Look at the Victorian era from the novel Clumford Town

Author: Wang Lixin (Associate Professor, China Academy of Performing Arts)

In 1817, the only heir of the British regent, Princess Charlotte, died in childbirth, the princess herself died tragically, and her 11 uncles and aunts had no legitimate heirs, and the Hanoverian dynasty was instantly trapped in the dilemma of no successor. The poet Peter Pinda sighed: "The royal history is tormented. The Duke was worried, the lady was complaining, and the new king was far away. For the sake of the continuation of the royal family, the late princess's 50-year-old fourth uncle, the Duke of Kent, married a German princess, but died of illness eight months after his wife gave birth to her daughter Victoria. The Duchess coveted the throne of Mulu and attempted to rely on her daughter regency and thus monopolize power. King William IV at the time—the third uncle of the late Princess Charlotte and Victoria's third uncle—in order to prevent the imperial power from falling by, he braced himself in the year of the wind and candle, and finally looked forward to the 18th birthday of his niece Victoria. 27 days later, William IV died and Victoria ascended the throne, beginning the 64-year Victorian era. Contemporaries of critical realism, Charles Dickens, called it "the best of times" and "the worst of times."

Cranford Town is a novel by the British writer Mrs. Gaskell published in 1853. Mrs. Gaskell, whose real name is Elizabeth Stevenson, lost her mother when she was 1 year old and was placed in foster care at her aunt's house in Natsford, Cheshire. The town of Natsford thus became the source of her literary creation, and "Clonford Town" is a literary reproduction of the town of Natsford.

Mrs. Gaskell's town of Cranford belongs to the English rural market town. Local farmers plant fruits and vegetables, raise chickens, ducks, cattle and sheep, forming a agricultural products trading market, on this basis, developed into a relatively densely populated rural market town, together with coastal towns, border towns, hot spring towns and church towns, carpet towns, biscuit towns and other modern towns with British characteristics.

In the worst of times, there is nothing worse than illness and death. In the novel, the captain's eldest daughter is plagued by a vicious disease, and her spirit and body are both destroyed, and finally killed by the disease. Miss Marty, a member of high society, had shaky hands and poor eyesight, while also enduring rheumatism. This is still the case in the upper class, and the life of the lower classes can be imagined. Mattie's old friend died after only half a month of illness. The magician fell into a serious injury and had to nurse himself. Dickens also recounted the grief of the bereaved mother in his semi-autobiographical novel David Copperfield. The young and beautiful mother of david died of a serious illness, and he became an orphan in the vast world. Thus, in the Victorian era, "death, like poverty, is a universal fact everywhere." ”

The bad thing is the bank failure. In the novel, the used envelopes must be patiently turned over one by one, so that the thrifty old gentleman who can use it again encounters the collapse of the investment bank, and can only masturbate by watching and talking. The county bank collapsed, miss Marty was forced to sell her property and furniture, and with the financial support of her friends, she laid down her body and started a tea business to make a living. In the town of Clanford, more people are not rich, and it is difficult to balance their income. A st. James Chronicle had to be subscribed to by the town, which was then read by class. As for books, they are more luxurious, so usually everyone does not read books. In those worst-case times, illegal transactions and commercial fraud occurred from time to time; at the same time, rising prices and traffic accidents also plagued people.

But the Victorian era was also the most beautiful in Dickens's mind. Just like Mrs. Gaskell's depiction of the town of Cranford, the folk customs are simple, peaceful and quiet, and the countryside is idyllic. Tea parties are full of names, and people get together to play cards, chat, and talk about literature. Roses were collected to make a hundred flowers; lavender was made into bouquets and placed in the patient's room; Miss Barg wore flannel pants for her cows like her own daughter—cows were a symbol of status and status, let alone the Aldeni species! The Nobel prize winner for literature, Gowersworth, in his novel The House of Forsy, also showed a special preference for cows—at dusk on the last day of May, the protagonist boasted of the Aldeni breed in the cow house.

While meticulously describing everyday life, the author also shows a feminine sensitivity to politics and history. For example, in the book, Miss Marty's father participates in the "circuit trial" as a parish priest.

King Henry I of England died in 1135, and the struggle for the throne between his daughter Matilda and her nephew Stephen plunged England into a civil war that lasted nearly 20 years. In 1154, Matilda's eldest son was crowned Henry II. He longed for an end to the fratricidal situation and to rule the world in a peaceful way. Ranulf de Granville's On the Laws and Customs of the Kingdom of England became his guide to judicial practice and peaceful statecraft. It also established the status of the "Granville Statute" as a cornerstone of the common law system. Under this provision, judges involved in "circuit trials" were appointed by the King, who travelled throughout the country to inspect and hear cases and returned regularly to the Central Court of Westminster. In this way, the king gathered local power into the center and achieved the concentration of royal power.

Judges who were able to gain the king's trust and serve him directly were naturally very profitable. The book describes the priest's mansion where Miss Marty lived, with many steps up and down, inhabited by a family of five, three maids, and a male servant. In addition to the owner's own room, there are also a study, living room, kitchen, storage room, as well as a grass hut and garden. In the study there are many books such as the Bible, the Johnson Dictionary, and the Encyclopedia. A small book in the 16th century, The Gentleman's Companion, at the time of the dorset-dorset Wynborn Church, was £350. Because they could not afford to lose books, people at that time locked books together with chains, and chain books became famous. Although more than 300 years have passed, for the ordinary people of Cranford Who lived in the Victorian era to collect money and subscribe to newspapers, it is still impossible to have dictionaries and encyclopedias. In addition, there is a single carriage in the priest's house, so the horse shed and the carport are indispensable, and the breeding of horses is also a considerable expense. Life is so good, the master is just an ordinary priest with an annual salary of about 8,000 pounds, compared with the 350,000 pounds of retirement pensions of Bishop Durham and the Bishop of London, it is a small witch, and the political privileges, economic power and hierarchical power of the church are staggering.

The frugality and tranquility of rural life flow naturally under the pen of the female writer, and her Scottish complex also jumps on the paper. Miss Jersey's uncle set up shop in Edinburgh and was well stocked; the handsome and frank Major Gordon inherited a good inheritance from her uncle in Scotland; the intelligent and kind Mrs. Granma spoke a Scottish accent and was gentle and good-spoken. If more Englishpeople had been as just and kind to the Scots as the authors were, perhaps there would have been no 2014 Scottish independence referendum and former Prime Minister David Cameron's affectionate confession that "if you are independent, I will be heartbroken".

Queen Victoria, born as a result of the succession crisis, lost her beloved husband at the age of 42, when the youngest of nine children was 4 years old and the oldest was 21 years old. She blamed her husband's death on the debauchery of her eldest son, and thus filled him with hatred, while jealousy of her newlywed daughters exacerbated her bitter depression. Most of the growing children were rebellious and rebellious due to the negative emotions of the family, but the British monarchy was able to survive. Not only that, Queen Victoria's descendants are all over the European royal family, and she is a veritable "old grandmother of Europe". The Victorian era made "Cranford Town", enabling people 170 years later to experience the good and bad of that era through the author's natural and delicate brushstrokes.

Guangming Daily (2022-01-20, 13th edition)

Source: Guangming Network - Guangming Daily