Two versions of Simms's Guy Rivers: A record of artistic development in changing times
Lane, Thomas Darwin
Lane, Thomas Darwin
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1972
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Abstract
William Gilmore Simms's first novel, Guy Rivers: A Tale of Georgia (1834), offers a unique opportunity for tracing the author's development as an artist because Simms revised the novel for the Redfield "Uniform Edition" some twenty years later. Chapter I of this study examines Simms's early life as an influence on the making of Guy Rivers. Chapter II is a history of the writing, publishing, and reception of the novel. Chapter III contains a critical commentary of the author's use of narrative point of view, structure, characterization, symbolic patterns, and theme. A distinct pattern of light-dark imagery and the motif of good versus evil are identified and illustrated. The theme of the effects of the frontier on society is singled out, with special emphasis on the education of the hero through his experiences on the frontier. Chapter IV is a brief history of the revising and publishing in 1855 of Guy Rivers in the Redfield Edition, with an account of Simms's life and writing in the twenty-year interim to demonstrate probable influences on the new work. Chapter V classifies the alterations Simms made in his revisions of Guy Rivers as 1.) technical alterations; i. e. revisions in the basic form of the novel and correction of mechanical errors; 2.) verbal and phrasal alterations, consisting of Simms's additions, deletions, and substitutions of words and phrases in order to gain clarity, simplicity, and modernity and to soften the artificial Gothic tone of the novel; 3.) alteration of narrative devices, specifically the enlargement of dramatic scenes, the substitution of specific scenes for generalized narrative, and the deletion of many authorial intrusions; and 4.) changes in thematic emphasis, evident in the author's re-evaluation of several characters and scenes. Chapter VI concludes that Guy Rivers, in spite of the author's youthful and uncertain skill, was a powerful novel developing a significant theme of civilized order versus frontier savagery; that Simms revised the novel extensively and improved it for the 1855 edition; that the ideological changes--which may appear to coincide with the worsening of relations between North and South--are justified on the grounds that they make Guy Rivers a better novel; and that Simms's development as a novelist over some twenty years is reflected in a comparison of the two versions of Guy Rivers. The study is concluded with a brief history of the publication of Guy Rivers, a summation of Simms's life, and a look ahead to future study of the Old South's greatest novelist.
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Subject
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Simms, William Gilmore, 1806-1870
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Dissertation
Description
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v, 156 leaves, bound
Department
English