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Aiding-ton is a follower of the great English traditions in language. We can trace many of his devices to Dickens and Thackeray. The merit of Aldington's realism lies in the presentation of a vast social background, in a sharp, satirical approach towards bourgeois reality.
I. What can you say about the progressive writers of the 30s? 2. When did the "lost generation" appear in English literature? Speak of Al dington, as a typical representative of the generation. 3. What was the fate of Aldington's hero, George Winterbourne?
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(1896-1981)
A. Gronin was born in Scotland in a worker's family His sympathy for working class people was later reflected in his works. At school he took a great interest in literature. At the age of thirteen he won a gold medal in a nation-wide competition for the best historical essay of the year But his love for natural sciences got the upper hand and in 1914 he began to study medicine at Glasgow University His stu dies were interrupted by service in the Navy After the war, in 1919, he graduated from the University
In 1921 he began his medical practice in South Wales
where he came to know well the hard life and work of coal-miners. In 1923 he was appointed Medical Inspector of mines and a year later was awarded the degree of M. D. with Honours by Glasgow University
The publication of the novel Hatter's Castle (1931)
marked the beginning of Cronin's fruitful literary career.
The novel tells the readers about a family which is gradually being destroyed by the despotism and ambitions of Mr Brodie, the father Yet, the author neither analyses the social reasons for the appearance of such people as Brodie, nor docs he show anything of what he feels towards the characters and events depicted in his novel.
His book The Stars Look Down (1935) presents an entirely different approach to reality Cronin shows the
relations between the miners and their masters.
The major conflict in the book is, as Cronin puts it, a social struggle that arises from the clash of "two na tions" The author's satire is directed against the ruling classes. The injustice of the existing order, the social con tradictions are effectively exposed in the novel. Cronin also realistically depicts the hard struggle which the miners carry on against the pit-owners. David, the main character of the novel, cannot be called a revolutionary, but his passionate love for people and his desire for justice make him one of the best characters in the critical realism of the
1930s.
World War II caused changes in Cronin's literary activities. He left for America and in his further work he dealt less and less with burning social problems. His later novels The Keys of the Kingdom (1941), The Green Years (1944), Shannon's Way (1948), A Song of Sixpence (1965), A Pocketful of Rye (1967) are not as critical as his works of the 30s.
THE CITADEL
In 1937 Cronin published The Citadel, a fine collection of portraits of the English medical world. The action in the novel begins in 1924 and ends in the middle of the 1930s. It is a novel which has not only an interesting plot but also fascinates the reader with its realism and vivid portrayal of characters. Cronin shows how difficult it is to be honest and principled.
The main character of the novel is Andrew Manson who
after graduating from the university starts working as a general practitioner in a small town in South Wales.
The first steps are always hard, they are especially hard
for Andrew who has to work on his own, for Dr Page whose assistant Andrew is, does not practise at all be cause of his illness. Hard work is no burden for Andrew but he lacks experience, he can't even diagnose his first case. Luckily Andrew gets acquainted with doctor Philip Denny who helps him a lot. When there is an outbreak of typhoid Andrew is at a loss, for he sees no way to fight it. Philip Denny suggests blowing up an old sewer which causes infection. The blowing up of the sewer is one of the best scenes of the novel.
Besides hardships and difficulties, however, Andrew meets love and affection. He gets acquainted with an
attractive and gentle young teacher, Christine Barlow
They fall in love and get married. Andrew undertakes
a research on miners' lung diseases, and successfully passes the M. R. S. P examinations. But soon he has to leave for London, having been wrongly accused of vivi section. There Andrew, determined to make a career, is
unaware that he gradually loses his best qualities as a man and as a scientist.
Cronin gives a thorough description of Andrew's mor al decline: first, money becomes most important to him, then he loses interest in work and scientific research.
All this cannot but affect his relations with Christine,
who sees what is happening and tries to prevent his degra dation. However, honesty prevails in Manson's nature; seeing a patient die one day because of the negligence and stupudity of some doctors, he is born anew. He becomes the Andrew of his early days in South Wales again. But sud denly disaster strikes: Christine is killed in a road ac cident. The blow is a heavy one, Andrew suffers acutely, but after the catastrophe he begins to see and understand many things.
The passage below (abridged) taken from Cronin's
novel The Citadel presents a description of Andrew's thoughts about his first medical experience.
...As he went out to pay a call, which had just come in, at 3 Riskin Street. Andrew felt his heart quicken to the day. Gradually he was be coming acclimatized to this strange town,- primitive and isolated, en· tombed by the mountains, with no places of amusement, not even a cine ma, nothing but its grim mine, its quarries and ore works, its string of chapels and bleak rows of houses,- a queer and silently contained com munity.
And the people, they also were strange; yet Andrew though he saw
them so alien to himself, could not but feel stirrings of affection towards ihem...
They spoke little, and much of what they said was in the Welsh
longue. They had the air, in their selfcontained aloofness, of being a race apart. Yet they were a kindly people. Their enjoyments were simple, and were found usually in their own homes, in the chapel halls, on the fore shortened Rugby football ground at the top of lhe town. Their prevailing passion was, perhaps, a love of music- not the cheap melodies of the moment, but stern, classical music...
... Now, more than ever, he appreciated how much his clinical work
meant to him. It existed, the knowledge, as a warm everpresent inner consciousness which was like a fire at which he warmed himself when he was tired, depressed, perplexed. Lately, indeed, even stranger perplexities had formed and were moving more strongly than before within him. Medi-
cally, he had begun lo think for himself. Perhaps Denny, with his radical destruclive outlook, was mainly responsible for!his. Denny's codex was literally the opposite of everything which Manson had been taught. Con densed and framed, il might well have hung, lexllike, above his bed: "I do not believe"
Very realistically the author gives a panorama of me dical life, showing the position of English doctors and medical personnel. Cronin portrays a whole gallery of different doctors: those who give all their heart and know ledge to people, and those who make their fortunes at the cost of other people's tragedies. We are given portra its of idealistic doctors, such as Denny, Hope and others and, side by side with them, the money-grabbing doctors
Freddy Hampton, Ivory and Freedman.
Cronin's greatest merit as an artist is that his charac ters are typical. The psychological depth of his portrayal makes them come to life.
The language is not complicated. There are not many descriptions in it, but it abounds in dialogues. Cronin created highly individualized and memorable speech portraits. The chief feature of his style is simplicity and accuracy
I. How can Cronin's literary aclivily be characlcrizcd2. What
the difference between his first two novels? 3. What kind of doctors docs Cronin portray in The Citadel? 4. Which of Cronin's novels is lo a great extent based on his own life experience?
IX. LITERATURE FROM THE 1940s TO THE 1990s
The Second World War influenced greatly the ideologi cal and economic life of Britain. This could not but affect the development of English literature.
During the war Great Britain suffered heavy financial
losses. The post-war programme of the Labour Party became the only hope for a better future for the British people. It promised to do away with unemployment, to improve living conditions, to level out prices. Great at tention in the programme was paid to cooperation with the Soviet Union. So the elections of 1945 brought defeat to the Conservatives and ensured victory to the Labour Party. Very soon, however, the British people saw that the policy of the labour leaders did not differ much from that of their predecessors.
From 1946 Great Britain faced strong resistance on the part of the oppressed people of India and Egypt. Great Britain was losing one colony after another and becoming more dependent on the USA.
The failure of the Labour Government that promised a lot and did nothing, the cold war and the atomic threat, the rapid intensification of the cultural and moral crisis these were the factors in the 50s- 60s which influenced
the minds of the British people, particularly the intellec
tuals, and caused their disillusionment.
Due to the deepening of the capitalist economic crisis the position of the working masses became worse in the
70s.
Prices were rapidly going up. By the end of the decade
inflation had reached more than 25% annually and the number of unemployed amounted to the unprecedented figure of 2.5 min. The workers responded to the govern ment's economic policy with numerous strikes and demon strations. The continuous arms race and the growing threat of a third world war led to a new wave of the anti war movement which developed on a wide scale and in volved millions of British people.
AI! this was reflected in the literature of that time.
Special mention should be made of the Marxist writer Jack Lindsay (b. 1900), whose important contribution to English literature is his series of novels under the col lective title Novels of the British Way. The first of these, Betrayed Spring, was well known to Soviet readers. In it Lindsay gave a fine picture of the complicated political situation in Britain after World War II.
Besides socialist literature, other literary tendencies appeared one after another: "the angry young men" (1953-1957), "new left" and "teenager's literature" (af
ter 1958), the "working-class novel" and the "new wave drama"
The novel with a philosophical tende11cy was born and the traditional satirical novel flourished to the full.
The essence of all these literary phenomena was the earnest search of the writers for their place in life, for a better future.
If we compare the litercture of the pre-war period with that of the 19-40-80s, we sh;,l!l definitely see great chan
ges: the number of progressive writers has grown to a large extent. Realism prevails in the English literature of the post-war period.
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(b. 1918)
James Aldridge was born in 1918 in Australia. His father was an editor of the local newspaper James started wor king young, first as a messenger boy, then as a correspon dent for various Melbourne papers. His youth passed in the stormy years of the economic crisis of the 30s. The economic depression affected his family which could hardly make both ends meet. Aldridge's thirst for knowledge was strong, however, so he managed to graduate from Oxford University. Later he started his career as a London jour nalist. The civil war in Spain had a great effect on the formation of Aldridge, the anti-fascist. He wanted to help the Spanish people in their struggle: he graduated from a pilot's school in order to volunteer for the front. Despite all his attempts he was strictly forbidden to do so by the British Government.
During World War II he was a correspondent in many
countries and on many fronts. This helped him to un derstand that the popular masses were the decisive force of history. The tragic fate of Greece, sold out by its govern ment to the fascist invaders, was of special interest to young Aldridge. He greatly sympathized with the ardent desire of the Greek patriots to set their country free.
His first novel Signed with Their Honour (1943) was followed by The Sea Eagle (1944). Both are dedicated to the
struggle of the Greek people against the fascist powers.
5 AHr.llHiiCKaR.IIHreparypa 129
SIGNED WITH THEIR HONOUR
Aldridge's first novel Signed With Their Honour (1943) touches on the problems of the Greek national strug gle and realistically presents the tragic fate of an English pilot who fought in Greece and was killed in battle. The novel already raises the most important problem which will be typical of Aldridge's later work: that of the gradual development of a young intellectual's consciousness.
John Quayle, the main character of the novel, comes with his squadron to Greece in the autumn of 1940. The task of the British air-force is to help the Greek army which is fighting against the joint forces of Italian and German fascists. The prime minister of Greece, Metaxas does not want to resist the Italian army. However, under pressure of the Greek patriots he hesitates to surrender without fight ing. The Greek patriots fight heroically, but they are badly equipped. Their leaders, the majority of whom sympathise with the fascists, use every opportunity to hamper their struggle. One of the patriots says: "The Generals are our tragedy" At first the British pilots look upon their task as an ordinary job, an adventure. They are passive and indif ferent to the fate of Greece and its people. But gradually the pilots come to understand that the British command is deceiving Greece, that Churchill has no desire to fight against the fascists, for he has plans of his own.
Quayle begins to realize that they have become mere puppets in the hands of high officials. His complete awa kening comes, influenced by his love for Helen, the daught er of' his friend- an antifascist writer who takes part in the national resistance movement. Quayle understands that the people's courage and strength are capable of changing the outcome of the most hopeless war. The heroic struggle of Greece increases his contempt for his own country. Even his character is changed by the war: a calm, reserved man by nature, he becomes energetic, ready to fight for a just cause. When the Italians fail to occupy Greece in April 1941, the Germans invade it. John Quayle is ordered to fly to Cairo. Helen, his wife, has to stay in Greece, which is occupied by the Germans. In an air battle off the coast of Egypt John's plane is shot down and he dies.
The passage below, taken from Aldridge's novel
5igned With Their Honour, describes the execution of some
1:30
Greek soldiers. This was one of the facts that moved John
Quayle to more serious and mature thoughts.
... Quayle was walking through a rain storm in Janina with Helen towards the hospital when he saw the squad of Greek soldiers being marched through lhe rain. Their coals were undone. They had no hals on. Their heads were shaven. They were grey and without sight, though they looked forward as they walked. Their hands were bound behind their backs with crude rope, and a thick piece of rope strung the nine of them together There were nine other Greeks wilh rifles on!heir shoulders each side escorting them. Neither did!hey see though they looked forward and screwed their eyes up to keep out the beating rain. Quayle asked Helen where they were going. She looked at him and look his arm.
"They are going to be shot", she said.
"Shot? Are they spiPs?" "They shot their officer" "What for "
"They tried him themselves for treachery and shot him. So now they will be shot"
"Where are they taking them?" "Behind the hospital", Helen said. "Christ", he said.
Quayle watched the squad as it moved through the wide river of mud and open space, moving ahead of them lo lhe hospital through the rain. He could see the yellow-brown of the Greek uniforms after!hey had disap peared across the wet field behind lhe hospital. When he stood on the steps with Helen he could see them in the dimness. He left her suddenly and quickly, and crossed the field to the stone fence. He saw the Greek soldiers lying hemp around the eyes of the others. He could see they were nul talking, and he could see their grey faces as!hey did it. They lined the nine up, and the nine shuffled awkwardly because they could not see what they were doing, and the firing squad led them by the arm into line in the open field. He saw one fall over and stumble up again. One of the firing squad wiped the mud from his face and pul him in line. He could barely see for the rain. They did not untie the nine's hands. They just stood there in an uneven line and were trying to see death through lhe hemp banda ges but only the rain mel their eyes. And they were just out of their mother's wombs.
The strength of the novel lies in showing the transfor mation of a thoughtless soldier, ready to fulfil any order, into a man who thinks and who fights against evil.
The name of James Aldridge is inseparable from the
most progressive tendency in post-war English liter
ature- that of the anticolonial novel.
In the British Empire which had for many years ex ploited its colonies, a number of works were published.) dedicated to the colonial problem. The main theme of all these works was the "sacred" mission of the white man to bring civilisation to the coloured peoples. Works by Ru dyard Kipling may be considered the best example of all those literary creations. And only after World War II the anticolonial novel gave a new meaning to an old subject. James Aldridge, Basil Davidson, Desmond Stewart, Nor man Lewis and others in their works protested against colonialism and oppression, against British imperialism.
Aldridge's novel The Diplomat (1949) is one of his best
works. It is a political novel with a philosophical tendency, touching on social conflicts. It tells of the efforts of the British Government to prevent the workers and peasants of Iranian Azerbaijan from setting up an autonomous re public as it would be dangerous for British oil interests in the Middle East.
Lord Essex, a British diplomat, is sent to Moscow to
settle the matter A young scientist, McGregor who was brought up in Iran has been appointed to help Essex as he knows Russian and Iranian.
Aldridge draws a brilliant picture of the relations between Essex and McGregor These get worse and worse, as McGregor becomes more and more aware of Essex's imperialist aims.
The portrait of Essex is marvelously accurate. The
writer shows very clearly the real aims of his diplomatic mission, and the way he spins a web of intrigue against the Soviet Union and Iran.
The novel ends with a dramatic debate in the House of Commons, for McGregor has exposed to the world the real aims of Lord Essex's mission. The young scientist comes to the conclusion that the society he lives in is false.
Much attention is paid to portraying the courage of the
Iranian people, fighting for their rights and independence_ The Diplomat has become an important landmark in English literature. In June 1953 the World Peace Council awarded Aldridge a gold medal for this novel. This is a definite acknowledgement of the writer's achievement. In 1964 Heroes of the Empty View was published. The cornerstone of this novel is the problem of the attitude of the English people towards the historical fate of their motherland and the development of the liberation move
ment in colonial countries.
The novel I Wish He Would Not Die (1958) is a logical continuation of the previous one (though the subject is quite different). The life story of captain Scott reminds us of the fate of many of Aldridge's heroes. Captain Scott, an English soldier, who lives in the Middle East, and is, in fact, a mouthpiece of British colonial policy, begins to understand its injustice. Gradually he comes to the con clusion that he should choose another way, that his duty is to help the oppressed.
A new turn in his problematics can be seen in the novels A Captive in the Land (1962) and The Statesman's Game (1966). * They came as a result of the author's desire to tell
the English reader the truth about the Soviet Union, to do
away with his countrymen's prejudice against this
country Rupert Royce, the main character of the novels, gets in touch with Soviet men which makes him meditate upon the essence of the two systems. The change of his attitude towards the Soviet people is clearly seen after his meeting with a Soviet pilot Alexei Vodopyanov Rupert sympathizes with Alexei, as well as he admires Nina, a courageous woman, who stands up to the troubles of her life and work in the North.
From The Statesman's Game the reader learns how
Royce's desire to cooperate with the Soviet country brings
about a discord in his family
In these two novels Aldridge has shown himself to be
a master of political analysis, able to present the most significant forms of thought in contemporary society.
The two works, written in the late 70s, are the story
Soldiers at War and the novel One Last Glimpse (1977).
The peculiarity of the story Soldiers at War lies in the fact, that it is written in the war genre, but in an entirely new manner The principal characters, former pilots of
different nationalities, are now cinema-actors. They are shooting a film about World War II, in which all of them took part. The psychological factor arises because the film
situation corresponds exactly to what took place many
years ago in the war The scene of the battle between the
American and German pilots is played by a real American and a real German. It is here that the author's mastery is obvious in depicting the feelings of the former enemies. For
* Both novels were published iu Russian under lhe lille "CbJH 3CMJIH
4ylKoii".
a moment both of them forget that they are acting, and think they are still at war
In the novel One Last Glimpse Aldridge surprises the
reader by an entirely new theme and his approach to it. It deals with the relationship of two great American writers, Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, during the 1920s. He sees in their friendship the classical drama of friend ship and rivalry. Arguments arise constantly between them as to the aims and forms of literaty creation.
The novelty in form and contents of this work can be found in Aldridge's peculiar approach to the two outstanding American writers.
Aldridge's works arc based on sharply dr;Jolatic si· tuations; they are full of movement and disclose the con nections and contradictions of reality
The language of his works is laconic, and at the same time it is expressive and rich. He possesses the gift of an excellent story teller and social commentator With his
perfect ear for dialogue, keen eye for detail, and rich store
of knowledge about British political and social life, Aldridge captures the mood and movement of a certain historical period in English life. His works have been translated into Russian and are highly appreciated by our reading public. The creations of this outstanding realistic artist have an important aesthetic value and manifest the considerable achievements of progressive English litera ture.
James Aldridge is among those representatives of English intelligentsia who made an important contribution to the anti-fascist struggle. In May 1973 the Committee for International Lenin Prizes "For the Promotion of Peace Among Nations" awarded J. Aldridge the International Lenin Prize.
I. When did Aldridge"s journalistic career begin? 2. What are the problems raised by Aldridge in his novel Signed with Their Honour?
3. When did!he anticolonial novel appear on the literary scene of t:::ngland? 4. What is the subject of the novel The Diplomat? 5. What is new ahout the theme of One Last Glimpse?
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(1904-1991)
Graham Greene was born at Berkhamsted, near London. He was educated at Oxford. From 1926 to 1930 he was sub-editor of the London Times. He travelled a good deal in Mexico, which later became the scene of many of his novels. Greene started writing in the late 20s. He wrote a lot of short stories, critical css<Jys, tr<Jvel books and plays.
Since the beginning of his literary career Greene has been writing in two veins- the so-called "serious novels" and the "entertaining novels" While the former <Jre genera lly i:l meditation on the psychology of man, the latter are more of the detective type of novel. The group of "serious novels" is represented by The Man Within (1929), England Made Me (1935), The Power and the Glory (1940), !he H cart of the Matter (1948), The Quiet American (1955), A Burnt-Out Case (1961). The "entertaining novels" are: Stamboul Train (1932), A Gun for Sale (1936), The Con fid entia!!lgent (1939), Loser Takes A It (1955), The Minis try of Fear (1968) and others.
The borderline between these two groups is, however, vague because the former are often constructed <Jlong detective or adventure lines while the latter present serious problems. Greene's novels touch on the burning political issues ot the day- the American war in Vietnam in The (.juiet American (1955), the people's struggle against the reactionary dictatorship in Haiti in The Comedians (1966),
racism in South Africa in The Human Factor (1978), politi ca I terrorism in Getting to Know the General; the Story of an Involvement (1984). The social and political events sNve as a background against which the problems of an ethical nature are dealt with. Greene's novels present a profound search into the depths of human psychology and are per meated with philosophical reflections on the nature of man and the human predicament. His last novel The Captain and the Enemy (1988) shows how complex and unpredic table human characters are. It treats of love and hatred, of devotion and bctraya I.
The major conflict in several of his novels occurs be tween believers, who live according to the law of the Church and unbelievers. And yet Greene avoids the easy solution that the believer will be saved and the unbeliever damned. He tries to find a way to reconcile these opposite views.
This idea permeates the novel Monsignor Quixote
(1982) and his public speeches, one of which was delivered at the International Forum "For Nuclear-Free World, for Survival of Humanity" held in Moscow in 1987
Well known are also his short stories and funny enter
taining tales for children such as The Little Fire Engine (1950), The Little Horse Bus (1952) and others. His last collection of short stories was prophetically headlined The Last Word (1990). The title story of the collection sounds as. the writer's behest to the living. It asserts the necessity of faith for every individual and for society at large.
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