Catherine (novel)

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Catherine: A Story was the first full-length work of fiction produced by William Makepeace Thackeray. It first appeared in serialized installments in Fraser's Magazine between May of 1839 and February 1840. Thackeray's original intention in writing it was to criticize the Newgate school of crime fiction, exemplified by Bulwer-Lytton and Harrison Ainsworth, whose works Thackeray felt glorified criminals. Thackeray even criticized Dickens for this failing for his portrayal of the good-hearted streetwalker Nancy and the charming pickpocket, the Artful Dodger, in Oliver Twist. The appearance of the first installments of Ainsworth's novel Jack Sheppard at the beginning of 1839 seems to have been what spurred Thackeray into action.

Jack Sheppard portrayed a real life prison breaker and thief from the eighteenth century in flattering terms. In contrast, Thackeray sought out a real life criminal whom he could portray in as unflattering terms as possible. He settled on Catherine Hayes, another eighteenth-century criminal, who was burned at the stake for murdering her husband in 1726. However, as he told his mother, Thackeray developed a "sneaking kindness" for his heroine, and the novel that was supposed to present criminals as totally vile, without any redeeming characteristics, instead made Catherine and her roguish companions seem rather appealing. Thackeray felt the result was a failure, and perhaps as a result did not republish it in his lifetime. It has thus suffered from neglect, despite its good qualities, such as its rollicking sense of fun, its satirical touches, and a heroine who in some ways anticipates the much more famous Becky Sharp of Vanity Fair.

[edit] Literary significance and criticism

"This interminable tale is often cited as an early example of a takeoff on mystery fiction. If it parodies anything, it is the author's novelistic talent. Written in pompous language to suggest an irony that never raises a smile, the tale has to do with an unfaithful wife who cuts off her husband's head. The facts are historical (1726) and to spice the effort we encounter Swift, Dr. Johnson, et al. A final chapter moralizes about the harm of sensational literature in the 1840s and criticizes Dickens for pandering to that taste in Oliver Twist.^[1]

[edit] References

^ Barzun, Jacques and Taylor, Wendell Hertig. A Catalogue of Crime. New York: Harper & Row. 1971, revised and enlarged edition 1989. ISBN 0-06-015796-8