The development of the English novel in the 18th century.docx

The development of  the English  novel in the 18th century

The 18th century saw the development of the modern novel as literary genre, in fact many candidates for the first novel in English date from this period, of which Daniel Defoe's 1719 Robinson Crusoe is probably the best known. Subgenres of the novel during the 18th century were the epistolary novel, the sentimental novel, histories, the gothic novel and the libertine novel.

A Novel is a fictitious prose narrative or tale presenting a picture of real life.
The idea we have of the novel comes from the 18th century; before that time there were plenty of forms of prose fiction that did not present a picture of real life.
It was more than a century later that real life became the dominant topic of the novel helped by:
• The rise of philosophical rationalism (=the individual could discover the reality of the world around him through his senses and perceptions).
• The influence of Puritanism and later Methodism
• The expansion of the reading public. This was partly due to the increasing circulation of newspapers, which also brought with it the advent of fact – based journalistic writing on the events of the day.

The increasingly affluent middle classes were beginning to buy more books, especially women. They wanted to read stories which reflected their own interests and problems with characters they could more or less identify with.
• The influence of books such as “Don Quixote” which was one of the books that provided a model for 18th century writers.

The father of the English novel is generally considered to be Daniel Defoe. His three great novels “Robinson Crusoe”, “Moll Flanders”, “Roxana” were all published before 1730.
Along with Defoe, other pioneers of the novel were Samuel Richardson (“Pamela”, “Clarissa”) and Henry Fielding (“Tom Jones”, “Joseph Andrews”, “Jonathan Wild”).

The increasingly affluent middle classes were beginning to buy more books, especially women. They wanted to read stories which reflected their own interests and problems with characters they could more or less identify with.
• The influence of books such as “Don Quixote” which was one of the books that provided a model for 18th century writers.

The father of the English novel is generally considered to be Daniel Defoe. His three great novels “Robinson Crusoe”, “Moll Flanders”, “Roxana” were all published before 1730.
Along with Defoe, other pioneers of the novel were Samuel Richardson (“Pamela”, “Clarissa”) and Henry Fielding (“Tom Jones”, “Joseph Andrews”, “Jonathan Wild”).

Daniel Defoe
His works are written in the form of fictional autobiography or diaries to make them more realistic. There is no real plot, just a chronological series of connected episodes featuring a single protagonist. The protagonist must struggle to ...