The Frame and the Picture

Abstract

Wells’s distinctive contribution to the modern novel was to widen the scope of fiction by changing the function of the descriptive frame. In making this contribution he was much more innovative than is commonly acknowledged.

Throughout the broad smooth flow of nineteenth century life in Great Britain, the art of fiction floated on this same assumption of social fixity. The Novel in English was produced in an atmosphere of security for the entertainment of secure people who liked to feel established and safe for good. Its standards were established within that apparently permanent frame and the criticism of it began to be irritated and perplexed when, through a new instability, the splintering frame began to get into the picture. I suppose for a time I was the outstanding instance among writers of fiction in English of the frame getting into the picture.

(H. G. Wells, Experiment in Autobiography)

Moreover, literary language is far from merely referential. It has its expressive side; it conveys the tone and attitude of the speaker or writer. And it does not merely state and express what it says; it also wants to influence the attitude of the reader, persuade him, and ultimately change him.

(René Wellek and Austin Warren, Theory of Literature)