The Columbia History of the British Novel

a reporter covering debates in Parliament for the -995- Morning Chronicle and contributing to a variety of journals and magazines. Some of these were collected into his first published volume, Sketches by Boz (1836–1837), which was accompanied by the serial publication of the phenomenally successful Pickwick Papers (1836–1837). Other serialized works followed quickly: Oliver Twist (1837–1838), Nicholas Nickleby (1838–1839), The Old Curiosity Shop (1840), and Barnaby Rudge (1841). An 1842 trip to America produced American Notes (1842) and influenced the composition of Martin Chuzzlewit (1843–1844). His best-known works from later years include 'A Christmas Carol' (1843), David Copperfield (1849–1850), Bleak House (1852–1853), Hard Times (1854), Little Dorrit (1855–1857), A Tale of Two Cities (1859), Great Expectations (1860–1861), Our Mutual Friend (1864–1865), and Edwin Drood(1870), left unfinished by his sudden death that year. Indefatigable and prolific, perhaps the most influential and best-known writer of his day, Dickens also produced voluminous journalism and edited several periodicals, in addition to reading from his works in public to great acclaim.

Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881)

Prime Minister of England in 1868 and from 1874 to 1880, Disraeli was the son of a prominent literary man, Isaac Disraeli, and was educated at home, where he read widely in his father's library. A precocious author who published his first novel, Vivian Grey (1826–1827), when he was just twentytwo, Disraeli studied law briefly at Lincoln's Inn, published more novels and lived the life of a man-about-town in London. But he found his real career when he entered Parliament in 1837. His best-known work is the trilogy of political novels that Disraeli viewed as his most effective writing: Coningsby (1844), Sybil(1845), and Tancred(1847). Politics absorbed much of his time, and he did not publish another novel until 1872, Lothair.

Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930)

A doctor who was educated at Edinburgh, Doyle is best known for his archetypal eccentric detective, Sherlock Holmes. Doyle's first published piece was A Study in Scarlet (1887), and his first published collection was The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892). Two other Holmes collections followed: The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1894) and The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902). Besides the Holmes series, Doyle was the author of a number of other romances: Micah Clarke (1889), The White Company (1891), The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard (1896), Rodney Stone (1896), and The Lost World (1912).

Margaret Drabble (1939-)

Born in Sheffield, Drabble attended Cambridge and then went on to spend a year with the Royal Shakespeare Acting Company. Her first novel, A Summer -996- Bird-Cage, was published in 1963. Since then she has published prolifically, including novels, screen and television writing, and an award-winning biography of Arnold Bennett. The Realms of Gold (1975) and The Ice Age (1977) are regarded by most critics as her best novels.

Maria Edgeworth (1768–1849)

Edgeworth was schooled for a time in England, though the rest of her life was spent in Ireland. After first publishing the feminist treatise Letters to Literary Ladies in 1795, she went on to be a prolific writer of some note. She anticipated the historical novels of Scott with her Castle Rackrent (1800). Other novels depicting Irish life include The Absentee (1812) and Ormond (1817).

George Eliot (Mary Ann, later Marian, Evans) (1819–1880)

After an education that encouraged her to convert to Evangelicalism and then to a freethinking religious creed, Eliot's first publication was an anonymous translation of Strauss's Life of Jesus (1846). She became a contributor to the Westminster Review and moved to London in 1851. Eliot's growing fascination with the philosophy of Feuerbach led to her 1854 translation of his Essence of Christianity. Soon afterward she informally became the companion of G. H. Lewes, a union that lasted until he died. Her first major novel, Adam Bede (1859), was a popular and critical success. It was followed by The Mill on the Floss (1860) and Silas Marner (1861). Romola (1862–1863) and Felix Holt, the Radical (1866) were written after a period in Florence. Her last major novels, Middlemarch (1871–1872) and Daniel Deronda (1874–1876) gained her great renown. Her Impressions of Theophrastus Such (1879) appeared shortly before her death.

Henry Fielding (1707–1754)

Educated at Eton, Fielding settled in London as a young man and began a difficult but prolific period as a playwright. From 1729 to 1737 he wrote satirical plays, including The Author's Farce (1730), Rape upon Rape (1730), and his best-known drama, Tom Thumb (1730), a wild satire on the bloated tragedies that were all the rage. In 1734 Fielding married Charlotte Cradock, the woman who became the inspiration for the heroine in Amelia and for Sophia in Tom Jones. He became manager of the New Theatre in 1736, for which he wrote and produced the popular political satires Pasquin and The Historical Register for 1736, the latter of which earned the censorship of the Walpole government. The Lord Chamberlain's Licensing Act of 1737 brought the effective end of Fielding's theatrical pursuits. Fielding proceeded to read for the bar, but his ill health prevented him from successfully practicing. In 1741, he wrote a parody of Richardson's Pamela, entitled An Apology for the Life of Mrs.

-997- Shamela Andrews. This was followed by three great novels: The Adventures of Joseph Andrews and His Friend, Mr. Abraham Adams (1742), The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (1749), and Amelia (1751). A great part of his later life was spent as a judge for Westminster, crusading against corruption, public hanging, and organized crime. He died in Lisbon, Portugal, where he had gone for the benefit of his chronically poor health.

Sarah Fielding (1710–1768)

Fielding was Henry Fielding's sister. She grew up near London and spent much of her life there and, later, near Bath. A member of Samuel Richardson's circle, she published her most famous work, The Adventures of David Simple, in 1744. This work was followed by two other related volumes, Familiar Letters Between the Principal Characters in David Simple (1747) and Volume the Last (1753).

Ronald Firbank (1886–1926)

As an independently wealthy man, Firbank was able to travel widely and publish his own work. Known for his flamboyant homosexuality and his innovative literary and personal style, Firbank was educated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and began to publish shortly after graduation. Among his works are Odette d'Antrevernes (1916), Vainglory (1915), Inclinations (1916), Caprice (1917), Valmouth (1919), Santal (1921), and The Flower Beneath the Foot (1923). His first novel not published by himself was Prancing Nigger (1924), also known as Sorrow in Sunlight.

Ford Madox Ford (1873–1939)

Ford grew up steeped in the aesthetics of the Pre-Raphaelites and that influence stayed with him throughout his life. After Ford met Conrad in 1898, the two began to collaborate on a variety of projects, most notably the novels The Inheritors (1901) and Romance (1903). When the relationship died, Ford went on to his own rather influential literary career, producing over eighty books. His novels include the Fifth Queen trilogy (1907, 1907, 1908), The Good Soldier (1915), and Parade's End (1924–1928). Ford's major literary contributions seem to have been in his role as editor, first of the English Review and later the Transatlantic Review (1924), and as a critic who developed a theory of novelistic impressionism.

E. M. Forster (1879–1970)

After graduating from King's College, Cambridge, Forster traveled through Italy and Greece, and his first novel, Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905), has an Italian setting. Three more novels followed in quick succession: The -998- Longest Journey (1907), A Room With a View (1908), and perhaps his most important novel to that point, Howard's End (1910). Forster lived with his mother in Weybridge for many years until her death, although he served with the International Red Cross in Egypt during World War I and spent a year in India in 1912 and 1913. Out of that experience, he wrote what most readers regard as his greatest novel, A Passage to India (1924). Although he stopped writing novels after that, he continued to write shorter fiction, and his essays and literary criticism are a substantial and important body of work, notably Aspects of the Novel (1927) and Two Cheers for Democracy (1951). In 1946 Forster was made an honorary fellow of his old college at Cambridge, Kings, and he lived there until his death. Maurice, a novel written in 1913 -14 and based on his own intensely private homosexual life, was published posthumously in 1971.

George Robert Gissing (1857–1903)

While a student at Owens College in Manchester, Gissing became infatuated with a young prostitute, and in his efforts to help her committed some thefts for which he was expelled and sent to prison. After working briefly as