based on p. 29, ex. 5

Read six texts about British novelists and match the names with the statements. There is one extra statement (Nobody)

Daniel Defoe began his career in trade but soon went bankrupt and was even in prison for debts. For some time he carried out intelligence work as a spy and government agent. In 1719, at the age of fifty-nine, Defoe turned from journalism to a new form of prose fiction and produced his most famous work, Robinson Crusoe. During the next seven years he wrote his other literary works. In method, style and language, they all owe much to his previous experience as a journalist.

Most of his life Jonathan Swift spent in Ireland where he held the position of Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin. A lot of his time was dedicated to writing books of satirical nature. Eventually Swift became a highly influential writer who tried his hand at both verse and prose. His prose style is characterized by precision and clarity and his irony can be cleverly hidden between the lines. He is mostly remembered for his novel Gulliver's Travels — Swift's satirical masterpiece which over the ages has continued to appeal to all kinds of readers from children to adults.

Born into an aristocratic family in 1707, Henry Fielding went to Eton public school and then to the University of Leiden in Holland where he took the courses of classics and law. On his return to England, Fielding chose to take up the career of a dramatist and wrote over 20 plays mostly of satirical nature. Later he took to writing novels, among which Tom Jones is probably the most popular. Fielding worked out his own theory of novel writing; his novels are highly structured and cast in new literary forms.

England's novelist Jane Austen had difficulty in establishing a reputation for herself. Her works dealt with a limited social circle of provincial middle and high-class society. The writer concentrated on its everyday life — balls, trips, dances, marriage proposals. Anyhow, within this limited field she managed to create a memorable range of characters whose behaviour was treated with a remarkable degree of objectivity and psychological depth.

Charlotte Brontë showed literary promise from a very early age, and her main influences were Walter Scott and Byron. Charlotte's most famous work is Jane Eyre published in 1847. Though the novel has some flaws in the plot, it must be one of the most gripping novels ever written because of its psychological insight into the mind of the long-suffering main character.

Thomas Hardy spent sixteen years of his life working in the architectural field before he decided to dedicate himself to writing. Although he wrote a lot of poetry, he is best remembered for the series of novels and short stories that he wrote between 1871 and 1895. In his works he painted a vivid picture of life in the nineteenth century countryside. In the last years of his life Hardy was awarded honorary degrees by Oxford and Cambridge Universities. Like Charles Dickens, he is buried in Poet's Corner in Westminster Abbey.

Nobody	gained praise, respect and admiration later in life.
Henry Fielding	got an academic education and introduced some innovations in novel writing.
Daniel Defoe	's poetry is better known than their prose.
Jonathan Swift	's occupation did not make the heroes and heroines shallow and simple.
Charlotte Brontë	's previous life experience influenced his writing style.
Jane Austen	made his wit stay timely and sharp through centuries.
Thomas Hardy	was inspired by works of other writers, but made their name working through character's psychological depths.