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Introduction
The dominant genre in world literature - the novel, is actually relatively
young form of imaginative writing. Only about 250 years old in England and embattled from the start - its rise to preeminence has been striking. After
sparse beginning since 17th Century England, the novel grew exponentially
in production by the 18th Century and in the 19th Century, became the
primary form of popular entertainment.
Source
The rise of the novel as an important genre is generally associated with
the growth of the middle class in England. The English novel has generally
been seen as beginning with Daniel Defoes Robinson Crusoe (1719), though
John Bunyans The Pilgrims Progress (1678) and Aphra Behns
Oroonoko (1688) are also contenders. Another important early novel is
Gullivers Travels (1726) by Jonathan Swift.
Novelists of the late 17th Century rejected Behn and other popular
novelists and idealised the realism of Bunyans works. Three of the foremost
novelists of this era are Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding, and Samuel
Richardson. In the work of these three writers, the realism and drama of
individual consciousness that we most associate with the novel took
precedence over external drama. A number of profound social and economic
changes affecting British culture from the Renaissance through the eighteenth
century brought the novel quickly into popular prominence. The broadest of
these was probably the advancement in the technology of printing in the 16th
and 17th centuries. Written texts - once the province of the elite - were now
available to a growing population of readers.
Authors became free agents dependent on popular sales for their
success and sustenance. The demand for reading material allowed a great
number of writers to make a living from poetry and fiction.
RISE OF THE NOVEL - SAIRATH DAS, XII-R
Conclusion
It can thus be rightly concluded that the novel should not be solely
considered in terms of great art but also as an all-purpose medium that caters
to different strata of literacy. The novel as a genre will continue to thrive and
there would be many more eminent novelists who would enrich our mentalspace.