Q1. what was Oscar Wilde’s literary work?

 Oscar Wilde's works reflect the emotional protest of an artist against

social conditions in England at the end of the 19th century.
 Beauty is the measure of all things, hence his desire to escape from all the
horrors of reality into the realm of beauty.
 Like most writers and poets, Wilde glorifies natural beauty, but at the
same time he is an admirer of artificial colours. In his works he compares
blood to a ruby, the blue sky to a sapphire, man's beauty to that of silver,
gold, ivory and precious stones.
 In his earlier work Vera, or the Nihilists (1882), Wilde wrote about
Russian revolutionaries. The melodrama is primitive and naives but it
shows the people's longing for freedom and happiness.
 In his works, in his tales in particular, he glorifies beauty, and not only the
beauty of nature and artificial beauty but the beauty of devoted love. He
admires unselfishness kindness and generosity; he shows deep sympathy
for the poor; he despises egoism and greed.
 In his plays Wilde gives realistic pictures of contemporary society and
exposes the vices of the bourgeois world. His only novel The Picture of
Dorian Gray is considered his masterpiece.
Q2. what are the main things about Robert burns? 200 word
 At the close of the 18th century a young Scotsman became the national
poet of both Scotland and England. His name was Robert burns, and he is
considered one of the greatest poets in English literature, his songs and
poems are known and loved far beyond the limits of his country.
 Burn’s poetry has features from the enlightenment to romanticism. and his
love of nature, his singing of liberty, his rebellious spirit have much in
common with such revolutionary romanticists as George Byron and Percy
Shelley.
 Allan Cunningham, one of the burn’s first biographers, wrote the
following lines as a preface to his work about burns: his genius was
universal.In satire, in humor, in pathos, in description, in sentiment, he
was equally great.
 Robert burns was born on January 25th, 1759, in a clay-built cottage near
the river Doon in Alloway , Ayrshine( Scotland) . his father William burns
was a gardener on a small estate. the life of the family was full of
privations.
 his poetry of the ideas of the revolution, the slogan of which was liberty,
equality, fraternity.
 Robert burns ‘s poetry was inspired by his deep love for his mother-land,
for its history and folklore.
 Burn’s poetry is closely connected with the national struggle of the
Scottish people for their liberation from England oppression, the struggle
that had been gong on in Scotland for many centuries.
 Burns’ lyrical poems are known for their beauty , truthfulness, freshness,
depth of feelings and their lovely melody.
 One of them is Auld Lang Syne, a beautiful song of brotherhood and
friendship known as a parting song.
 Burns’ style is characterized by vivid colourful images. His metaphors,
similes, personifications are taken from nature and everyday life.
Question 3:what was the contribution of the critical realists to world
literature?

The contribution of the writers belonging to what Karl Marx called the
'present brilliant school of English novelists' to world literature is enormous.
They created a broad panorama of social life, exposed and attacked the vices
of aristocratic and bourgeois society, sided with the common people in their
passionate protest against unbearable exploitation, and expressed their hopes
for a better future.  They wanted to improve the existing social order by
means of reforms. Some of them wanted to reconcile the antagonistic classes
the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, to make the rich share their wealth with
the poor, but being great artists they showed social injustices in capitalist
England in such a way that the reader cannot help thinking that changes in the
existing social system as a whole were necessary.

Q4. write about William Makespeace (about 200 words)

 William Makespeace Thackeray (1811-1863) was the greatest

representatives of Critical Realism in English literature of the 19th
century. In his novels Thackeray gives a vivid description of the upper
classes of society, their mode of life, manners and tastes. He shows their
pride and tyranny, their hypocrisy, and snobbishness, and their selfishness
and general wickedness.
 Thackeray's works lack the gentle humour . His criticism is strong, his
satire is sharp and bitter.
 William Makespeace Thackeray was born in a prosperous middle-class
family. his ambition was to become an artist, so he left the University
without graduating and went to Germany, Italy and France to study art.
 His family is bankrupt, Therefore he had to drop his studies to earn a
living. he decided to try his hand as a journalist. His humorous articles,
essays, reviews and short stories found a ready market.
 Thackeray's first notable works was The Book of Snobs 1 (1846-1847)
which deals with the upper classes and their followers in the middle
classes, whose vices the author criticizes with the sharp pen of satire, The
book may be regarded as a prelude to the author's masterpiece Vanity
Fair, which can be called the peak of Critical Realism. Vanity Fair
brought great fame to the novelist and remains his most-read work up to
the present day.
Q5. what do you know about the novel “ Vanity fair “
 Vanity Fair is one of the greatest examples of 19th century Critical
Realism. It is an exceedingly rich novel. The action is carried forward by
a series of plots and subplots; the setting is detailed and varied, the
characters are real individuals, puzzling combinations of good and bad,
who have been remembered and talked about from Thackeray's days to
our own. Towering over all is Thackeray's ability to expose in his novel
the cruel laws of capitalism which rule the capitalist world up to now.
 Vanity fair is a social novel which shows not only the bourgeois
aristocratic society as a whole, but the very laws which govern it.
describing the events which took place at the beginning of the 19th
century.
 The social background of the novel which influences all the characters in
their thoughts and actions, is high society at large.
 The novels of Dickens and Thackeray give us a remarkably realistic
picture of all classes of English society up to the middle of the 19th
century.
Q6. Write about the life of Charles Dickens( within 200 words )
 Charles Dickens was born in 1812 near Portsmouth on the south coast of
England. His family belongs to the low middle class, his family is very
difficult and his daily life is always in deep debt.

 Dickens dropped out of school at the age of twelve, and had to continue
his studies by himself. His father sent him to the law firm to study law. He
didn't stay there long. Instead of studying law, he studied stenography and
found a job as a journalist. In 1832, Dickens became a reporter of
parliament.
 It was in the Pickwick article that Dickens later described the so-called
partisan struggle. Dickens's first attempts at writing were the little stories
of ordinary Londoners he saw. he dropped a sketch he had written in a
publisher's mailbox. It was printed, and the young author followed it with
other ketchup that he signed Boz for. Boz's sketches have appeared in
various magazines. At the age of twenty-four, Dickens married Catherine
Hogarth, the daughter of his editor at the Evening Chronicle.
Question 7: What was Dicken' s contribution to world literature?

Dickens has given a full picture of 19th century English life. He revealed all
that was irrational and monstrous and through his wit and humour people
began to see their own time and environment in a new light. His method of
writing inspired many others to write realistically, and great works of critical
realism appeared after him.

Some social improvements in England were attributed to the influence of

Dickens's works. To many European critics Dickens ranked only among the
moralists and reformers of the 19th century. His works were not considered
works of art, because in his writing he was not inspired by beauty but by
human suffering. Such an opinion underrates the great artistic value of
Dickens's works. In the fifties of the 19th century, however, Russian writers
of democratic fevolutionary thought gave him a place among the English
classics.The works of Dickens, they said, were emotions of a humane mind.
The novelist condemned the hypocrisy and greed of the bourgeoisie. Dickens
had achieved one of the most difficult things in literature and art: he
developed in his readers a love for man.

Question 8: What was the new literary trend of the Victorian age?
The ideas of Chartism attracted the attention of many progressive-minded
people of the time. Many prominent writers became aware of the social
injustices around them and tried to picture them in their works. Thus this
period of fierce class struggle was mirrored in literature by the appearance of
a new trend, that of Critical Realism.These writers used the novel as a means
to protest against the evils in contemporary social and economic life and to
picture the world in a realistic way. Engels said that in his opinion Realism
should depict typical characters in typical circumstances. The critical realists
introduced new characters into literature: they described the new social force
in modern history - the working class. They expressed deep sympathy for the
working people; they described the unbearable conditions of their life and
work; they voiced a passionate protest against exploitation and described their
persistent struggle for their rights.The greatness of these novelists lies not
only in their truthful description of contemporary life, but also in their
profound humanism. Their sympathy lies with the ordinary labouring people.
They believed in the good qualities of the human heart. 

Q9. What were exposed in the novel “OLIVER TWIST”?

In 1838, Dickens created this story of powerful emotional appeal and social
criticism perhaps at the inspiration of the Poor Law passed in 1834. The law
stopped government aid to the poor unless they entered workhouses where
more miseries awaited them. The novel is significant in its truthful
presentation of the miseries of the poor and the description of the thieves' den
and of the underworld in London. With his realistic art, Dickens startled the
public into a new consciousness of the poor and the oppressed and the
criminal level of society, and shows how the social system and the institutions
were held responsible for the miseries and crimes.
Question 10: what were the living conditions of the worker in the
twentieth century?
 It was in the last decades of the twentieth century that new trade-unions
sprang up, which workers, regardless of their qualifications, could join;
even unskilled factory-hands were accepted. The leaders were real
workers, such as Tom Mann, who later founded the British Communist
Party.

 In 1883, a group of independent socialists organized the Fabian Society.

 Many progressive-minded writers, such as Bernard Shaw, Herbert Wells

and some Marxists, belonged at various times to the Fabian Society.
 English Fabian Socialism never became part of the actual workers'
movement.
 Among the social investigators who began to walk the slums were young
women from cultured families. The diaries they left give a complete
picture of how the workers lived. Here are some of the notes.
 The houses looked ready to fall, many of them out of the perpendicular,
Entire families were crowded into one room. Most of the doors stood open
all day as well as all night, and the passages and stairs sheltered many
who were altogether homeless Here a mother would stand with her baby
of sit with it on the stairs, or companions would huddle together in cold
weather. Everywhere there was drunkenness, dirt and bad language.
Gambling was the chief amusement of the young men, and fights in the
streets were common, ending at times even in murder.
 Only a small number of dock workers had permanent work; the majority
were casuals employed for one job only.
 In the summer of 1889 a great dock strike broke out in London led by
Tom Mann and other workers' leaders.
Q11. What was Thackeray ‘contribution to world literature?
THACKERAY'S CONTRIBUTION TO WORLD LITERATURE
 Thackeray's contribution to world literature is enormous. Though the class
struggle found no reflection in his works, the novelist truthfully
reproduced the political atmosphere of the century. This period witnessed
the growth of the revolutionary movement of the English proletariat.
 Thackeray developed the realistic traditions of his predecessors, and
became one of the most prominent realists and satirists of his age. The
world to him is Vanity Fair where men and women, to use his own words,
"are greedy, pompous, mean, perfectly satisfied and at ease about their
superior virtue. They despise St poverty and kindness of heart. They are
snobs".
 Thackeray loathed snobbishness, and in his works he used satire to expose
the pretensions of the snobs and social climbers whom he depicts in his
novels.
Q12. What do you know about the Life of Oscar Wilde ?
 Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin on October 16, 1854. His father was a
famous Irish surgeon. His mother was well known in Dublin as a graceful
writer of verse and prose.
 The young man received a number of classical prizes, and graduated with
first-class honours.
 The most prominent personalities of the day; he wore his hair long,
decorated his rooms with peacock's feathers, lilies, sunflowers, blue china
and other beautiful things, His affected paradoxes and witty sayings were
quoted on all sides.
 Wilde also wrote poems, essays, reviews, political tracts, letters and
occasional pieces on every subject he considered worthy of attention -
history, drama, painting, etc.
 Some of these pieces were serious, some satirical, the variety of themes
reflected a personality that could never remain inactive. At home and
abroad Wilde attracted the attention of his audiences by the brilliance of
 his conversation, the scope of his knowledge, and the sheer force of his
personality.
 At the height of his popularity and success tragedy struck. He was accused
of immorality and sentenced to two years' imprisonment. When released
from prison in 1897 he lived mainly on the Continent and later in Paris. In
1898 he published his powerful poem, Ballad of Reading Gaol. He died in
Paris in 1900.

Q13. Why was the twentieth century English literature called the
literature off the Decandence ?
 In the seventies of the 19th century most writers on social problems
believed that science and science alone would finally sweep away all
human misery and bring civilization to all. Men of science were greatly
admired. Many of these scientists believed in positivism, and spread their
demagogic ideas among the people.
 But during the last decades of the 19th century doubts began to arise as to
the faultless nature of Europe civilization. People had awakened to the
fact that scientific progress was increasing the wealth of the upper classes
only. They began to see that some human beings were born to riches for
which they had not worked, while the majority was born to poverty from
which there was no escape.
 Philanthropy, never having been able to prevent poverty, now became a
laughing stock. Disillusionment led to pessimism and found its expression
in a very pessimistic literature, the literature of the Decadence.

14) what are the differences and similarities between Thackeray’s and
Dicken’s writing styles?
Similarities:
 They are all realist authors.
 Dickens and Thackeray's novels give us a distinctly realistic picture of all
walks of life in British society until the mid-19th century.
Thackeray’ writing styles Dickens writing styles
 Thackeray is the penetrating  Dickens is magnificently
analyst of both middle class and successful in depicting common
aristocratic society. people, but he is ill acquainted
 Thackeray's realism is less with the upper classes,
combined with fantasy and
lyricism, it is more exact and
objective.
 Thackeray portrays his characters  Dickens’s realism idealizes his
more realistically. positive characters.
 He depicts his characters as if  Dickens was more optimistic than
viewing them from afar. This was Thackeray. He tried to reform
a new feature in literature which people and thought that that was
was followed by many other the way to make them happy.
writers, and was later called  Dickens is able to see man
objective realism in literature. reformed in the future.
 In Thackeray's opinion the
existing state of things could not
be changed

Q15. What are the two trends of the twentieth century English literature?
 The crisis of bourgeois culture was reflected in literature by the
appearance of two trends, the one progressive, the other regressive.
 The representatives of the first trend continued the realistic traditions of
the predecessors- the brilliant school of novelists in England'. It was
represented by such writers as George Eliot, George Meredih, Samuel
 Butler, Thomas Hardy, These novelists gave a truthful picture of
contemporary society.
 The writers of the regressive trend by way of protest against severe reality
tried to lead the reader away from life into the world of dreams and
fantasy, into the realm 1 of beauty. They idealized the patriarchal way of
life and criticized capitalism chiefly for its antiaestheticism.
Q16. what are some of the historical fact of the twentieth century English
literature?
 In the seventies of the 19th century most writers on social problems
believed that science and science alone would finally sweep away all
human misery and bring civilization to all.
 Disillusionment led to pessimism and found its expression in a very
pessimistic literature, the literature of the Decadence.
 Many progressive-minded writers, such as Bernard Shaw, Herbert Wells
and some Marxists, belonged at various times to the Fabian Society.
 Artists, poets, novelists, musicians and all the intellectuals hated the
heartless and hypocritical bourgeois world which hindered the
development of human personality. They were aware of its spiritual
degradation, its religious bigotry and meanness. The crisis of bourgeois
culture was reflected in literature by the appearance of two rends, the one
progressive, the other regressive.
Q17. what are the contents of the story “ Pride and Prejudice”
 The story Pride and Prejudice tells a story which centres around a series of
misunder- standings between Elizabeth and Darcy.
 Elizabeth is a lively young middle-class woman who has a satirical
temperament whereas Darcy, born in a wealthy upper-class family, is an
unconsciously arrogant young man.
 He first offends Elizabeth with his haughty contempt for the "inferiority
of her connections" and the "want of propriety" apparently "displayed by
 her şon-in-law hunting mother, officer-chasing younger sisters and kind
but indolent and cynical father". On account of this, Elizabeth makes up
her mind not to care about Darcy at all.
 However, Darcy reluctantly finds himself a suitor of Elizabeth. As he
proposes to Elizabeth, he can't help showing his pride for his own status.
What is more, he thinks that he is lowering himself and this he
communicates to Elizabeth. Elizabeth, in return, develops a strong dislike
for and prejudice against Darcy and rejects Darcy's proposal.
 Then the two part each other. Later Darcy writes a letter explaining his
past conducts to Elizabeth and frees himself from Elizabeth's charges
against him. After a series of events, reconciliation of the two comes. As
Darcy renews his proposal to Elizabeth, he realizes that it was his pride
that made him arrogant and insensitive. Elizabeth, in turn, accepts his
offer with the knowledge that her prejudice caused her to mistake his real
character. When they join their hands together, they find happiness and a
better understanding of each other.

Q18. what are Oscar Wilde’s the major works and his writing genres?
 Oscar Wilde’s the major works are: The picture of Dorian Gray, The
Remarkable Rocket, The Nightingale and the Rose, The Fisherman and
his soul, The soul of Man Under Socialism, Vera, Nihilists, the devoted
friend, The selfish Giant.
 His writing genres:

Question 19. What are the main points about William Shakespeare?
The great English playwright and poet William Shakespeare was born on
April 23, 1564 in the small town of Stratford-upon-Avon.
1. Cuộc đời
 When a boy he went Stratford Grammar School where Latin and Greek
were almost the only subjects
 Stratford-upon-Avon was often visited by traveling groups of actors. It is
quite possible that Shakespeare saw some plays performed by such actors
and was impressed by them.
 Shakespeare lived in Stratford-upon-Avon until he was that time he was
married and had three children. At twenty-one he left Stratford-upon-
Avon for London where he joined a theatrical company and worked as an
actor and a playwright
 Shakespeare became one of The Globe thearte owners. . It was in The
Globe that most of Shakespeare's plays were staged at that time.
 In 1613, Shakespeare left London and returned to his native town of
Stratford- upon-Avon. Three years later, on April 23, 1616, he died and
was buried there.
2. Sự nghiệp
 Shakespeare the author of 2 poems, 37 plays and 154 sonnets. His creative
work is usually divided into three periods.
a. Giai đoạn 1
 - The first period that lasted, from 1590 to 1600 was marked by the
optimism characteristic of all humanist literature, It is best reflected in his
brilliant comedie The Comedies of Errors (1592), The Taming of the
Shrew (1593), ….
 - The historical chronicles form another group of plays written by
Shakespeare in the first period. They are: King Henry VI (part II) (1590),
King Henry VI (part III) (1590), King Henry VI (part I) (1591), ….
 b. Giai đoạn 2
 - The main works written by Shakespeare during the second period (1601-
1608) are his four great tragedies: Hamlet,
Prince of Denmark (1601), Othello, the Moor of Venice (1604), King Lear
(1605), Macbeth (1605).

c. Giai đoạn 3
 - The plays of the third period (1609 - 1612) differ from everything
written by Shakespeare before. The playwright still touches upon
important social and moral thiện, d problems. But now he suggests
utopian solution to them: Cymbeline (1609), The Winter's Tale lure
(1610) and The Tempest (1612) are called romantic dramas.
Question 20. What do you know about Daniel Defoe?
Daniel Defoe (1660 - 1731) is rightly considered the father of the English and
the European movel, for it was due to him that the genre became once and for
ever established in European literature.
1. Cuộc đời
 Daniel Defoe life was complicated and adventurous.
 Daniel was educated at a theological school.
 He became a first in wine, then in hosiery. He traveled in Spain, Germany,
France and Italy on busiņess. Defoe's business was not very successful
and he went bankrupt more than once
 He took an active part in the political life of Britain. In 1685 he
participated in the Dukę of Monmouth's' revolt against James II.
 After years of political ups and downs, including imprisonment for his
attacks against the Church. In order to disgraced Defoe the Government
had him thrice pilloried on the 29, 30, 31 of July 1703. He died at the age
of 71, having written numerous works
2. Sự nghiệp
 In the early 90s Defoe turned to literature. His first literary works were
satirical problems of the time. In 1697 he publishes An Essay on Projects
 In 1702 Defoe published a satirical pamphlet written in support of the
protestants, or dissenters, persecuted by the government and the Church:
The Shortest Way with the Dissenters
 Before being pilloried he wrote his Hymn to the Pillory which at once
became known all over London
 His first and most popular novel The Life and Strange Surprising
Adventures of Robinson Crusoe was written in 1719 when Defoe was
about 60.

Question 21. Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson

Crusae? What do you know about the novel Thie

 The story was used by Daniel Defoe for the plot of his novel The Life and
Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. The novel opens
with a narration of Crusoe’s youth in England, his escape from home.
Defoe wrote his novels in the form of memoirs, which made them look
like stories about real people. The detailed descriptions of Crusoe's labour
- making a boat, cultivating the land and others - were just as interesting
for the reader, as those of his adventures.
 After a shipwreck Robinson Crusoe finds himself on an uninhabited
island and spends 28 years there. With a few tools rescued from the ship
he builds a hut, makes a boat. He fames and breeds animals, cultivates
plot of land, hunts and fishes. He is never idle. He is a man of labour,
untiring, industrious and optimistic.
 Robinson Crusoe became an instant success after its publication. The
charm of this story mainly lies in its intense reality, in the succession of
 thought, feelings and incidents that every reader find true to life. It is an
interesting picaresque novel about an 18th-century English adventurer
who is a true empire-builder, a coloniser as well as a foreign trader.
 In this novel, both physical and mental labour is glorified, The detailed
descriptions of the steps taken by the hero to provide for himself shelter,
food, clothing and the other simple comforts of life, are managed with
great skill by the author not treated with exaggeration or romantic
colourings but narrated in a simple, straight forward style

Question 22. Show your understandings about Jonathan

Cuộc đời
 Jonathan Swift was born on November 30, 1667 in Dublin in an English
family, his father died seven months before Jonathan's birth leaving his
family in raheo ran naverty. Jonathan brought by his prosperons Uncle
Godwin Swift who sent him to then to Trinity College in Dublin
 There he studied theology and later became a clergyman. . At 21 Swift
went to live England and beeame private secretary of a distant relative, Sir
William Temple, a writer and a well-known diplomat of the time
 During the two years at Moor Park Swift read and studied much and in
1692 took his Master of Arts Degree at Oxford University. Then he came
back to Moor Park and lived there till Sir William's death in 1698
 In 1701 Swift went to the small town of Laracor (Ireland) as a clergyman.
When the Tories came to power in 1709 Swift returned to England and
edited their paper The Examiner. He became one of the leading political
figures in England, although he occupied no official post in the
Government
 At the age of 78 he died and was buried in the Cathedral, the Dean of
which he had been most of his life
 Sự nghiệp
 Swift's literary work was always closely connected with his political
activity, In the numerous political pamphlets Swift ridiculed different
spheres of life of bourgeois society: law, wars, politics, etc
 His strongest pamphlets, were written in Ireland. One of the most
outstanding pamphlets and the most biting of all his satires was A Modest
Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People of Ireland from
Being a Burden to their Parents (1729).
Question 23. What were the characteristic features of Romanticism?

 Some of these writers were definitely revolutionary, they denied the

existing order, called upon the people to struggle for a better future,
shared the people's desire for liberty and objected to colonial oppression.
Furthermore, they supported the national liberation wars on the continent
against feudal reaction
 They tried to avoid the contradictions that were becoming so great in all
the spheres of social life with the development of capitalism. They looked
back to patriarchal England and refused to accept the progress of industry,
they even called to the Government to forbid the building of new factories
which, they considered were the cause of the workers' sufferings
 They dedicated much of what they wrote to Nature especially
Wordsworth, They disclosed the life of the common people of the English
countryside that was overlooked by their younger revolutionary
contemporaries.
 The romanticists paid a good deal of attention to the spiritual life of man.
This was reflected in an abundance of lyrical verse. The so-called exotic
theme came into being and great attention was dedicated to nature and its
elements. The description became very rich in form and many-sided in
contents. The writers used such means as symbolic, fantasy, grotesque,
 etc... legends, tales, sôngs and ballads also became part their members of
their creative method.
 The romanticists were talented poets and their contribution to English
literature bore the name was very important.