David Masson, Pedagogical Reform, and the Victorian Novel

Abstract

David Masson, best remembered by subsequent generations for his work on Milton, was a pioneer on two fronts in the advancement of letters in Victorian England. Masson’s reviews and his influential book British Novelists and their Styles lent gravitas to the novel as an art form. Masson’s survey of the English novel lays heavy stress on the relationship between authors’ biographies and their fiction, and privileges summary and appreciation over evaluation; in it Masson offers advice to novelists wishing to write works that will be of lasting value. While these approaches may be conventional, British Novelists is notable for its serious attention to the works of contemporary authors. Masson carried that progressive approach into his teaching at University College, London, and at the University of Edinburgh, where his courses included analysis of contemporary fiction. That progressive spirit is also evident in Masson’s championing higher education for women; he was the first to offer an undergraduate course on literature exclusively for women, and its popularity – and the high marks women received on course examinations – were influential in convincing the University to admit women in later years.