The Duke of Buckingham had this to say about literature: "Of all the arts in which to excel, nature's chief masterpiece is writing well." The production of great literature doesn't lie within the grips of gender or race, yet, instead, it flourishes by the genius behind it. .
Great writers possess abilities to empathize with their readers. An area to consider is how different writers emphasized literature's rise of modernization and society's feelings of isolation. One example is Jane Austen's traditional classic, Pride and Prejudice. This piece of literature exhibits the time period's life style and significance by giving the readers a feel of what would be of importance to a typical family in relation to the time period. Austen's novel contains many personalities of that era, as well as emphasizes the importance of marriage, education, and justice in their society. In contrast, Fyodor Dostoevesky's modern novel, Notes from the Underground, portrays the feeling of every man being on his own. Dostoevesky creates his character, the underground man, to be an extreme example of isolationism, therefore, captivating the feeling of the world after its loss of hope in World War I. This loss is pointed with special focus towards the feeling of the soldiers in the trenches. Leo Tolstoy's novel, The Death of Ivan Illyich, is a novel which creates both a modern and traditional atmosphere. Tolstoy's character, Illyich, in contrast to the underground man from Dostoevesky's novel, is able to illustrate the importance of a good lifestyle and success, while still showing the idea of every man for himself. The rise of modernism in literature went alongside with the rise of the feeling of isolationism in the world. This is illustrated throughout the works of Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Illyich, and Dostoevesky's Notes From the Underground.
As mentioned, the portrayal of society's look towards marriage, education, and justice is done thoroughly in Pride and Prejudice.
