Narrative Order, 1789–1819: Life and Story in an Age of Revolution

213 Pages·2006·22.441 MB·English

by  Gavin Edwards (auth.)

Narrative Order, 1789-1819
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Narrative Order, 1789-1819
Life and Story in an Age of Revolution
Gavin Edwards
* © Gavin Edwards 2006
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2006 978-1-4039-9211-6
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Edwards, Gavin.
Narrative order, 1789-1819: life and story in an age of revolution I
Gavin Edwards.
p. em.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. English literature-19th century-History and criticism. 2. Narration
(Rhetoric)-History-19th century. 3. France-History-Revolution,
1789-1799-Literature and the revolution. 4. Literature and society
Great Britain-History-19th century. 5. Literature and society-Great
Britain-History-18th century. 6. English literature-18th century
History and criticism. 7. Narration (Rhetoric)-History-18th century.
8. English literature-French influences. 9. Social change in literature.
10. Revolutions in literature. I. Title.
PR468.N29E34 2005
820.9'358-dc22 2005049751
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06
Transferred to Digital Printing 2011.
For Deborah Ferris
Contents
Acknowledgements viii
Part I
1 Narrative Order 3
2 Samuel Johnson and the Order of Time 21
Part II
3 Edmund Burke: Middles versus Beginnings and Ends 35
4 Watkin Tench and the Cold Track of Narrative 56
5 William Godwin: Stories and Families 81
6 Wordsworth's Moving Accidents 100
7 Crabbe's Parables 123
8 Relations: Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley 139
9 The Still Unravished Bride of Lammermoor 159
Notes 179
Bibliography 193
Index 201
vii
Acknowledgements
I do not know when I started to think about narrative but I know that a
conversation with Martin Golding in a Bristol cafe sometime in the late
1960s helped me to think about it in ways that eventually led to the
writing of this book. In more recent years, conversations with Deborah
Ferris have done more than anything else to help me understand the
relationship between life and story.
I am glad to have the opportunity to thank]. Hillis Miller for his
encouragement; Sue Hirst and her family for providing me with a place
to live while I was writing Chapter 3; and Diana Wallace for persuading
me to write Chapter 8.
An earlier version of Chapter 2 appeared in Sydney Studies in English 7
(1991--2) and a version of Chapter 4 in Southerly, 60: 3 (2000). Permission
to use that material is gratefully acknowledged. A version of Chapter 5
appeared in Studies in Romanticism 34: 1 (Winter 2000). I am grateful to
the editors of SiR and to the Trustees of Boston University for permission to
reproduce that material here.
viii
Part I
1
Narrative Order
Narrative
The full title of Wordsworth's poem 'Simon Lee', published in Lyrical
Ballads in 1798, is 'Simon Lee, the Old Huntsman, with an incident in
which he was concerned'. That reference to an 'incident' may lead us to
expect something which, after a lengthy description of the Old
Huntsman's previously active life and present decrepit condition,
Wordsworth tells us he is not going to provide:
My gentle reader, I perceive
How patiently you've waited,
And I'm afraid that you expect
Some tale will be related.
0 reader! Had you in your mind
Such stores as silent thought can bring,
0 gentle reader! You would find
A tale in everything.
What more I have to say is short,
I hope you'll kindly take it;
It is no tale; but should you think,
Perhaps a tale you'll make it.1
(lines 69-80)
The poet then tells us how on one occasion he came to the aid of Simon
Lee as the old man was vainly attempting to cut through a rotten
3