The New Republic (novel)

infobox Book |
name = The New Republic
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author = William Hurrell Mallock
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country = United Kingdom
language = English
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genre = satire
publisher = Chatto and Windus
release_date = 1878
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"The New Republic or Culture, Faith and Philosophy in an English Country House" by English author William Hurrell Mallock (1849-1923) is a novel first published by Chatto and Windus of London in 1878. The work had its genesis as a serialization. In 1876 and 1877 (after Mallock had secured his Bachelor of Arts degree at Oxford in 1874, the same year as Oscar Wilde) it appeared as a series of sketches in "Belgravia" magazine.

Plot introduction

The novel is a satire consisting almost entirely of dialogue and mocking most of the important figures then at Oxford University, with regards to aestheticism and Hellenism.

Characters

The famous people Mallock depicts are as follows, together with the names of the characters that represent them.

:Matthew Arnold — Mr. Luke :Thomas Carlyle — Donald Gordon :William Kingdom Clifford — Mr. Saunders :Violet Fane — Mrs. Sinclair :W. M. Hardinge — Robert Leslie :Thomas Huxley — Mr. Storks :Benjamin Jowett — Dr. Jenkinson :W. H. Mallock — Otho Laurence :Walter Pater — Mr. Rose :John Ruskin — Mr. Herbert :John Tyndall — Mr. Stockton

Literary significance and criticism

The book became a best seller in its time and retains much of its humour and satirical bite today. As author David Daiches wrote in 1951, "If we can read through "The New Republic" without at one point or another being made to feel a little foolish, we are wise indeed."

Walter Pater is of particular interest because Mallock's apparent homophobia against him—expressed first in the more extensive treatment given the Mr. Rose character in the initial serialization—helped ruin Pater's public reputation as well as his career at Oxford. "Reading Wilde, Querying Spaces: An Exhibition Commemorating the 100th Anniversary of the Trials of Oscar Wilde" notes that, as Linda Dowling has observed, "Mr. Rose" is "the first in a long line of popular depictions of effeminate English aesthetes such as Gilbert's Bunthorne and Du Maurier's Postlewaite and Maudle" [http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/research/fales/exhibits/wilde/3oxford.htm] . This depiction of Pater appeared during the competition for the Slade Professorship of Poetry and played a role in convincing Pater to remove himself from consideration.

Mallock's work—as indeed all of his writings—is little known today.

External links

* Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, New York University, [http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/research/fales/exhibits/wilde/00main.htm "Reading Wilde, Querying Spaces"]

* Mallock, W. H., [http://www.pseudopodium.org/repress/mallock/index.html "The New Republic"]

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