The Man of Feeling

November 25, 2007 jocelynchamberlain

I must say it was refreshing in a sense to stray away from the main characters of women, and finally have a primary male in the picture. After constantly reading about women, and the continuous problems they face, the male protagonist has come forward. Yet in a sense the male is questioning some of the same things that the females protagonists were contemplating in previous novels, for example virtue.

I wanted to look information up about the sentimental movement, and the Encyclopedia Britannica cites that it “exhibit[s] a passionate attachment between the sexes that rises above the merely physical. The vogue of the sentimental love novel was one of the features of the Romantic movement, and the form maintained a certain moving dignity despite a tendency to excessive emotional posturing.” It also mentions that the novel that we also read in class Richardson’s Pamela is considered to be sentimental as well.

The major refreshing part of this novel was that we have finally entered the time of chapters, as I have noticed in a few blogs that others are quite happy with this discovery! It makes it much easier to pins down a place that you are able to stop and in some ways have some loose ends tied up. I found with not having chapters I would not know where to stop, and by time I got back to the book I would have to read over the few previous pages to remember.