English 395: The Nineteenth-Century English Novel (Rev. C4)

This course introduces the student to some of the major English novels of the nineteenth century. Starting with Pride and Prejudice (1812), it moves chronologically through the century, examining the development of fiction through such representative works as Frankenstein (1818), Jane Eyre (1847), Wuthering Heights (1847), Vanity Fair (1847-1848), Bleak House (1853), North and South (1855), Barchester Towers (1857), Middlemarch (1867), The Way of All Flesh (1884, 1904), and Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891). This survey covers various types of fiction from the novel of manners, the Gothic romance, and the historical romance, to satiric, comic, and tragic novels.

Note: Since this is a senior course, we expect students to have good reading and writing skills as well as the basic critical tools and knowledge of literary forms and techniques that are acquired in an introductory university English literature course like Athabasca University's English 211 and 212. Students who do not have the recommended credits in an introductory English literature course may experience significant difficulty with the essay assignments and examinations.