The Historical Novel

THE HISTORICAL NOVEL T H E HISTORICAL NOVEL Other books by Georg Lukacs The Destruction of Reason Essays on Thomas Mann Goethe and his Age History and Class Consciousness Meaning Of Contemporary Realism The Ontology of Social Being 1 Hegel 2 Marx 3 Labour Reviews and Articles from Die Rote Fahne Soul and Form Solzhenitsyn Studies in European Realism The Theory of the Novel Writer and Critic The Young Hegel T HE HISTORICAL NOVEL Georg Lukacs TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN BY Hannah and Stanley Mitchell London MERLIN PRESS First published in Moscow in 1937 This translation first published in England in 1962 by the Merlin Press Ltd. Reprinted in cloth four times This paperback edition first published in 1989 by the Merlin Press Ltd. 10 Maiden Road, London NWS 3HR English Translation Copyright© 1962 by The Merlin Press Ltd. ISBN 0 85036 378 0 Printed in Great Britain by Biddies & Co. Ltd. Guildford Surrey page page E'UATA 11, head. For Translator's Note read Translators' Note 68, lines 7-8 from bottom. For (Uproar in the Cevennes) (The Revolt in the Cevennes) read page 85, line 12. For with read which page 118, para. 4, line 6. For Ocasionally read Occasionally page 150, line 7 from bottom. For eo-called read so-called page 154, line 4. For with which is most familiar read with which he is most familiar page 179, line 4 from bottom. For the injection a meaning read the injection of a meaning page 180, para. 4, line l. For historical solopism read historical solipsism page 197, para. 3, line 2. For Gegenwlirtighkeit read Gegenwartigkeit page 221, line 4 from bottom. For Bismark read Bismarck page 237, para. 3, line 2. For first half of the eighteenth century read first half of the nineteenth century page 246, para. 2, line 9. For E.Th.A. Hoffmann's read E.T.A. Hoff­ mann's · page 285, para. 2, line 4 from bottom. For Nikola read Nicholas Contents ONE Translators' Note 11 Preface to the English Edition 13 Foreword 17 19 The Classical Form of the Historical Novel 1. SOCIAL RISE OF THE HISTORICAL NOVEL 19 2. SIR WALTER SCOTT 30 3. THE CLASSICAL HI STORICAL NOVEL IN STRUGGLE AND HI STORICAL CONDITION S FOR THE 63 WITH ROMANTICISM TWO Historical Novel and Historical Drama 89 1. FACTS 2. THE PECULIARITY OF DRAMATIC CHARACTERIZATION 106 3. THE PROBLEM OF PUBLIC CHARACTER 128 4. THE PORTRAYAL OF COLLISION IN EPIC AND DRAMA 138 5. A SKETCH OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF H I STORICISM OF LIFE UNDERLYING THE DIVISION BE- 90 TWEE N EPIC AND DRAMA 152 IN DRAMA AND DRAMATURGY THREE The Historical Novel and the Crisis of Bourgeois Realism 171 l. CHANGES IN THE CONCEPTION OF HISTORY AFI'E� 2. MAKING PRIVATE, MODERNIZATION AND EXOTICISM 183 3. THE NATURALISM OF THE PLEBEIAN OPPOSITION 206 4. CONRAD FERDINAND MEYER AND THE NEW TYPE THE REVOLUTION OF 172 1848 221 OF HISTORICAL NOVEL 5. THE GENERAL TENDENCIES O F DECADENCE AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE HISTORICAL NOVEL AS 230 A SPECIAL GENRE 9 FOUR The Historical Novel of Democratic Humanism }. GENERAL CHAR