Much like
Dickens himself, David shows promise as a young child but is taken out of school and put to work
in a factory. In what has become one of the most famous pilgrimages in literary history, the young
David sets out without money, parents, or prospects to search for his aunt, a woman he knows
only through his mother’s memory. And this journey serves as a microcosm of the larger quest
David embarks on as he sets out to become, like Dickens, a great author. Along the way, David
meets some of the most memorable supporting-cast members in all of Dickens’s work: Betsey
Trotwood, Uriah Heep, and Wilkins Micawber.

In this course, we will read Dickens's novel while situating it in its biographical, historical, and
cultural context. We will consider how Dickens made the genre of the bildungsroman, or coming-
of-age novel, his own. Turning to Dickens's role as a social critic, we will consider how his
portrayals of Victorian work, education, family, empire, and gender roles (especially the figure of
the "fallen woman”) speak to our contemporary debates.
Charles Dickens was well versed in the poverty of London, as he
himself was a child worker after his father was sent to debtors’ prison.
His appreciation of the hardships endured by impoverished citizens
stayed with him for the rest of his life and was evident in his
journalistic writings and novels. Dickens began writing Oliver
Twist after the adoption of the Poor Law of 1834, which halted
government payments to the able-bodied poor unless they
entered workhouses. Thus, Oliver Twist became a vehicle for
social criticism aimed directly at the problem of poverty in 19th-
century London.
Summary analysis
Oliver Twist Oliver Twist is born in a workhouse in 1830s England. His mother, whose name no
one knows, is found on the street and dies just after Oliver’s birth. Oliver spends the first nine
years of his life in a badly run home for young orphans and then is transferred to a workhouse
for adults.
A short summary of Charles Dickens's David Copperfield. ... Summary Plot Overview. Now a
grown man, David Copperfield tells the story of his youth. As a young boy, he lives happily with
his mother and his nurse, Peggotty. His father died before he was born.
Dombey and Son. Jump to navigation Jump to search. Dombey and Son is a novel by English
author Charles Dickens. It follows the fortunes of a shipping firm, whose owner is frustrated at
not having a son to follow him in the job, and initially rejects his daughter’s love, eventually
becoming reconciled with her before his death.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is the creator Sherlock Holmes, the best-known detective in
literature and the embodiment of scientific thinking. Doyle himself was not a good
example of rational personality: he believed in fairies and was interested in occultism.
Sherlock Holmes stories have been translated into more than fifty languages, and made
into plays, films, radio and television series, a musical comedy, a ballet, cartoons, comic
books, and advertisement. By 1920 Doyle was one of the most highly paid writers in the
world.

Oil painting of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Doyle was born on May 22, 1859 at Picardy Place, Edinburgh, as the son of Charles
Altamont Doyle, a civil servant in the Edinburgh Office of Works, and Mary (Foley)
Doyle. Both of Doyle’s parents were Roman Catholics. His father suffered from epilepsy
and alcoholism and was eventually institutionalized. Charles Altamont died in an asylum
in 1893. In the same year Doyle decided to finish permanently the adventures of his
master detective. Because of financial problems, Doyle’s mother kept a boarding house.
Dr. Tsukasa Kobayashi has suspected in an article, that Doyle’s mother had a long
affair with Bryan Charles Waller, a lodger and a student of pathology, who had a deep
impact to Conan Doyle.

Doyle was educated in Jesuit schools. He studied at Edinburgh University and in 1884
he married Louise Hawkins. Doyle qualified as doctor in 1885. After graduation Doyle
practiced medicine as an eye specialist at Southsea near Porsmouth in Hampshire until
1891 when he became a full time writer.

Biography of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle




Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, most famed for his four novels and fifty-six short stories about the
"consulting detective" Sherlock Holmes, was born on May 22, 1859 in Edinburgh to a Catholic family
of ten. His father, Charles Altamont Doyle, was an architect and an artist. Unfortunately, his talents
were shadowed by alcoholism and epilepsy. He eventually died in an asylum where he was
institutionalized. As a result, the family suffered financially, though Arthur Conan Doyle's mother,
Mary, was able to pay for his schooling at a Jesuit institution.

Doyle decided to pursue medical studies at Edinburgh University, and had to take a job as a doctor's
assistant to pay for his school fees. He was already writing and publishing stories by this time, but he
set up a practice in Southsea in the early 1880s. During this period, he completed the first Sherlock
Holmes novel, A Study in Scarlet, which was published in Beeton's Christmas Annual in 1887. Sherlock
Holmes was modeled after Doyle's university professor, Joseph Bell, whom he greatly admired. Doyle
wrote to Bell, "It is most certainly to you that I owe Sherlock Holmes. ... [R]ound the centre of
deduction and inference and observation which I have heard you inculcate I have tried to build up a
man."

However, there was also much of Doyle himself in the character of Sherlock Holmes, as Bell once
remarked. Doyle is known to have been analytical, attentive to detail, methodical (though
occasionally absentminded and clumsy), imaginative, and reserved. He even solved a mystery of a
missing person in 1907 in only one hour's time. This case involved a countrywoman who was afraid
that her cousin had been murdered; Doyle deduced from the man's bank records, however, that he
had simply gone to Scotland.

In Doyle's two autobiographical works, The Stark Munro Letters and Memories and Adventures, he performed
little analysis of either his own personality or spiritual problems. Like Holmes, then, Doyle concealed
his personal self. Similar to Holmes, too, Doyle was known as an energetic and prodigious person,
who also would disappear into his study for days. As his son, Adrian, remarked: "My memories as a
youth are mottled with sudden, silent periods when, following some agitated stranger, or missive, my
father would disappear into his study for two or three days on end."

Doyle published other historical works as he endeavored to write serious, "better things." However,
he took advantage of the up-and-coming Strand Magazine (1891) by publishing short stories there for
financial gain. The Holmes short stories that he contributed became very popular with the reading
public. The editor of the magazine, George Newnes, was committed to high-quality production and
plenty of illustrations, including the memorable visual image of Sherlock Holmes designed by Sidney
Paget.

The popularity of the Holmes stories secured Doyle financial comfort and fame, but he soon tired of
his hero and killed him off in The Final Problem (1893). However, he later returned to stories about his
hero when the public clamor proved too difficult to ignore. All the while, though, Doyle wrote other
works and took a post as a war correspondent in Egypt; supported the British management of the
Boer War; he oversaw a field hospital in South Africa; and he was knighted in 1902. In 1902, Doyle
penned one of his most famous Sherlock Holmes works, The Hound of the Baskervilles.

In 1912, Doyle wrote one of his other most enduring works, The Lost World. This science fiction tale
centered on the character Professor Challenger's journey to the Amazon, where he discovered a
place in which dinosaurs and other prehistoric beasts still survived.

During World War I, Doyle became immensely interested in spiritualism, and he wrote many works
on the subject. This new focus of his produced much criticism, especially regarding his support for
the photographs of the Cottingley Fairies. Throughout this time, he continued to write poetry, short
stories, pamphlets, and adventure novels. Some of his work dealt with humanitarian causes, such
as The Crime of the Congo (1909), which excoriated the brutality of the Belgians in the Congo.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle died on July 7, 1930 of a heart attack; he was 71 years old. He was married
twice; his first wife Louise died from tuberculosis in 1906, and his second wife Jean survived him. He
had five children in total. He was buried in an anonymous grave in unconsecrated ground outside a
 churchyard fence, on account of his avowedly Spiritualist religious beliefs. The graveyard was later
extended and now contains his grave; there are still no public headstones, however.

Martin Clunes (Doc Martin) stars as world-famous author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of
Sherlock Holmes, in a three-part Masterpiece adaptation of Julian Barnes' acclaimed novel of
the same name, which is loosely based on an intriguing series of genuine events in the life of
Conan Doyle. Arthur & George, airing in three gripping episodes on Sundays, September 6
through 20 at 7:00 p.m. on KUED, is set in 1903 and focuses on Conan Doyle's real-life attempt
to clear George Edjali,

Sherlock Holmes is a fictional character created by Arthur Conan Doyle between 1887 and 1927 in

62 cases (4 novels and 58 short stories). He is an amateur detective with powerful observation and
deduction abilities. With 62 stories of the detective, it is the most numerous
of Conan Doyle recurring characters.
Summary of sherlock homes
Sherlock is so special because the author of the books and creator of the character Sherlock Holmes solves cases in astounding
ways with such twists that the reader is not aware about. It showcases the extraordinary talent of observation which is very rare to
find in normal day to day life. The detached…

William Blake 1757-1827

William Blake was a 19th-century writer and artist who is regarded as a seminal figure of the Romantic
Age. His writings have influenced countless writers and artists through the ages.

Who Was William Blake?

William Blake began writing at an early age and claimed to have had his first vision, of a tree
full of angels, at age 10. He studied engraving and grew to love Gothic art, which he
incorporated into his own unique works. A misunderstood poet, artist and visionary throughout
much of his life, Blake found admirers late in life and has been vastly influential since his death
in 1827.

Early Years

William Blake was born on November 28, 1757, in the Soho district of London, England. He
only briefly attended school, being chiefly educated at home by his mother. The Bible had an
early, profound influence on Blake, and it would remain a lifetime source of inspiration, coloring
his life and works with intense spirituality.

At an early age, Blake began experiencing visions, and his friend and journalist Henry Crabb
Robinson wrote that Blake saw God's head appear in a window when Blake was 4 years old. He
also allegedly saw the prophet Ezekiel under a tree and had a vision of "a tree filled with angels."
Blake's visions would have a lasting effect on the art and writings that he produced.
 The Young Artist

Blake's artistic ability became evident in his youth, and by age 10, he was enrolled at Henry Pars'
drawing school, where he sketched the human figure by copying from plaster casts of ancient
statues. At age 14, he apprenticed with an engraver. Blake's master was the engraver to the
London Society of Antiquaries, and Blake was sent to Westminster Abbey to make drawings of
tombs and monuments, where his lifelong love of gothic art was seeded.

Also around this time, Blake began collecting prints of artists who had fallen out of vogue at the
time, including Durer, Raphael and Michelangelo. In the catalog for an exhibition of his own
work in 1809, nearly 40 years later, in fact, Blake would lambast artists "who endeavour to raise
up a style against Rafael, Mich. Angelo, and the Antique." He also rejected 18th-century literary
trends, preferring the Elizabethans (Shakespeare, Jonson and Spenser) and ancient ballads
instead.

The Maturing Artist

In 1779, at age 21, Blake completed his seven-year apprenticeship and became a journeyman
copy engraver, working on projects for book and print publishers. Also preparing himself for a
career as a painter, that same year, he was admitted to the Royal Academy of Art's Schools of
Design, where he began exhibiting his own works in 1780. Blake's artistic energies branched out
at this point, and he privately published his Poetical Sketches (1783), a collection of poems that
he had written over the previous 14 years.

In 1804, Blake began to write and illustrate Jerusalem (1804-20), his most ambitious work to date. He also began
showing more work at exhibitions (including Chaucer's Canterbury Pilgrims and Satan Calling Up His Legions), but
these works were met with silence, and the one published review was absurdly negative; the reviewer called the
exhibit a display of "nonsense, unintelligibleness and egregious vanity," and referred to Blake as "an unfortunate
lunatic."

Blake was devastated by the review and lack of attention to his works, and, subsequently, he withdrew more and
more from any attempt at success. From 1809 to 1818, he engraved few plates (there is no record of Blake producing
any commercial engravings from 1806 to 1813). He also sank deeper into poverty, obscurity and paranoia.

In 1819, however, Blake began sketching a series of "visionary heads," claiming that the historical and imaginary
figures that he depicted actually appeared and sat for him. By 1825, Blake had sketched more than 100 of them,
including those of Solomon and Merlin the magician and those included in "The Man Who Built the Pyramids" and
"Harold Killed at the Battle of Hastings"; along with the most famous visionary head, that included in Blake's "The
Ghost of a Flea."

Remaining artistically busy, between 1823 and 1825, Blake engraved 21 designs for an illustrated Book of Job (from
the Bible) and Dante's Inferno. In 1824, he began a series of 102 watercolor illustrations of Dante — a project that
would be cut short by Blake's death in 1827.

Songs of Innocence and of Experience is a collection of illustrated poems by William Blake. It appeared in two phases: a few first copies were printed and
illuminated by Blake himself in 1789; five years later he bound these poems with a set of new poems in a volume titled Songs of Innocence and of Experience
Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul

Summary analysis

Songs of Innocence and of Experience Summary & Analysis. William Blake published his second collection of poetry, Songs of
Innocence, in 1789. He published it with the accompanying illustrative plates, a feat accomplished through an engraving and illustrating a
process of his own design. The publication of Songs of Innocence began his series of “Illuminated Books,” in which Blake combined text
and visual artwork to achieve his poetic effect.

Geoffrey Chaucer 1343-1400

English poet Geoffrey Chaucer wrote the unfinished work, 'The Canterbury Tales.' It is considered one of
the greatest poetic works in English.
Who Was Geoffrey Chaucer?

In 1357, Geoffrey Chaucer became a public servant to Countess Elizabeth of Ulster and

continued in that capacity with the British court throughout his lifetime. The Canterbury
Tales became his best known and most acclaimed work. He died October 25, 1400, in London,
England, and was the first to be buried in Westminster Abbey’s Poet’s Corner.

Early Life

Poet Geoffrey Chaucer was born circa 1340, most likely at his parents’ house on Thames Street
in London, England. Chaucer’s family was of the bourgeois class, descended from an affluent
family who made their money in the London wine trade. According to some sources, Chaucer’s
father, John, carried on the family wine business.

Geoffrey Chaucer is believed to have attended the St. Paul’s Cathedral School, where he
probably first became acquainted with the influential writing of Virgil and Ovid.

In 1357, Chaucer became a public servant to Countess Elizabeth of Ulster, the Duke of
Clarence’s wife, for which he was paid a small stipend—enough to pay for his food and clothing.
In 1359, the teenage Chaucer went off to fight in the Hundred Years’ War in France, and at
Rethel he was captured for ransom. Thanks to Chaucer’s royal connections, King Edward III
helped pay his ransom. After Chaucer’s release, he joined the Royal Service, traveling
throughout France, Spain and Italy on diplomatic missions throughout the early to mid-1360s.
For his services, King Edward granted Chaucer a pension of 20 marks.

In 1366, Chaucer married Philippa Roet, the daughter of Sir Payne Roet, and the marriage
conveniently helped further Chaucer’s career in the English court.

The Canterbury Tales is by far Chaucer’s best known and most acclaimed work. Initially Chaucer had planned for
each of his characters to tell four stories a piece. The first two stories would be set as the character was on his/her
way to Canterbury, and the second two were to take place as the character was heading home. Apparently,
Chaucer’s goal of writing 120 stories was an overly ambitious one. In actuality, The Canterbury Tales is made up of
only 24 tales and rather abruptly ends before its characters even make it to Canterbury. The tales are fragmented
and varied in order, and scholars continue to debate whether the tales were published in their correct order. Despite
its erratic qualities, The Canterbury Tales continues to be acknowledged for the beautiful rhythm of Chaucer’s
language and his characteristic use of clever, satirical wit.

The Canterbury Tales is a collection of 24 stories that runs to over 17,000 lines written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer. Set
in England in the Middle Ages, stories of peasants, noblemen, clergy and demons are interwoven with brief scenes from Chaucer's
home life and experiences implied to be the basis for the Canterbury Tales.

In this great Middle English classic, Chaucer uses an imaginative frame-story format to present twenty-four tales: A group of pilgrims meet at a tavern
on their way to the shrine of Becket at Canterbury and agree to pass the long hours of their journey in a storytelling contest to be judged by the
innkeeper. The stories range from bawdy burlesques to tales of chivalry, from local folk legends to sermons. Chaucer's genius is such that the tales
reveal the personalities of their tellers; in addition, the pilgrims grow as distinct personalities as they converse and argue between stories.

Summary

The Canterbury Tales Summary. After a description of the spring, Chaucer the narrator introduces each of the pilgrims one by one.
The form of the General Prologue is an estates satire: Chaucer is describing characters from each of the three medieval estates
(church, nobility, and peasantry) with various levels of mockery.
John Donne 1572-1631

John Donne must be one of the most interesting writers who ever lived, both
as a poet and a man. His life was a colourful adventure and his poems are
significant feats of language.
A Jacobean writer, more or less a contemporary of
Shakespeare, Fletcher and Webster, but very distant from those theatre
writers, both regarding his social class and his literary work, he is now
regarded as the pre-eminent poet of a type of poetry that we refer to as the
‘Metaphysical Poets.’
Donne was a man of significant talent and ability. He was born into a Roman
Catholic family at a time when being a Catholic was illegal and this was a
disadvantage to him during the first part of his life. At the age of  eleven he
was entered at Hart Hall (later to become Hertford College) Oxford,  where he
spent three years, and was then admitted to the University of Cambridge
where he studied for a further three years. Neither of the colleges awarded
him a degree because he was a Catholic.

In 1591 he began studying law and qualified as a lawyer. By this time he was
well known around London as Jack Donne, man about town, party-goer and
womaniser. Keen to see the world he set out and crossed Europe and 1596
found him at Cadiz, fighting the Spanish with the Earl of Essex and Sir Walter
Raleigh.
He lived in Italy and Spain for a few years and on his return to England, aged
25, he was appointed secretary to Sir Thomas Egerton, the Lord Keeper of
the Great Seal. He moved into Egerton’s London house and before long, fell
in love with his niece, Anne More. Her father and uncle opposed the marriage
but the couple went ahead, eloped and were married. Donne was captured
and imprisoned. In a letter to Anne he famously signed off with ‘John Donne,
Anne Donne, Undone.’
 After his release he and Anne retired to the country where he took on work as
a lawyer and they struggled financially, raising a large family.
In 1602 Donne was elected the Member of Parliament for Brackley. It was
unpaid but it led to other things. He converted to Anglicanism, took orders and
began to build a career as an Anglican clergyman. After many plaudits for his
anti-Catholic pamphlets he ended up as the Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral in
London, where he continued until the end of his life.
During all of that he was writing his poems. He is best known for his love
poems and his religious poems, both filled with passion and enormous
energy. The love poems were written to and about his wife, whom he adored.
Any separation from her was painful and he wrote about that with great
feeling.
One of his most famous quotes, indeed, one of the most famous in the
English culture, is not from one of his poems but from a sermon from the
pulpit of St Paul’s:
‘No man is an iland, intire of it selfe; every man is a peece of the Continent, a
part of the maine; if a clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse,
as well as if a Promontorie were, as well as if a Mannor of thy friends or of
thine owne were; any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in
Mankinde; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for
thee…’

He wrote most of his love lyrics and erotic poems during this time. His first books of poems, “Satires” and “Songs and Sonnets,”
were highly prized among a small group of admirers. In 1593, John Donne’s brother, Henry, was convicted of Catholic sympathies
and died in prison soon after.

Donne wrote most of his love lyrics, erotic verse, and some sacred poems in the 1590's, creating two major volumes of
work: Satires, and Songs and Sonnets. In 1598, after returning from a two-year naval expedition against Spain, Donne was appointed
private secretary to Sir Thomas Edgarton.

Lesson Summary. 'Song' by John Donne is also commonly referred to by its first line - 'Go and catch a falling star,' which introduces the
poet's discussion on the impossibility of finding an honest woman.

Summary
We do not know for sure when John Donne wrote his love poetry, because although it circulated in
manuscripts during his lifetime, it was not published until two years after his death in Songs and
Sonnets (1633). Confusingly, the collection does not contain sonnets as one would typically define them;
rather, during Donne’s time the term was used more loosely to mean “love lyric.” Most likely he wrote
many of them in the 1590s, before he married Anne More in 1601, and then some of the more serious
love poems after his marriage. In a letter to a friend, Donne distinguished “Jack Done,” the persona of
these love poems, from “Dr. John Donne,” the religious man who became Dean of St. Paul’s and wrote the
Holy Sonnets later in his life after his wife died. Many of his love poems show the poet chasing pretty
women, trying to seduce them through wit and promises of pleasure, while others explore more profound
meanings of spiritual love and commitment. The poetry usually mocks traditional images of love or uses
surprising and dense metaphors called “conceits,” which compare two very dissimilar things, to describe it.
Regardless of the treatment of love, all of the poems present a man who loves deeply. The intensity of the
emotions in the sonnets as well as their brilliance have caused many critics to argue that Donne is one of
the greatest love poets in the English language.
George Eliot 1819-1880

George Eliot was the pen name of Mary Ann Evans, a novelist who produced
some of the major classic novels of the Victorian era, including The Mill on the
Floss, Adam Bede, Silas Marner, Romola, Felix Holt, Daniel Deronda and her
masterpiece, Middlemarch.
It is impossible to overestimate the significance of Eliot’s novels in the English
culture: they went right to the heart of the small-town politics that made up the
fabric of English society. Her novels were essentially political: Middlemarch is
set in a small town just as the Reform Bill of 1832 was about to be introduced.
She goes right into the minutia of the town’s people’s several concerns,
creating numerous immortal characters whose interactions reveal Eliot’s deep
insight into human psychology.
During the twentieth century there were numerous films and television plays
and serials of her novels, placing her in a category with Shakespeare and
Dickens. The distinguished literary critic, Harold Bloom, wrote that she was
one of the greatest Western writers of all time.

George Eliot lived with her father until his death in 1849. He was something of
a bully and while in his house she lived a life of conformity, even regularly
attending church. She was thirty when he died and it was at that point that her
life took off. She travelled in Europe and on her return, with the intention of
writing, she was offered the editorship of the journal, The Westminster
Review. She met many influential men and began an affair with the married
George Lewes. They lived together openly, something that wasn’t done at the
time, and, when she became famous after the publication of her first novel,
Adam Bede, when she was forty, using the name George Eliot, their domestic
arrangements scandalised Victorian society.
Lewes’ health failed and after his death she married John Cross, a literary
agent twenty years her junior. After Adam Bede more novels followed swiftly
on its heels.
She died in 1880, aged sixty-one, and is buried in Highgate Cemetery beside
George Lewes.
George Eliot's masterpiece, Middlemarch, appeared after the deaths of Thackeray (1863) and Dickens (1870). This is hardly an
accident. Subtitled "a study of provincial life", the novel has a didactic realism that's a world away from Vanity Fair or Great
Expectations.

summary

Two major life choices govern the narrative of Middlemarch. One is marriage and the other is vocation. Eliot takes both choices very
seriously. Short, romantic courtships lead to trouble, because both parties entertain unrealistic ideals of each other. They marry
without getting to know one another. Marriages based on compatibility work better. Moreover, marriages in which women have a
greater say also work better, such as the marriage between Fred and Mary. She tells him she will not marry if he becomes a
clergyman. Her condition saves Fred from an unhappy entrapment in an occupation he doesn't like. Dorothea and Casaubon
struggle continually because Casaubon attempts to make her submit to his control. The same applies in the marriage between
Lydgate and Rosamond.

The choice of an occupation by which one earns a living is also an important element in the book. Eliot illustrates the consequences
of making the wrong choice. She also details at great length the consequences of confining women to the domestic sphere alone.
Dorothea's passionate ambition for social reform is never realized. She ends with a happy marriage, but there is some sense that
her end as merely a wife and mother is a waste. Rosamond's shrewd capabilities degenerate into vanity and manipulation. She is
restless within the domestic sphere, and her stifled ambitions only result in unhappiness for herself and her husband.

Eliot's refusal to conform to happy endings demonstrates the fact that Middlemarch is not meant to be entertainment. She wants to
deal with real-life issues, not the fantasy world to which women writers were often confined. Her ambition was to create a portrait of
the complexity of ordinary human life: quiet tragedies, petty character failings, small triumphs, and quiet moments of dignity. The
complexity of her portrait of provincial society is reflected in the complexity of individual characters. The contradictions in the
character of the individual person are evident in the shifting sympathies of the reader. One moment, we pity Casaubon, the next we
judge him critically.

Middlemarch stubbornly refuses to behave like a typical novel. The novel is a collection of relationships between several major
players in the drama, but no single one person occupies the center of the action. No one person can represent provincial life. It is
necessary to include multiple people. Eliot's book is fairly experimental for its time in form and content, particularly because she was
a woman writer.Middlemarch is a highly unusual novel. Although it is primarily a Victorian novel, it has many characteristics typical
to modern novels. Critical reaction to Eliot's masterpiece work was mixed. A common accusation leveled against it was its morbid,
depressing tone. Many critics did not like Eliot's habit of scattering obscure literary and scientific allusions throughout the book. In
their opinion a woman writer should not be so intellectual. Eliot hated the "silly, women novelists." In the Victorian era, women
writers were generally confined to writing the stereotypical fantasies of the conventional romance fiction. Not only did Eliot dislike the
constraints imposed on women's writing, she disliked the stories they were expected to produce. Her disdain for the tropes of
conventional romance is apparent in her treatment of marriage between Rosamond and Lydgate. Both and Rosamond and Lydgate
think of courtship and romance in terms of ideals taken directly from conventional romance. Another problem with such fiction is that
marriage marks the end of the novel. Eliot goes through great effort to depict the realities of marriage.

Moreover, Eliot's many critics found Middlemarch to be too depressing for a woman writer. Eliot refused to bow to the conventions of
a happy ending. An ill-advised marriage between two people who are inherently incompatible never becomes completely
harmonious. In fact, it becomes a yoke. Such is the case in the marriages of Lydgate and Dorothea. Dorothea was saved from living
with her mistake for her whole life because her elderly husband dies of a heart attack. Lydgate and Rosamond, on the other hand,
married young.
:

John Milton 1608-1674

English is often referred to as ‘the language of Shakespeare and Milton.’

Milton’s poetry has been seen as the most perfect poetic expression in the
English language for four centuries.
His most famous poem, the epic Paradise Lost is a high point of English epic
poetry. Its story has entered into English and European culture to such an
extent that the details of our ideas of heaven and hell and paradise, Adam and
Eve, Satan and his legions’ war against God, the arch angel Gabriel and all of
those Genesis characters and events, come from Milton’s imagining of them
in this poem.
Although so many of our ideas about that story come from Paradise
Lost Milton is not read much these days. He is still studied in universities that
wish to give their students a grounding in classic English poetry, however.
 Paradise Lost has all the elements of Greek epic poetry, such as extended
metaphors; a hero with cosmic significance (Satan); a setting that
encompasses the whole world or, in this case, the universe; battle deeds that
go beyond normal acts of warfare; the intervention of supernatural beings in
the affairs of humans; and language that is suited to the elevated events and
the characters of the epic. Itg is this last characteristic that most distances the
modern reader from Milton’s poetry. This extract shows how far distant the
poetry is from the modern taste:

PARADISE LOST
After the Restoration (1660), Milton was blind, ageing and in disgrace. His greatest work now began. Paradise Lost was the result of Milton's long-eherished ambition to
write a great epic. The twelve books (originally ten) of blank verse were probably written in 1658-63 and published in 1667, Milton receiving an advance of £5. The aim
of Paradise Lost, as the poet explains, is 'to justify the ways of God to men'. It opens with the expulsion of Satan from Heaven and ends with the Fall of Man and the
promise of future redemption through Jesus. The hero is Adam, the 'villain' Satan, though as many readers have remarked, Satan is almost too interesting as a
character. Immensely long, it is a work of continually sustained intellectual imagination backed by prodigious learning, of glorious, inimitable verse and an unrivalled
ear for language. As a work of Christian art, it stands with Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel vault.
Paradise Regained (published 1671) is a kind of sequel, shorter (six books), the language rich, but less exalted. The theme is again temptation - of Jesus by
Satan. Samson Agonistes is a tragedy on the Greek model relating the last days of Samson, "eyeless in Gaza". It was not meant to be performed, but sometimes has
been, and it provided the subject of one of Handel's finest oratorios.

Aummary

Paradise Lost Summary Milton's epic poem opens on the fiery lake of hell, where Satan and his army of fallen angels find themselves
chained. Satan and his leutenant Beelzebub get up from the lake and yell to the others to rise and join them.
Paradise Lost, epic poem in blank verse, of the late works by John Milton, originally issued in 10 books in 1667. Many scholars
consider Paradise Lost to be one of the greatest poems in the English language. It tells the biblical story of the fall from grace of Adam
and Eve (and, by extension, all humanity).
George Orwell 1903-1950

George Orwell was the pen name of Eric Blair, a twentieth-century writer,
equally at home with journalism, essays, novels, literary criticism and social
commentary. He was famous in all those areas, but will be particularly
remembered for two of his novels, Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty Four,
both among the most significant works of literature of the twentieth century, 

George Orwell was the pen name of Eric Blair, a twentieth century writer,
equally at home with journalism, essays, novels, literary criticism and social
commentary. He was famous in all those areas, but will be particularly
remembered for two of his novels, Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty Four,
both among the most significant works of literature of the twentieth century
and two of the most influential. Indeed, many of George Orwell’s quotes from
 his works have become commonly known, and used as new English language
phrases.
Three of Orwell’s non-fiction collections are classics of journalism. Down and
Out in Paris and London (1933) tells the story of living as a tramp in those two
rich cities; The Road to Wigan Pier (1937) is a close observation of the
working class in the north of England and Homage to Catalonia (1938) is an
account of his activities in the Spanish Civil War.
A keen observer of the trends of his time Orwell forged his two great novels
from those observations and, particularly in the case of Nineteen Eighty
Four he emerged as a kind of prophet, warning society about where it seemed
to be heading. In the novel people have become dehumanised, governed by
an unseen administration that controls them with a fast-growing technology.
The novel makes the future look bleak. Governments, since the book came
out, have often been warned by their critics of bringing the country closer to
nineteen eighty four, with the increase of such things as censorship and
camera surveillance. The language Orwell used in writing this novel contains
many words and phrases which he employed to create the dystopian world of
the novel.
The classic novel 1984 written by George Orwell is a dry and horrific tale about power, ideals, and change. Spoilers ahead. The
novel 1984 is set in a distopian world in the year 1984, 35 years after the book was published.

1984 Summary ‘1984’ by George Orwell follows Winston Smith , who attempts to fights back against a totalitarian Party that rules
Oceania and his entire life. It is a dystopian novel that tells the story of Winston Smith and warns of the dangers of a totalitarian
government that rules through fear, surveillance, propaganda, and brainwashing.
Harold Pinter 1930-2008
Harold Pinter won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2005, three years before
his death from cancer. He had a career of more than half a century as a
playwright, director, actor and writer of screenplays for television and film.
He was without doubt the most influential English playwright of the twentieth
century and so earns his place on this list. Like Charles Dickens, he was not
only an actor and a leading man of letters of his time, but also a campaigner –
in his case mainly political. Although in later life he expressed disdain for
political organisations, in his younger days he was active in the Campaign for
Nuclear Disarmament and the Anti-Apartheid Movement. He opposed the Gulf
War of 1991, the Afghanistan war and the invasion of Iraq. Although he was a
Jew he supported the Palestine cause and spoke out in its support.
But Harold Pinter was first and foremost a writer. The distinctive style and
quality of his dramas inspired the epithet ‘Pinteresque’ to describe a use of
language that expresses a strange and mysterious situation smouldering with
underlying, indefinable, menace. His dialogue is often funny and menacing at
the same time. It is a dialogue in which the silences in it speak as loudly as
the words. He uses repetitions in new ways, all to create the menace and a
particular atmosphere that can only be termed ‘Pinteresque.’

Pinter wrote twenty-nine plays and several sketches and he collaborated in

others. His most famous plays are classics of twentieth century drama and
include such famous twentieth century plays as The Birthday Party, The
Dumb Waiter, The Caretaker, The Collection, No Man’s Land, Other
Places and Remembrance of Things Past.
He wrote the screenplays for literally scores of films, several, again, regarded
as classics of British cinema and television. Apart from television and film
versions of his own plays they include Sleuth, The Servant, The Comfort of
Strangers, The Pumpkin Eaters, The French Lieutenant’s Woman, Accident,
and The Quiller Memorandum. Each of these films brim with the underlying
mystery associated with Harold Pinter.
Betrayal is a play written by Harold Pinter in 1978. Critically regarded as one of the English playwright's major dramatic works, it features
his characteristically economical dialogue, characters' hidden emotions and veiled motivations, and their self-absorbed competitive one-
upmanship, face-saving, dishonesty, and (self-)deceptions.

Harold Pinter’s Betrayal starts in 1977 when long time lovers Jerry and Emma meet after her marriage to her husband Robert dissolves,
and then backtracks all the way to 1968 when their affair first began.

Betrayal  is a brief play that unfolds as a series of vignettes among a woman and two men: Emma, Jerry,
and Robert. Emma and Robert are married, and Emma has had a long-standing affair with Jerry, Robert's
best friend. The action is presented in reverse chronology, starting in 1977, when the affair between
Emma and Jerry has been over for some time. The scenes of the play move back through the 1970s while
the affair is taking place, and the play terminates in 1968 on the day when Jerry first declares his love for
Emma, who is already married to Robert.
Much of the dialogue consists of discovering what each of the characters knows about the others. Early in
the play, Jerry is surprised when he learns that Robert has known about the affair for four years. The
deceptions between characters are thus multilayered: the affair (a deception or "betrayal" in itself)
becomes another deception because Emma does not tell Jerry that Robert already knows about it, and
Robert also reveals nothing. All through the play, the characters speak to one another in a quiet, matter-
of-fact way, as if screened from the emotion inherent in the situation. The reversed time sequencing tends
to make the action static: the audience sees what the result is first, and then the background is
presented, but nothing advances beyond the opening scene where the affair between Emma and Jerry is
finished. The deeper meaning, the why of all of this, is screened from the audience as well.
Though Betrayal is more explicit in theme and action than most of Pinter's works, the ultimate motivations
and feelings of its characters remain a mystery.