Contents
Part I
Premises
Chapter I
The Satiric Spirit
Various interpretations because of various manifestations. Chief constituents, criticism and humor. Relation of these in the formula. Testimony of satirists as to the presence of humor, criticism being taken for granted. The satiric motive; temperamental cause and ethical intent. Testimony as to both. Symposium on the discrepancy between prospectus and performance. The realizable ideal. Objects: empiric data on vice, folly, and deception. Reason for universal criticism and ridicule of deception. Criteria of good satire. Difficulties, limitations, and real function
Chapter II
The Confluence
Relationship between satire and fiction. Ancient but incomplete and uneven alliance. Union in the nineteenth century. The Victorian novelists. Their chronology and background. Classification as satirists. Testimony of the novelists themselves as to satire
Part II
Methods
Chapter I
The Romantic
Possible methodic categories. Reason for present choice. Proportion of the romantic or fantastic type. Peacock and Butler. Lytton and Disraeli. Thackeray and Meredith. Characteristics of this form of satire: wit, invention, exaggeration, and concentration
Chapter II
The Realistic
Character of Victorian realism. Nature of realistic satire. Subdivisions, based on authors’ methods and devices. The direct or didactic satirists: Lytton, Thackeray, Dickens, Meredith. Satire in plot or situation: Martin Chuzzlewit, Vanity Fair, The Egoist. Minor episodes. Satire expressed by witty characters, of various types
Chapter III
The Ironic
Verbal and philosophic irony. Banter and sarcasm. The Irony of Fate. Relation of irony to satire. Differing opinions. Distribution of irony among the novelists. Direct or verbal: present in varying degrees in practically all. Crystallized and pervasive forms. Irony in circumstance: Trollope, Eliot, and Meredith. Subdivisions: dramatic irony; the reversed wheel of fortune, the granted desire; the lost opportunity. Meredithian irony directed against the ironic interpretation of life
Part III
Objects
Chapter I
Individuals
Personalities the original and primitive element in satire. Effect of this influence upon the satiric product, and of this in turn upon the attitude toward satire. Citations. In fiction no hard and fast line between real and imaginary characters. Lack of personal satire among the novelists. Its prevalence limited to the earlier writers: Peacock, Lytton, Disraeli, and Thackeray before 1850
Chapter II
Institutions
Victorian attitude toward established institutions. Satire directed against the following: Society, including the home, woman, marriage; the State, including politics, sociology, law, charities and corrections, war; the Church, treated both by partisans on the inside, and pagans on the outside; the School, signifying education, from the fireside to the college; Literature and the Press; the English as a nation. Lack of complementary reconstruction
Chapter III
Types
Impossibility of maintaining fixed classes. Unity and emphasis secured by artificial devices. Several human traits temptingly vulnerable, though all some form of deceit. Hypocrisy the specialty of Dickens, Folly, of Dickens and Meredith, Snobbishness, of Thackeray, Sentimentality and Egoism, of Meredith. Scattered fire against vulgarity, fanaticism, and other targets. Combination and interplay of traits in one character exemplified by Trollope’s Lady Carbury
Part IV
Conclusions
Chapter I
Relationships
The various novelists compared as to respective quality, quantity, and range of satirical element. Discussion of the merging of satire into cynicism, tragedy, and idealism on the critical side, and into comedy, wit, and philosophic humor, on the humorous. Relation to intellect and emotion. Relative ranking of satirists influenced by these considerations
Chapter II
The Victorian Contribution
The cumulative inheritance. Recent change in form from heroic couplet to prose fiction. Progressive change in substance from hypocritical to sentimental side of deceit. Seen in institutions as well as in types of character. Science and democracy the most influential factors. Scientific search for causes of failure. Democratic sense of social responsibility. Satire directed against self-deceived inefficiency mistaken for success. Satiric method concentrated on exposure of motives. Satiric manner less assertive and more casual and urbane. Recognition of the paradox in ridicule. Reduction of it to minor rôle, though staged with more finesse and effectiveness. Stress shifted from the critical element to the ironically humorous