Thackeray's Catherine (serialized in Fraser's Magazine from 1839 to 1840) was his first published novel. It is an imaginary novel based on a real criminal's records in the 18^<th> century but at the same time it is a critique with the purpose to attack a group of criminal romances very popular in those days. The novel shows in terms of parody that the crimes and criminals in those novels are too much romanticized or sentimentalized and emphasizes that criminals should be represented as "odious" as is shown in his own novel realistically and appropriately. Although the novel was fairly well accepted by readers in those days, it is now generally regarded as insignificant. This is mainly because the author's literary assertion sounds like a simple moralist-realist's one that is certainly out of date today; and more, his critical belief that a criminal should be represented as hideous seems undermined by the very feminized "overly-sympathized" characterization of the criminal heroine itself, as the author himself acknowledged later in a private letter. Interestingly, however, a close examination of the original text (including the illustrations drawn by the author himself) suggests that Thackeray shows much wider concern about various modes of representation than a simple realist was expected to. Also never does he completely fail in treating the heroine consistently throughout the critique novel. Thackeray's heroine assumes the indices of the gender ideal like being weak, feminine, and victimized by surrounding men. And yet these signs never guarantee that the heroine is free from the odiousness or harm of crime related to her. Thackeray's acknowledgement of his failure is probably due to his excessive response to the gender indices as other readers have. But the problem lies in the very fact that the author himself has not had a clear, well-examined vision about the criminality of the heroine or what makes hideousness in her. He knew how to write in his own way. He had literary knowledge, argument, society's support and invention enough for him to launch into novel writing boldly. And yet he lacked what makes an imaginative work powerful at this point of literary career.
ニューゲイト・ノヴェル批判小説『キャサリン』の「成功」と「失敗」 : 小説家サッカレーはいかにして生まれたか
KJ00004441247
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