THE FORMATION OF THE IMAGE OF THE VICTORIAN NOVEL IN THE “VESTNIK EVROPY” (1870S)

Abstract

The article examines the formation of the image of the Victorian novel in the journal “Vestnik Evropy” of the 1870s on the basis of critical responses to current publications. The magazine presents a fairly representative picture of modern English literature, covering both the writers of the “first” literary row (A. Trollope, G. Eliot), and the authors of popular fiction (W. Collins, M. Braddon, R. Boughton, etc.). Critical reviews often show a certain subjectivity (A.-A. Renyard), but, as a rule, they are characterized by an attempt to comprehensively describe the modern novel as a phenomenon. It is considered and evaluated from the point of view of compliance with the principles of realistic poetics with attention to social issues. Not surprisingly, the preference is given to A. Trollope and G. Eliot, while the “sensational” novel causes difficulties: critics either put it low because of its focus on external entertainment (L.A. Polonsky), or try to find worthy features in it, such as an interest in acute social issues (N.A. Tal’). The author of the article comes to the conclusion that literary criticism notices the complexity and heterogeneity of the Victorian novel (without using such a notion), but when analyzing it, he rather tries to fit the phenomenon under consideration into a predetermined paradigm, which can not but lead to simplification.