THE RISE OF THE NOVEL

A GOLDEN AGE
The 18th-century key concepts were:
• political stability;
• individualism;
• liberal thought and free will;
• optimism;
• reason and common sense;
• desire for balance, symmetry, refinement.
 LITERARY GENRES
LITERARY GENRE AUTHOR WORK

FICTION Novelist Novels

POETRY Poet Poems

DRAMA Playwright Plays

 WHAT IS A NOVEL?
• Long prose narrative about largely
fictional, but usually realistic,
characters in real-life, plausible
situations
• It contrasts with previous romances (like
King Arthur’s) because a novel develops
real experiences
 WHY NOVEL?
• Truncation of the Italian word novella
• a kind of enlarged anecdote like those to be
found in the 14th-century Italian classic
Boccaccio’s Decameron
• The stories are little new things
• They carry overtones of lightness and frivolity
• Idea of novelty
• The content is new
 REALISM
• It tries to portray all the varieties of human
experience
• Content is new: UNDERIVED, expressed with
REALISTIC DETAILS
• Gives an impression of VERISIMILITUDE
• Due to Puritan need for TRUTH
• Narrator uses devices to convince the readers
that what they are reading is TRUE
 FEATURES
• Characters
• Setting
• Plot
• Language / Style
• Narrator
• Time
 CHARACTERS
ROMANCE NOVEL
• Aristocratic pople • Middle-class people
• Symbolic names • Real names
• Idealised heroes (kings • Creation of a new
and knights) gentleman, not of noble
birth, but with other
qualities ( morality,
practical mind) that allow
him to become rich
• Struggle for survival
• Believe in reason
• Self-made, self-reliant
man
 SETTING
ROMANCE NOVEL
• Court, castle • Realistic settings
• Mysterious and not well • Great attention
defined • Specific references to
names of countries,
streets, town
 PLOT
ROMANCE NOVEL
• Chivalric story with honour, • Everyday actions /
heroic deeds adventures
• Improbable and fantastic • Plausible
elements • Episodic psychological
analysis of the characters
• Sense of reward and
punishment (Puritan ethics
of the middle class)
 LANGUAGE
ROMANCE NOVEL
• In verse, mainly • In prose
• Refined and stylized • Simple, factual, everyday
language language
• Conveys a mimetic
approach to reality
• Gives greater verisimilitude
 TIME
ROMANCE NOVEL
• Undefined time in the past • Use of clock time
• Reference to particular
times of the year or of the
day
• Events are narrated in
chronological order
 READERS
ROMANCE NOVEL
• Aristocracy • Middle class, who
appreciate the depiction of
real world
 REASONS
FOR ITS RISE (1)
SOCIAL REASONS
• Period of the MIDDLE CLASS that achieves a
leading position in the 18° century
• Required a literature that exalted their ideals
• Literacy increased
• More women could read
• More printed items were produced
• The number of lending or circulating libraries
increased
 REASONS
FOR ITS RISE (2)

HISTORICAL REASONS
• Age of prosperity, thanks to the end of religious
fighting
• Peaceful atmosphere favoured activities like
reading
 REASONS
FOR ITS RISE (3)

PHILOSOPHICAL REASONS
• The philosophy of the time emphasizes the
importance of human reason, modearation
and tolerance
• These values were exalted in novels
 REASONS
FOR ITS RISE (4)

RELIGIOUS REASONS
• The Puritan doctrine focused on:
 Individual conscience: this led to self-analysis
and writing of diaries
 More practical attitude: writers had to teach
and educate
 NOVELIST

• The spokesman of the middle class.

• Writing becomes a profession
• The fathers of the English novel:
• Daniel Defoe realistic novel
• Samuel Richardson sentimental novel
• Henry Fielding mock-epic novel
• Jonathan Swift satirical novel
 NOVELIST’S AIM

• To be understood widely  he wrote in

a simple polished and elegant way.
• Realism
• Speed and copiousness  Writing was a
profession ruled by economic criteria. The
value of a writer depended on the number
of pages he/she wrote
THANKS FOR YOUR
ATTENTION!