The shape of the intellect: Fielding, Austen, Thackeray and the classical English novel (Henry Fielding, Jane Austen, William Makepeace Thackeray)

The sentimental novel is an established sub-genre of eighteenth-century narrative fiction. Authors such as Fielding, Austen, and (later) Thackeray, who are likewise associated with realism but who are not part of the sentimental tradition, are given the vague and inaccurate label of non-sentimental, when we can in fact see them as creating another sub-genre. To examine how the systems of virtue portrayed in their novels correspond to their structures and styles, and conversely how structures and styles qualify the presentation of virtues, reveals another tradition in the development of British realism; we can call it the “classical novel,” because of its similarities, both in aesthetics and in narrative of virtue, to the ideas of Aristotle. Narrative literature in the classical tradition makes sophisticated demands on the reader's intellect. Classical narratives establish practical wisdom as the ideal human activity: protagonists must engage in practical deliberation, and cannot rely on impulse or passion. Selfishness and greed are primary evils; they disrupt a moral ideal in which a good person pursues what is genuinely good for his own happiness, and thus is good for all. Since virtue is not innate but must be developed through experience and insight, plots will demonstrate a progress in the formation of that virtue towards wisdom and maturity. Consequently, narrative structure in the classical tradition can be described as architectonic: each episode contributes to the over-arching action of the narrative as a whole. Irony becomes a defining factor in these novels. Through it the author encourages the readers' own practice of judgment; irony invites us to look with a sophisticated intelligence at moral complexities. Moreover, classical novels give the reader constant reminders that this is fiction. The manipulation of narrative voice and the conscious crafting of the action do not allow the reader to imagine that this story is somehow a genuine account, but rather an ideal progress of virtue. This dissertation discusses Fielding, Austen, and Thackeray as classical novelists.