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PERCY SHELLEY Percy Bysshe Shelley was born on 4 August 1792 in Sussex, England, into a wealthy, aristocratic family. He was a radical non-conformist. He attended Eton College, where he was an unhappy, rebellious student, known as Mad Shelley and The Eton Atheist. At Oxford University, he became interested in radical political writers. In 1811, he
produced a radical pamphlet, The Necessity of Atheism, and was expelled. Now
estranged from his father, Shelley faced serious financial difficulties. At 19, he eloped to Scotland with 16-year-old Harriet Westbrook, whom he married in 1811, though he was against matrimony. He travelled with his wife, supported the Catholic Emancipation movement in Ireland. He fell in love with Mary Godwin, and in 1814 they eloped to Europe. They went to Switzerland, where he spent time with Byron. In December 1816, Harriet apparently committed suicide. In 1818, Shelley and Mary Godwin married. He lost custody of his two children by Harriet due to his adherence to free love. Seen as a revolutionary and immoral figure, he left England and moved to
Italy. During the last four years of his life in Italy, he wrote Ode to the West Wind ecc,
and his greatest long work, Prometheus Unbound. On 8 July 1822, shortly before his
30th birthday, Shelley drowned in a storm while sailing. He was cremated on the beach of Viareggio and his ashes interred in the Protestant Cemetery in Rome. A PROPHET OF SOCIAL CHANGE Shelley is characterised by his immense lyric powers and his own romantic biography: he was intellectually courageous and original. He was also a man of great culture, who read and translated Greek, Latin, Spanish, German and Italian works, and this enabled him to write with ease and mastery in various dramatic and poetical forms and meters, from sonnets to Spenserian stanzas, terza rima, called Dante’rima. Shelley saw the poet as a prophet of social change. A PANTHEISTIC VIEW OF NATURE Unlike Wordsworth, who focused on real and common nature as a source for the poet's imagination, Shelley is more interested in representing Nature as a mask that covers the spiritual and eternal truth of the universe. His poems focus on natural elements which reflect the poet's desire to overcome human limitations and become part of the universe. In his early poems Shelley shows a pantheistic view of Nature, as a divine unifying force that permeates the universe. Thanks to imagination, the poet can connect with this divine principle and translate it into poetry, producing joy and pleasure. Shelley uses Nature to express universal ideas such as freedom, reformation and regeneration. He realises that Nature is a spiritual force that animates the passion, the joy ecc.
JOHN KEATS John Keats was born on 31 October 1795, in London. In 1810 he was obliged to leave school and became apprentice to an apothecary-surgeon and in 1815 he began to study medicine. In 1816 Keats became a licensed apothecary but never practised his profession, deciding instead to write poetry. Around this time, Keats became a member of a circle of literary men, including the poets Percy Bysshe Shelley and William Wordsworth. The group's influence enabled Keats to publish his first volume,
Poems by John Keats (1817). Endymion, an erotic/allegorical romance based on the
Greek myth of the same name, appeared in 1818. Critics attacked his work and attempted to discourage Keats. Only Shelley recognised Keats' genius and wrote a favourable review. After the death of his brother Tom, Keats went to live in Hampstead, where he met and fell in love with Fanny Brawne. At the same time he
contracted tuberculosis. Between 1818 and 1819 he wrote Hyperion, published in
1820. In 1819 he wrote La Belle Dame sans Merci. In July 1820 he published Lamia,
Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems. The three title poems are rich in
imagery and phrasing. The Eve of St. Agnes is an exaltation of Romantic love, with
themes like imagination, vision, beauty, and the conflict between real and ideal. The
volume also contains five odes, including Ode on a Grecian Urn and another. The book
received enthusiastic praise. Keats died in Rome on 23 February 1821, at the age of
- His gravestone have a simple inscription "a young English poet" followed by the phrases "Here lies one whose name was writ in water". In this phrase we can see the central themes of Keats’life and poetry: the brevity and sorrow of life. Through his work, Keats’ name has truly become immortal.
KEATS' NEGATIVE CAPABILITY
Keats belongs to the Second Generation of Romantic poets. Byron's and Shelley's experience was highly personal, whilst Keats’ works were immersed in the universal and eternal, subordinating the poet's personality to the evocative force of the subjects handled in his poetry. Keats developed his own theory of poetry and of the poetic mind based on the concept of Negative Capability, or the poet's ability to put reason aside and lose himself in an imaginative experience in order to create great poetry. For Keats, imagination is more powerful than reason, because it allows the poet to see beauty in things.
TRUTH THROUGH BEAUTY
Keats was strongly attracted to art and nature and to ancient Greek and Medieval culture which represented immortal beauty in contrast with a fleeting, and often sorrowful, present. His concept of the value of beauty made Keats a precursor of aestheticism. The physical beauty of nature and of works of art was defined in his works which offered rich descriptions involving all the senses. Keats found an absolute value in beauty, “A thing of beauty is a joy for ever.” This joy led to spiritual beauty which through poetry became eternal and was identified with another absolute value,
truth. Ode on a Grecian Urn concludes with a deceptively simple statement: “Beauty is
truth, truth beauty”
NATURE AND THE DOUBLE MEANING OF BEAUTY
of a first-person narrative. By using this device, Austen gave readers direct access to the thoughts and words of her characters without quoting them directly or commenting obtrusively. Austen was an extraordinary modern writer, who experimented with a new narrative style to explore what interested her most: her characters’ psychology. Austen's novels contained careful analyses of character psychology. Instead of long narrative or scenic descriptions, she relied on dialogue.
IRONY AND HAPPY ENDING : Austen's novels were characterised by her irony. She
used irony to highlight social hypocrisy, critique the portrayal of women in 18th- century sentimental and gothic novels, and unveil the contradictions of reality and social conventions. Another typical element of Austen's novels was the happy ending, usually corresponding to the marriage between the two protagonists. The happy ending followed difficult events and showed how her characters, especially female heroines, faced prejudices, social conventions and misunderstandings. Marriage was both a personal decision and the culmination of personal growth and maturity.
PLOT PRIDE AND PREJUDICE : Mr and Mrs Bennet have five young daughters. The
search for suitable husbands for the five girls (Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Lydia and Kitty) lies at the heart of the story and is Mrs Bennet's constant preoccupation. The arrival of a wealthy young gentleman, Charles Bingley, at the nearby Netherfield Park creates great interest. Balls and social encounters lead to love between Charles and Jane. Bingley's friend, Fitzwilliam Darcy, is attracted by Elizabeth's charm and intelligence, but she is irritated by his arrogance and snobbery. Darcy declares his love to Elizabeth, but she rejects him, accusing him of trying to hinder Jane and Bingley and of disinheriting George Wickham. In a letter, Darcy explains that he acted in Jane's best interests and that Wickham is a liar who tried to elope with his sister Georgiana. Wickham elopes with Lydia, causing scandal. Darcy traces them and provides Wickham with income on condition he marry Lydia. Elizabeth is now ready to accept Darcy's renewed proposal, despite the opposition of his aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Bingley returns and Jane accepts his proposal. The novel ends on a happy note with the marriage of the two couples.
MAIN CHARACTERS: The Bennet family presents us with a father and a mother who are
obsessed with finding suitable husbands for their daughters. Their eldest daughter, Jane, is a sweet, attractive girl, while the other daughters are silly and rather vulgar. Elizabeth stands out as a dominant character in the family. She is intelligent, quick- witted and sharp-tongued. she refuses the family pressures or to the impositions of the aristocratic society that she encounters. Her positive features, however, are accompanied by her pride which blinds her to the true worth and nobility of heart of her male counterpart, Darcy. Darcy belongs to an aristocratic world. Initially like Elizabeth, is blinded by his pride and by his prejudices. Both Elizabeth and Darcy develop during the novel, overcoming the class divisions of their society and married.
THE CONFLICT BETWEEN PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: The central element of Pride and
Prejudice is the development and happy ending of the love story between Elizabeth and Darcy, who are portrayed not as an idealised couple, but as a woman and a man with their own real virtues and evident weaknesses. As in all Austen's stories, the two lovers have to overcome a series of obstacles, the two most important of which are indicated by the title: Elizabeth has to overcome her pride, which initially then reject his proposal on the basis of her personal prejudices towards him. Darcy has to overcome his own pride for his noble condition and subsequent prejudice against Elizabeth's modest social position.
LOVE AND CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS: Class consciousness is another issue that is amply
illustrated in Austen's story. Class consciousness rules people's decisions in Pride and Prejudice and strictly regulates social interactions and peoples lives. The power social prejudices and class consciousness play in Austen's society makes Elizabeth and Darcy's final decision appear even more revolutionary: when they decide to get married, they do so on the basis of their personal and independent will, and not on the basis of social conventions.
WOMEN AND THE PROBLEM OF FINANCIAL STABILITY: Written by a woman with a clear
understanding of the difficulties of a woman's situation in her time, Pride and Prejudice reflects the era's typical obsession with marriage. The obsession of Mr Bennets five daughters with marriage is not only a literary theme: it reflects a historical condition that affected the life of all women in Austen's times. Marriage is very important in a society where women have no financial independence and marriage is the only way they can obtain financial and social stability. In a world dominated by economic interests and social prejudices, Elizabeth stands out as a new woman who would never accept a marriage not based on love. MARY SHELLY Mary Shelley was born on 30 August 1797 in London. She was the daughter of philosopher and political writer, William Godwin, and famed feminist, Mary Wollstonecraft, who died shortly after her birth. In 1801 her father married Jane Clairmont, which caused Mary great suffering. Her stepsister Clara Mary Jane was sent away to school, but Mary was given no formal education. Mary was self-educated and made great use of her father's extensive library. She also found a creative outlet in writing. In 1814, Mary met the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. He was still married to his first wife when he and the teenaged Mary fled England together. Mary and Percy Shelley travelled in Europe. One rainy day, the group read a book of ghost stories. Byron suggested they all try to write a horror story. Mary won this friendly competition
and began work on Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus. Later that year, Mary’s
step-sister Fanny committed suicide, followed by the suicide of Percy’s wife. Mary and
Percy Shelley married in December 1816. In 1818, Frankenstein was published
anonymously. Many thought Percy Shelley had written it since he wrote the introduction. The book was a great success. After Percy’s death in 1822, Mary worked to support herself and her surviving son. Mary Shelley died of a brain tumour on 1 February 1851, aged 53, in London. She was buried at St Peter’s Church in
Bournemouth, alongside her parents and with her husband’s heart. Frankenstein, or
the Modern Prometheus was published anonymously. As a Gothic novel, it features
dramatic settings such as dark laboratories, mountain landscapes and have a horror and violence atmospheres.
Romantic literature. It is closely linked to the characters' emotional states. Victor turns to Nature for solitude, peace, consolation, and mental healing when the moral order is broken. At the same time, Nature—especially in its sublime forms like storms and icy mountains—reflects and intensifies emotional turmoil, showing that emotions are part of the natural world. Nature also represents an 'edenic status' of purity, as seen in the Creature’s basic and benign needs after coming to life. Nature is connected with progress as well: Victor uses electricity, a natural but neutral force, to recreate life, breaking the natural order and committing an act of 'hybris'. This leads to a cosmic imbalance that can only be resolved when the natural order is restored. VICTORIAN AGE LICTERATURE The literary production of the Victorian Age was marked by the triumph of the novel and two main trends. The first was the Victorian Compromise, where writers aimed to instruct and entertain without harsh criticism, combining realism with adventure and moral purpose. The second was the Anti-Victorian reaction, where writers exposed the era’s contradictions. Influenced by Realism and Darwin’s theory of natural selection,
they represented life objectively and pessimistically, following the ideas of Positivism and avoiding personal or moral judgments. The novel became the most successful genre of the Victorian Age for several reasons: there was an increase in literacy and book purchases, people could borrow books from libraries, novels were portable, and they were often published in instalments in newspapers, making them popular and engaging. From a stylistic and thematic point of view almost all Victorian novels are characterised by a series of common features: Novel tend to satisfy the need of their readers Have a clear moral aim; Represent human conditions realistically; Are told by a 3rd-person omniscient narrator; and often being structured in three volumes. The first phase of Victorian literature featured writers who used prose to realistically represent society. Many authors were aware of the contradictions in Victorian moral values and society but did not overtly criticize them, embodying the Victorian Compromise. Charles Dickens is the author who best represents the features and contradictions of this phase. A prolific writer, Dickens explored and
refined many types of prose in his career. His masterpieces, such as Oliver Twist
(1837-39), David Copperfield (1849-50), Hard Times (1854), and Great
Expectations (1860-61), have a tragicomic tone, denounce the evils of Victorian
society with humor, and generally have a happy ending. An authentic literary miracle is represented by the Brontë sisters, three women who do not fit easily into traditional classifications of Victorian literature. Emily and Charlotte were considered the most talented and published two of the most famous English novels of all time. In the second phase of Victorian literature, criticism became stronger and realism more evident. Writers in this phase rejected the Victorian Compromise and used prose to denounce societal evils without hesitation. They rejected the optimistic view of man and progress from earlier Victorian literature, contrasting it with: The representation of the divided self and duality of human nature, as seen in Robert Louis Stevenson's Aestheticism, represented by Oscar Wilde's which defends art without external or moral justification. CHARLES ROBERT DARWIN
CHARLES DICKENS Charles Dickens was one of the greatest poets of the Victorian era, a period marked by strong changes from an economic, social and political point of view. We must always think that we are in a period marked by the second industrial revolution and in fact he also tries to analyze the impact that the latter had on the poorer classes. Charles Dickens was born on February 7, 1812 and he was the second of eight children. At the age of nine he was sent to school but his education was very short because three years later his father was arrested for outstanding debts and was joined by most of the family in the prison of Masha Sea. Charles was forced to work 10 hours a day in a polish factory that is, in a factory that produced shoe polish. He suffered for about three years, but this episode as well as all the terrible episodes of his life, were important for his future career because through these events he will open his eyes to the world and the situation that was occurring in that period and that allowed him to conduct a criticism of society. He began his writing career as a journalist and in 1833 he became the parliamentary reporter for THE MORNING CHRONICLE. he published his major works in this period, in fact his first is his first novel the PICKWICK PAPERS was very successful and from here began his brilliant career. He produced an immense number of novels and in fact his life was characterized by an inexhaustible energy, he found time to travel to America for a tour against slavery and also went to Italy and he even performed in a theater in front of Queen Victoria in 1851. He married Catherine Hart and they had about 10 children. Charles Dickens is considered one of the major voices of the Victorian age because he had a strong sympathy towards the oppressed and indignation against social injustice. from the moment in which he moves a lot of social criticisms that we can see in many of his works such as Oliver Twist. It is the most important and famous work of Charles Dickens because from this work he begins his social criticism in fact he talks about child labor and the cruelty of the workhouses, even in Black House he deals with themes of social criticism because it is a satire a satire on the administration of injustice in England and in fact here he also talks about the work of the social classes during the industrial revolution. Starting from the work Oliver Twist, Dickens's short stories have increasingly focused on social criticism, short story after short story he explores the way in which the new economic industry could improve the quality of human life, but he also criticizes the impact of the industrial revolution on the lives of the poor, the living conditions of the working classes, education, the legal system, crime and the moral consequences of uncontrolled economic growth. Dickens denounces the social ills of his time and in fact he challenged the popular Victorian idea that some people were more prone to vices than others arguing instead that people were forced into prostitution and crime because of poverty, hunger and life in a corrupt society. Dickens' characters are among the most memorable in English literature, in fact he presents the characters not as real people with psychological depth but as creatures who embody the particular vices or virtues of men. Dickens wrote very quickly generally under pressure for his need for money and the episodic nature of his romantics always guaranteed a succession of moments of strong tension and technically Dickens needed to maintain interest from one episode to another; in fact he ended the episodes with a dramatic succession of events that caused suspense in the reader. Within his works he includes people from all social classes: gentlemen, industrial men, workers and he was fascinated by urban life and in fact within the work Oliver Twist he talks about London and describes it as a labyrinth of dirty streets where the poor lived in appalling conditions.
OLIVER TWIST
Oliver twist was born in a workhouse. He is an orphan, the son of an unknown father and his mother died in childbirth. The conditions in the workhouse are terrible and the boys are constantly starving. When Oliver asks for more food he provokes a furious reaction from the officials and they send him to work as an apprentice for an undertaker. Oliver runs away to London where he meets a gang of thieves, led by Fagin. On his first mission as a pickpocket Oliver is arrested and then saved by Mr. Brown, the victim of the theft. The gang captures him and takes him to Fagin and Oliver is forced to partake of a fruit with Sikes, Fagin's accomplice. Oliver is abandoned and is taken in by Mrs. Millie who takes care of Oliver and spends a beautiful summer with Mrs. Millie and her adopted niece Rose. Nancy, a prostitute of the gang, discovers that Fagin wants to capture Oliver again. Monks, one of the accomplices, is Oliver's half-brother. They are both sons of the rich father who left most of his fortune to Oliver's mother. Monks wants to kill Oliver then. Then it turns out that Rose is Oliver's aunt because she is his mother's sister. Nancy is killed for revealing the information. Sikes dies while trying to escape, Fagis is arrested and Monks dies in prison. Oliver can then live his peaceful life in the country after discovering his true identity. HARD TIMES PLOT : The novel is set in the fictional town of 'Coketown', based on Preston in northern England, where Thomas Gradgrind, a strict advocate of 'Utilitarianism', raises his two children, Louisa and Tom, to believe in hard facts and reject any form of imagination and enjoyment. As a supporter of Utilitarianism, Gradgrind despises the idea that love, a 'useless' feeling, should be the basis of marriage. He arranges for his daughter Louisa to marry Josiah Bounderby, a factory owner 30 years older than her, partly to help her brother Tom, who works for Bounderby. Louisa’s marriage is extremely unhappy, and she runs back to her family. Gradgrind begins to understand his mistakes and protects Louisa from her husband. Meanwhile, Tom, who has grown into a dishonest and selfish man, steals money from Bounderby’s bank. Stephen, an innocent worker in Bounderby’s factory, is unjustly accused of the theft and dies as a result. Gradgrind and Louisa, realizing Tom’s responsibility, manage to get him out of the country to escape justice. At the end, Gradgrind has changed and gives up his philosophy of facts to help the poor. Tom repents but dies without seeing his family again. Bounderby, the real villain, dies alone in the streets of Coketown. Louisa, who never remarries, finds happiness in the love of her friends and family.
TWO INTERTWINING THEMES : Hard Times belongs to the mature period of Dickens’
work, during which he sharply criticized the evils of Victorian England. The two main themes are the plight of young characters growing up in a hostile adult world and the hardships of the working class, highlighting the vast contrasts between the lives of the rich and poor in industrialized Victorian England. Dickens attacked Utilitarianism, a materialistic philosophy that promoted reform but excluded essential aspects of education, such as imagination and the development of the individual. The new schools, often established by philanthropists like Gradgrind, turned pupils into numbers, where harsh discipline stifled individuality and conformed them to the needs of the new factory system created by the Industrial Revolution. Dickens critiques this uniformity in both education and the architecture of industrial towns.
THE CONTRAST BETWEEN GOOD AND BAD EDUCATION : Dickens believed education
had the power to rescue poor and working-class children from degradation caused by the Industrial Revolution. He saw education, especially in schools, as one of the few
gentleman—formal, charitable, and well-liked—while Mr Hyde represents the hidden, uncivilised, and evil side of human nature. Jekyll and Hyde are not interesting as separate characters, but their significance lies in the fact that they are one and the same person. THE THEME OF THE DOUBLE: The dual relationship between Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde seems to be a direct reference to the literary theory of the so-called 'doppelgänger. This German term, literally 'a double, refers to the protagonist's alter ego, who can be good or, more frequently, evil and negative. In Stevenson's novel, often seen as the best example of a 'doppelgänger' story, Mr Hyde is Dr Jekyll's evil double. Although they seem like two separate people, they are actually two sides of the same individual. Their relationship is ambiguous and interdependent: Jekyll disapproves of Hyde’s actions, but is also fascinated by him, as Hyde expresses the dark side of Jekyll's personality that both he and Victorian society try to repress. THE NARRATIVE TECHNIQUE: The story is told through different points of view. The main perspective is Mr Utterson’s, who becomes suspicious of Mr Hyde, Dr Jekyll’s mysterious friend. Other narrators include Dr Lanyon, who witnesses Jekyll’s transformation, a maid who sees Hyde murder Sir Carew, and finally Jekyll himself, through a written confession. Most of the novel follows Utterson’s limited perspective, and the reader discovers the truth only as he does. This creates suspense and makes the reader share Utterson’s confusion and horror. The novel explores the story of a scientist trying to separate the evil part of himself from the good draws inspiration from certain aspects of the Gothic tradition. URBAN DEPRAVITY: Stevenson's novel vividly portrays the harsh conditions of Victorian cities, especially London, which was transformed by industrialisation. As people flooded into cities looking for work, urban areas faced major issues like poor sanitation, poverty, pollution, and crime. In the novel, London is shown as a corrupt and sinful place where evil thrives. The frequent fog symbolises moral ambiguity and hidden dangers. Most of the story happens at night, reflecting the darkness of Mr Hyde and Dr Jekyll’s hidden side. Even Jekyll’s house symbolises duality, with a respectable front and a sinister, secret back entrance. Stevenson’s London represents not just a real city but a symbol of the modern city, hiding violence, inequality, and deception beneath a surface of progress.
OSCAR WILDE Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin on 16 October 1854 into a wealthy family. A brilliant student, he studied at Trinity College in Dublin and later at Oxford. He moved to London, published poetry, and gained fame during lecture tours in America and Britain. In 1884, he married Constance Lloyd and entered a productive creative period.
He published The Happy Prince and Other Tales (1888) and his only novel The Picture
of Dorian Gray (1890), which was criticised for immorality. Wilde found major success
as a playwright with comedies like Lady Windermere’s Fan (1892), An Ideal Husband
(1895), and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895). At the height of his fame, he was
tried and imprisoned for homosexuality after a failed libel case against Lord Queensberry. He was sentenced to two years of hard labour. After his release, Wilde
lived in exile in France, where he wrote The Ballad of Reading Gaol. He died in 1900 at
the age of 46. His plays remain popular for their wit and social satire. His only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, first appeared in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine in 1890. One year later Wilde published a revised edition, adding six chapters and a preface in which he attempted to deal with the criticism it had received. His preface outlines his philosophy of art, based on the principles of Aestheticism: art is neither moral nor immoral, it has no moral purpose, but beauty in itself is a supreme value. PLOT: The Picture of Dorian Gray tells the story of a rich, beautiful young man who has his portrait painted by Basil Hallward. The portrait is a masterpiece. At Basil's studio Dorian meets Lord Henry Wotton. Lord Henry talks about the transience of youth and
MODERNISM
The first half of the 20 century was marked by a series of events that contributed to undermining Victorian optimism and inaugurated an era of tensions and anxiety. These events include: the terrible experience of two world wars the spread of Einstein's theory of relativity he development of Freud's psychoanalysis, Modernism emerged as a cosmopolitan movement, rejecting past traditions and creating new forms in various art fields. Key movements within Modernism included Futurism, Cubism, Expressionism, and Surrealism, all of which broke traditional boundaries in their respective fields. Common features of Modernist literature include:
Fragmentation of narrative and plot, favoring complex storytelling. Time and place as subjective rather than objective. Experimental narrative techniques, such as the flow of consciousness. Rejection of traditional grammar and punctuation. Use of free verse in poetry. A very influential personality in the field of early 20th-century prose writing was the American philosopher William James (1842-1910). who probably gave one of the most famous definitions of the modern self in his book The Principles of Psychology (1890). The idea of the 'stream of consciousness' was immediately translated into fiction, where it became one of the most widely-adopted narrative techniques among Modernist writers: Virginia Woolf and James Joyce two of the major exponents of Modernist. The 'War Poets'. The most prolific group of poets during the war years were the War Poets. The phrase War Poets refers to a group of men who fought in the trenches during the First World War. These poets have many aspects in common: they all took part in the war as soldiers; they all enrolled enthusiastically when war broke out; they were all in their late-20s when they enrolled; they wrote poems in which the war is described as a terrible experience leading to death, suffering any alienation. BROOKE Rupert Brooke was born in Warwickshire in 1887. He studied in Cambridge, at King's College, where he started writing poems. His early poetic writings were characterised by the tendency to represent an idyllic view of the English countryside. After a serious nervous breakdown, he travelled to Italy, Germany, North America, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. He was commissioned into the Royal Naval Division shortly after the outbreak of the First World War. Brooke published his first collection of poems in 1912 with the title of Georgian Poetry, 1911-1912 This title suggests that he belonged to the group of writers and poets 'Georgian Poets, who rejecte the didactic style of Victorian poetry and dealt with humble themes with a melancholic and elegistic tone. Brooke's most famous poetic work is the sonnet collection entitled 1914 & Other Poems, published in 1915, the year of his death. This collection of poems, which express an idealistic and enthusiastic praise for war, made him immediately popular.
led to a court-martial. While he was in hospital in Edinburgh he met, and greatly influenced, the poet Wilfred Owen. Owen was killed in 1918, whereas Sassoon, wounded again in Palestine, survived the conflict and continued to write throughout his life. After the war he continued to write both prose and poetry, including a successful trilogy of autobiographical novels, The Complete Memoirs of George Sherston (1937). Sassoon's post-war work was characterised by his spiritual concerns, leading to his conversion to Catholicism in 1957. His religious poetry is generally considered inferior to his production during and immediately after the war. He died on 1 September 1967. NO TRUTH UNFITTING: Siegfried Sassoon gave a powerful first-hand account of the horrors of war through his poetry. Using clear and direct language with controlled meter and rhyme, his poems shocked many in Britain for their violent content and perceived lack of patriotism. However, they also resonated with readers who saw in his work the real emotions and suffering of soldiers, in contrast to the optimistic pro- war propaganda. Deeply disillusioned by the destruction caused by war, Sassoon aimed to reveal its harsh truths. His commitment to portraying brutal realities, like decaying corpses and suicides, influenced later poetry and contributed to the rise of Modernism. The inscription in Westminster Abbey’s Poets' Corner fittingly reflects his
message: "My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity."
DEATH IS TE ESSENCE OF WAR: Siegfried Sassoon’s poems emphasize that the most brutal aspect of the First World War was the senseless mass destruction it caused, particularly through its high death toll. Death is a central and recurring theme in his work, symbolizing the absurdity and madness of all wars throughout history. Sassoon portrays death not only as a constant fear for soldiers but also as evidence of war’s futility and failure to bring about meaningful change. In his view, soldiers are not heroes but innocent victims, blindly sacrificed by the war machine. For Sassoon, there is nothing noble in dying for one’s country—only a tragic and timeless reminder that death lies at the heart of every war. Thoughts Flowing into Words Thoughts Flowing into Words
The first half of the 20* century was one of the most revolutionary ages in the history of world literature: in this period authors experimented with styles, techniques and words to express not only their reaction against 19th-century tradition, but also their desire to give voice to a new concept of human consciousness and of human life. The technical device that allowed authors to start this revolution was a new, apparently shocking technique: the so-called 'stream of consciousness' technique. The phrase 'stream of consciousness refers to a highly varied narrative technique used by early- 20th-century authors to write their books. Its main aim was to render the free flux of thoughts of the characters on the page without any intervention of the author. It was achieved through a series of devices such as the fragmentation of the character's perspective, the breaking of syntactic and grammar rules, and the overlapping of past and present events. The idea of the 'stream of consciousness in literature was the result of the interactions of a series of important factors, such as: the influence of the theories of Sigmund Freud and the revaluation of the role of the unconscious; the theorisation of the difference between objective (or chronological) and subjective (or inner) time made by the French philosopher Henri Bergson; a new conception of human consciousness as described by the American philosopher William James; the sense of anxiety, fragmentation and loss caused by the experience of the First World War. William James Concept of Consciousness : The very idea of human consciousness as a 'stream' was theorised by the American philosopher human William James who in his 1890 essay entitled The Principles of Psychology defined human consciousness. James' definition contains a revolutionary idea: by saying subjective life is not a chain or a train, James affirms that it cannot be organised in a rational way and cannot be described objectively. Human consciousness is a constantly flowing stream in which past and present events and perceptions coexist without boundaries. 19th-century narrative techniques are no longer able to represent the workings of modern consciousness and new techniques are required. Discovering Consciousness(Freud and Bergson): Two key figures who shaped the
development of the stream of consciousness technique were Sigmund Freud and
Henri Bergson. Freud, in The Interpretation of Dreams (1900), introduced the idea
that the human mind is multi-layered and largely unconscious. This unconscious part, driven by irrational and instinctive impulses, became central to Modernist literature, which aimed to express the inner workings of the modern self. Bergson, in contrast,
revolutionized the idea of time. In works like Time and Free Will (1910) and Matter and
Memory (1911), he described time not as a series of separate moments but as a
continuous flow. His ideas inspired writers to reject traditional linear plots and focus instead on subjective time and experience. Together, Freud and Bergson provided the psychological and philosophical foundation for Modernist narrative techniques. Virginia Woolf's Concept of Life: Virginia Woolf, inspired by William James’s psychological view of consciousness as a stream, described life as a flow of countless impressions in a 1919 essay. She rejected the idea that life is orderly or symmetrical and instead compared it to a "luminous halo" of sensations that constantly surround the mind. To capture this fragmented and fluid experience of life, Woolf and other Modernist writers developed the stream of consciousness technique. This method broke traditional rules of grammar, syntax, and narrative, reflecting the shifting thoughts and perspectives of the human mind.
