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and became a Civil Servant at Dublin Castle. The work was dull and repetitive
but it was here that Stoker wrote his first book The Duties Of Clerks Of Petty
Sessions In Ireland. Basically the Book is a manual detailing procedure of his
own occupation.
Stoker became interested in the theatre while a student through a friend,
Dr. Maunsell. He became the theatre critic for the Dublin Evening Mail,
co-owned by the author of Gothic tales Sheridan Le Fanu. In December 1876 he
gave a favourable review of Henry Irving’s Hamlet at the Theatre Royalin
Dublin. Irving invited Stoker for dinner at the Shelbourne Hotel where he was
staying. They became friends. Irving wanted to own his own Theatre, and he had
big ideas in that sphere. Soon he asked Stoker to be his Acting Manager of the
Lyceum Theatre. This was a big decision for Stoker who had just got married to
society beauty Florence Balcombe, daughter of Lieutenant – Colonel an
ex-girlfriend of Oscar Wilde. Stoker with his wife moved to London for a new
life, where Stoker became acting manager and then business manager of Irving’s
Lyceum Theatre, London, a post he held for 27 years.
Stoker also wrote stories, and in 1872 The Crystal Cup was published by
the London Society, followed by The Chain of Destiny in four parts in The
Shamrock. In 1876, while a civil servant in Dublin, Stoker wrote a non-fiction
book (The Duties of Clerks of Petty Sessions in Ireland, published 1879), which
remained a standard work. Furthermore, he possessed an interest in art, and was
a founder of the Dublin Sketching Club in 1874.
On 31 December 1879 Bram and Florence’s only child was born, a son
whom they christened Irving Noel Thornley Stoker. The collaboration with
Henry Irving was important for Stoker and through him he became involved in
London’s high society, where he met James Abbott McNeill Whistler and Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle. Working for Irving, the most famous actor of his time, and
managing one of the most successful theatres in London made Stoker a notable,
busy man. There were compensations however. All the London Glitterati, the
‘Beautiful People’ of the day flocked to the Lyceum open nights, some of them
are poets like Alfred Lord Tennyson, politicians like former Prime Minister
William Gladstone and the writer Oscar Wilde. After the performance Irving,
Stoker and whatever visiting luminaries would visit the Beefsteak Room at the
Lyceum Theatre to eat, talk and make merry long into the early hours of the
morning.
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He was dedicated to Irving and his memoirs show he idolised him.
In London Stoker also met Hall Caine, who became one of his closest friends –
he dedicated Dracula to him.
In the course of Irving’s tours, Stoker travelled the world. Stoker enjoyed
the United States, where Irving was popular. With Irving he was invited twice to
the White House, and knew William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt. Stoker
set two of his novels there, using Americans as characters, the most notable
being Quincey Morris. He also met one of his literary idols, Walt Whitman.
In 1890 Stoker visited the English town Whitby and that visit is said to be
part of the inspiration of his great novel Dracula. Originally intended to
be called The Undead the title was changed at the last minute just prior to
publication and was renamed Dracula. Before writing Dracula Stoker met
Ármin Vámbéry, a Hungarian writer and traveler. Dracula likely emerged from
Vámbéry’s dark stories of the Carpathian mountains. Stoker then spent several
years researching European folklore and mythological stories of vampires.
While manager for Henry Irving and secretary and director of London’s
Lyceum Theatre, he began writing novels, beginning with The Snake’s Pass in
1890 and Dracula in 1897. During this period, Stoker was part of the literary
staff of the The Daily Telegraph in London, and wrote other fiction, including
the horror novels The Lady of the Shroud (1909) and The Lair of the
White Worm (1911). In 1906, after Irving’s death, he published his Personal
Reminiscences of Henry Irving, which proved successful, and managed
productions at the Prince of Wales Theatre.
After suffering a number of strokes, Stoker died on 20 April 1912. He was
cremated, and his ashes placed in a display urn at Golders Green Crematorium,
London.
Famous quotations by Stoker:
Loneliness will sit over our roofs with brooding wings.
We are all drifting reefwards now, and faith is our only anchor.
How blessed are some people, whose lives have no fears, no dreads, to
whom sleep is a blessing that comes nightly, and brings nothing but sweet
dreams.
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Despair has its own calms.
There are mysteries which men can only guess at, which age by age
they may solve only in part.
A house cannot be made habitable in a day and, after all, how few days
go to make up a century.
Oh, friend John, it is a strange world, a sad world, a world full of
miseries, and woes, and troubles. And yet when King Laugh come, he makes
them all dance to the tune he plays.
Popular works by Stoker:
The Primrose Path (1875)
The Snake’s Pass (1890)
The Watter’s Mou’ (1895)
The Shoulder of Shasta (1895)
Dracula (1897)
Miss Betty (1898)
The Mystery of the Sea (1902)
The Jewel of Seven Stars (1903)
The Man (1905)
Lady Athlyne (1908)
The Lady of the Shroud (1909)
The Lair of the White Worm (1911)
Under the Sunset (1881)
Snowbound: The Record of a Theatrical Touring Party (1908)
Dracula’s Guest and Other Weird Stories (1914)
Useful resources for reading about Stoker:
http://www.bramstokerdracula.co.uk/biography.html
http://www.famousquotes.com/author/bram-stoker/
Comprehension assignments:
1. Give the brief summary of Stoker’s life.
2. Highlight the literary styles of the author.
3. Name Stoker’s most memorable works.
4. Write the brief summary of one of Stoker’s works.
53
William Makepeace Thackeray
(Уильям Мейкпис Теккерей)
Thackeray was the only son of Richmond Thackeray, an administrator in
the East India Company. His mother, Anne Becher (1792–1864), who was also a
secretary (writer) for the East India Company. When his father died in 1815,
in 1816 Thackeray was sent home to England. His mother joined him in 1820,
having married (1817) an engineering officer with whom she had been in love
before she met Richmond Thackeray. After attending several grammar schools
Thackeray went in 1822 to Charterhouse, the London public (private) school,
where he led a rather lonely and miserable existence.
He was happier while studying at Trinity College, Cambridge
(1828–1830). In 1830 he left Cambridge without taking a degree, and during
1831–1833 he studied law at the Middle Temple, London. He then considered
painting as a profession; his artistic gifts are seen in his letters and many of his
early writings, which are amusingly and energetically illustrated. In 1836, while
studying art in Paris, he married a penniless Irish girl, Isabella Gethin Shawe,
and his stepfather bought a newspaper so that he could remain there as its
correspondent. After the paper’s failure (1837) he took his wife back to
Bloomsbury, London, and became a hardworking and prolific professional
journalist. The Thackerays had three children, all girls: Anne Isabella
(1837–1919), Jane (who died at eight months old) and Harriet Marian (1840–
1875). Tragedy struck in Thackeray’s personal life as his wife, Isabella,
succumbed to depression after the birth of their third child, in 1840, and became
insane. She never recovered and outlived her husband by 30 years, living with
friends in the country. Thackeray was, in effect, a widower, relying much on
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club life and gradually giving more and more attention to his daughters, for
whom he established a home in London in 1846. The serial publication in
1847–1848 of his novel Vanity Fair brought Thackeray both fame and
prosperity, and from then on he was an established author on the English scene.
He remained ‟at the top of the tree”, for the rest of his life, during which
he produced several large novels, notably Pendennis, The Newcomes and The
History of Henry Esmond, despite various illnesses, including a near-fatal one
that struck him in 1849 in the middle of writing Pendennis. He twice visited the
United States on lecture tours during this period. Thackeray also gave lectures in
London on the English humorists of the eighteenth century, and on the first four
Hanoverian monarchs. The latter series was published in book form as The Four
Georges.
On 23 December 1863, after returning from dining out and before
dressing for bed, he suffered a stroke. He was found dead in his bed the
following morning. His death at the age of fifty-two was entirely unexpected,
and shocked his family, his friends and the reading public. An estimated 7,000
people attended his funeral at Kensington Gardens. He was buried on
29 December at Kensal Green Cemetery, and a memorial bust sculpted by
Marochettican be found in Westminster Abbey.
Famous quotations by William Thackeray:
Life is a mirror: if you frown at it, it frowns back; if you smile, it re-
turns the greeting.
To love and win is the best thing.
To love and lose, the next best.
Good humor may be said to be one of the very best articles of dress
one can wear in society.
Revenge may be wicked, but it’s natural.
Never lose a chance of saying a kind word.
Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children.
People hate as they love, unreasonably.
A good laugh is sunshine in a house.
Bravery never goes out of fashion.
It is better to love wisely, no doubt: but to love foolishly is better than
not to be able to love at all.
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Popular works by William Thackeray:
The Yellow plush Papers (1837)
Catherine (1839–40)
A Shabby Genteel Story (1840)
The Irish Sketchbook (1843)
The Luck of Barry Lyndon (1844), filmed as Barry Lyndon by Stanley
Kubrick
Notes of a Journey from Cornhill to Grand Cairo (1846), under the name
Mr. M. A. Titmarsh
Mrs. Perkins’s Ball (1846), under the name M. A. Titmarsh
The Book of Snobs (1848)
Vanity Fair (1848)
Pendennis (1848–1850)
Rebecca and Rowena (1850), a parody sequel of Ivanhoe
The Paris Sketchbook (1840)
(1867)
Men’s Wives (1852)
The History of Henry Esmond (1852)
The English Humorists of the Eighteenth Century (1853)
The Newcomes (1855)
The Rose and the Ring (1855)
The Virginians (1857–1859)
Four Georges (1860–1861)
The Adventures of Philip (1862)
Roundabout Papers (1863)
Denis Duval (1864)
The Orphan of Pimlico (1876)
Sketches and Travels in London
Stray Papers: Being Stories, Reviews, Verses, and Sketches (1821–1847)
The English Humorists of the eighteenth century: a series of lectures
Lovel the Widower (1867)
Ballads (1867)
Christmas Books (1867)
Samuel Titmarsh (1867)
Miscellanies (1867)
Stories (1867)
Burlesques (1867)
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Irish Sketchbook volume 2 (1867)
Character Sketches (1867)
Critical Reviews (1867)
Literary Essays (1904)
Useful resources for reading about William Thackeray:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/3953.William_Makepeace_
Thackeray
http://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Makepeace-Thackeray
http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/william-makepeace-thackeray-
27.php
Comprehension assignments:
1. Give the brief summary of Thackeray’s life.
2. Highlight the literary styles of the author.
3. Name Thackeray’s most memorable works.
4. Write the brief summary of one of Thackeray’s works.
Herbert George Wells
(Герберт Джордж Уэллс)
Herbert George Wells was born on 21 September, 1866, in Bromley,
Kent, England. Called ‟Bertie” in the family, he was the fourth and last child of
Joseph Wells (a former domestic gardener, and at the time a shopkeeper and
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professional cricketer) and his wife, Sarah Neal (a former domestic servant). An
inheritance had allowed the family to acquire a shop in which they sold china
and sporting goods, although it failed to prosper: the stock was old and worn
out, and the location was poor. Sometimes the payment came from the clubs
where cricket matches were played. Wells’s parents were often worried about
his poor health. They were afraid that he might die young, as his older sister had.
At the age of 7, Wells had an accident that left him bedridden for several
months. During this time, the avid young reader went through many books,
including some by Washington Irving and Charles Dickens.
At his mother’s workplace, Wells discovered the owner’s extensive
library. He read the works of Jonathan Swift and some of the important figures
of the Enlightenment, including Voltaire.
In his early teens, Wells also went to work as a draper’s assistant. He
hated the job and eventually quit, much to his mother’s dismay. Turning to
teaching, Wells soon found a way to continue his own studies. At 18 he won a
scholarship to the Normal School of Science in South Kensington, London,
where he learned about physics, chemistry, astronomy and biology.
Wells also devoted much of his time to becoming a writer. During
college, he published a short story about time travel called The Chronic
Argonauts, which foreshadowed his future literary success.
He graduated from London University in 1888, becoming a science
teacher and undergoing a period of ill health and financial worries.
In 1891 Wells married his cousin, Isabel Mary Wells. The marriage was
not a success, and in 1894 Wells ran off with Amy Catherine Jane Robbins
(d. 1927), a former pupil, who in 1895 became his second wife. He and Jane had
two children together, sons George Philip and Frank. Wells did not let marriage
stop him from having other relationships. He had numerous affairs and later
lived apart from Jane. His involvement with Amber Reeves resulted in the birth
of their daughter Anna-Jane in 1909. Wells later developed feelings for feminist
writer Rebecca West, and they had a son, Anthony, together.
One of the ways that Wells expressed himself was through his drawings
and sketches. One common location for these was the endpapers and title pages
of his own diaries, and they covered a wide variety of topics, from political
commentary to his feelings toward his literary contemporaries and his current
58
romantic interests. During his marriage to Jane, he drew a considerable number
of pictures, many of them being overt comments on their marriage.
Wells’s first published book was a Textbook of Biology (1893). With his
first novel, The Time Machine (1895), which was immediately successful, he
began a series of science fiction novels that revealed him as a writer of marked
originality and an immense fecundity of ideas: The Wonderful Visit (1895), The
Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897), The War of the
Worlds (1898), The First Men in the Moon (1901) and The Food of the Gods
(1904). He also wrote many short stories, which were collected in The Stolen
Bacillus (1895), The Plattner Story (1897) and Tales of Space and Time (1899).
For a time, he acquired a reputation as a prophet of the future, and indeed, in
The War in the Air (1908), he foresaw certain developments in the military use
of aircraft. But his imagination flourished at its best not in the manner of the
comparatively mechanical anticipations of Jules Verne but in the astronomical
fantasies of The First Men in the Moon and The War of the Worlds, from the
latter of which the image of the Martian has passed into popular mythology.
Wells contemplates the ideas of nature and nurture and questions
humanity in books such as The Island of Doctor Moreau. Not all his scientific
romances ended in a Utopia, and Wells also wrote a dystopian novel, When the
Sleeper Wakes (1899, rewritten as The Sleeper Awakes, 1910), which pictures a
future society where the classes have become more and more separated, leading
to a revolt of the masses against the rulers.
Eventually, Wells decided to abandon science fiction for comic novels of
lower middle-class life, most notably in Love and Mr. Lewisham (1900), Kipps:
The Story of a Simple Soul (1905) and The History of Mr. Polly (1910). In these
novels and in Tono-Bungay (1909) he drew on memories of his own earlier
life, and he revealed the hopes and frustrations of clerks, shop assistants, and
underpaid teachers, who had rarely before been treated in fiction with such
sympathetic understanding. In these novels, too, he made his liveliest, most
persuasive comment on the problems of Western society that were soon to
become his main preoccupation. The vision of a dying world in The Time
Machine shows that, in his long-term view of humanity’s prospects, Wells felt
much of the pessimism prevalent in the 1890s. In his short-term view, however,
his study of biology led him to hope that human society would evolve into
59
higher forms, and with Anticipations (1901), Mankind in the Making (1903), and
A Modern Utopia (1905), he took his place in the British public’s mind as a
leading preacher of the doctrine of social progress.
About this time, too, he became an active socialist, and in 1903 joined the
Fabian Society, though he soon began to criticize its methods. The bitter quarrel
he precipitated by his unsuccessful attempt to wrest control of the Fabian
Society from George Bernard Shawand Sidney and Beatrice Webbin 1906–1907
is retold in his novel The New Machiavelli (1911), in which the Webbs are
parodied as the Baileys.
In 1933 Wells predicted in The Shape of Things to Come that the world
war he feared would begin in January 1940, a prediction which ultimately came
true four months early, in September 1939, with the outbreak of World War II.
In 1936, before the Royal Institution, Wells called for the compilation of a
constantly growing and changing World Encyclopaedia, to be reviewed by
outstanding authorities and made accessible to every human being. In 1938 he
published a collection of essays on the future organisation of knowledge and
education, World Brain, including the essay, ‟The Idea of a Permanent World
Encyclopaedia”.
Prior to 1933 Wells’s books were widely read in Germany and Austria,
and most of his science fiction works had been translated shortly after
publication. By 1933 he had attracted the attention of German officials because
of his criticism of the political situation in Germany, and on 10 May 1933,
Wells’s books were burned by the Nazi youthin Berlin’s Opernplatz, and his
works were banned from libraries and bookstores.
In 1911 Wells wrote Floor Games followed by Little Wars (1913). Little
Wars is recognised today as the first recreational war game and Wells is
regarded by gamers and hobbyists as ‟the Father of Miniature War Gaming”.
Wells died of unspecified causes on 13 August 1946, aged 79, at his home
at 13 Hanover Terrace, Regent’s Park, London. Some reports also say he died of
a heart attack at the flat of a friend in London. In his preface to the 1941 edition
of The War in the Air, Wells had stated that his epitaph should be: ‟I told you
so. You damned fools”. He was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium on 16
August 1946. A commemorative blue plaque in his honour was installed at his
home in Regent’s Park.
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