What is the significance of Henry James' and Walter Besant's arguments in their essays "The Art of Fiction," and how does their debate influence...

Henry James wrote his essay titled "The Art of Fiction," published in 1888, in response to Walter Besant's own essay of the same title, published in 1885. Both essays were revolutionary in that they argued the novel is an art form worthy of serious analytical criticism, whereas prior the novel had only been regarded as mere entertainment. In his essay "The Art of Fiction," James agrees with Besant's opinion that the novel is a serious art form; however, he disagrees with Besant's argument that the novel is directed by rules and principles, such as plot and character development, that require mastery. In contrast, James argues that the only governing principle of a novel is that "it be interesting" and represent life just as a painter represents life on canvas; other than that, a writer is at liberty to give a novel any form the writer wants.

In her works, George Eliot displays that she held similar views on the free artistic expression of the novel as James. In fact, it is clear that James drew inspiration for his opinion from Eliot as he mentions her in his essay by briefly referencing her narrative structures: "With George Eliot, when she painted the country, I always said Yes." Eliot particularly displays her view that the novel is a free artistic expression by writing Middlemarch as an experimental novel. Middlemarch can be seen as experimental with respect to the fact it does not contain a typical plot structure nor does it contain a consistent narrative voice.

The plot Middlemarch is a-typical in that the storyline does not focus on one central character. In fact, it is known from her extensive notes that she began writing it as two separate books, one focusing on Dorothea Brooke and one focusing on Lydgate, but decided to merge them into one. Her purpose in merging them was to portray village life as it was in the town of Middlemarch with respect to all of its social and political issues. To portray life as it truly was, she let the issues of multiple characters run their course rather than focus on one primary character as typical plots do.

In order to help the social and political issues of the novel run their course, Eliot uses a second experimental technique by, according to Harvard academic Joshua Tucker, setting the narrator up as a historian observing and recording the history of the characters ("Words that We Couldn't Say--The Narrator's Search for Meaning in Middlemarch"). The establishment of the narrator as a historian is seen in the opening sentence of the prelude speaking of the "history of man" and speaking of the true historical figure Saint Theresa, a historical figure the narrator parallels with Dorothea:

Who that cares much to know the history of man, and how the mysterious mixture behaves under the varying experiments of Time, has not dwelt, at least briefly, on the life of Saint Theresa, has not smiled with some gentleness at the thought of the little girl walking forth one morning hand-in-hand with her still smaller brother, to go and seek martyrdom in the country of the Moors? ("Prelude")

The parallel drawn between Saint Theresa and Dorothea is made clear in the final sentence of the prelude, which is followed by Dorothea's introduction. In this final sentence, the narrator speaks of those who have a trembling longing to achieve some noble deed but are hindered by circumstances, resulting in their deed going unrecognized, just as we see Dorothea's actions and desires coming to naught.

Since Eliot sets the narrator up as a historian who is able to analyze history and draw parallels between historic figures and characters, it's not surprising when the narrator also draws parallels between the characters when relaying their history. The method of using a narrator with the voice of a historian to draw parallels between characters can also be seen as an experimental technique.

In addition, Eliot's narrator has often been recognized as very complex, which signifies another experimental technique. The narrator is complex in that it is both a third-person omniscient narrator but, as Tucker further points out, also acts as a character in each scene speaking directly to the reader and interpreting events for the reader. Without the narrator's interpretations, as Tucker points out, the reader would not have fully understood Bulstrode's hypocrisy nor known the depth of Dorothea's emotions and desires.

Hence, as we can see, Eliot reflects having believed the same ideas about writing novels as argued by James through creating a novel that is experimental in many respects. Two ways in which it is experimental concern its lack of a typical plot and its possession of a complex narrator.