The Rise of the Novel

Prose was less available to people and consisted of a language that laymen could not manage to
understand, since it was in Latin: In prose; there were books written in a heavy Latin style discussing
religious problems, and other books...dealing with education, travel. People wanted to be entertained and
they found it in the drama and poetry of their period.
By the time of the invention of the printing machine, printed books became available and were in prose,
since verse could not suit the written form and was considered as ‘an artificial and difficult form of
communication’, thus, prose fiction became a new entertainer because this new narrative could reproduce
daily life (Stevenson 1960: 5). This new form employed a language accessible to all people for ‘poets and
playwrights demanded a great deal of sophistication from their audiences’ (Smith & co 1974: 1). Thus, to
answer the needs of a larger public more and more prose fiction was produced and this occurred by the end
of the seventeenth century.
The novel, as a genre, has developed through the centuries and matured speedily in the 18th century. It is
connected with other literary genres such as prose fiction, drama, epic and poetry.
The development of the novel is related to the society where it has been produced. Most critics and
theorists cannot dissociate the rise of this genre from the rise of the middle-class in Europe, and mainly in
England. The novel emerged at a time when a new social class was born, namely the bourgeoisie.
However, other critics, and mainly the feminists, claim that the rise of the novel is linked to the women’s
status in a particular society. Thus, wherever women were given a high standard, it is where the novel was
the most flourishing. Moreover, the period in which the novel became a truly outstanding literary genre,
women novelists were as numerous as men so that they could compete with them in quality and quantity.
The novel differs from its predecessors since it involves several characters and incidents and its central
interest may be character, a social problem, a mode of behaviour, or an adventure. Ifor Evans joins this idea
and describes the novel as “a narrative in prose, based on a story, in which the author may portray character,
and the life of an age, and analyse sentiments and passions, and the reactions of men and women to their
environment” (Evans 1976: 212). Thus, the novel is a story based on the daily lives of some characters, it
represents their joys and sorrows; successes and failures, and it portrays a certain period in history.
Why did the novel rise precisely at that period? Critics argue that the novel developed with the increase of
the reading public, this reading public that consisted of the rising middle-class, the novel became ‘an art-
form written by and for the now-powerful commercial bourgeoisie’ (Kettle 1969: 28). This new readership
was composed of the rising middle-class who were ‘literal-minded’ people but with no imaginative
responsiveness to poetry. They wanted to read things that dealt with man and daily life, employing a simple
language and this coincided with the emergence and rise of the novel (Stevenson 1960: 8). Consequently,
life and literature are related and the former influences the latter. Writers write according to the demands of
their reading public, and about what is of actuality.
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Aspects of the Novel (E.M. Forster):
The novel, as previously stated differs from its previous forms because of its numerous characteristics. It is
made of a plot, a setting and, most important, a set of different characters.
Plot:
Plot is a series of events or episodes that make up the action of a work of fiction and E. M. Forster defines
it as “a narrative of events, the emphasis falling on causality” (1966: 93). While reading a story which is “a
narrative of events arranged in their time-sequence” (1966: 93), the reader questions the reasons of the
happenings of the events and this is called curiosity. However, in order to grasp the meaning of a plot and
understand it fully, the reader needs intelligence and memory.
Setting:
Plot alone cannot make a good and plausible novel unless it is associated with the setting of the story, and
this setting is time and place. The novelist is concerned with men in a particular place at a particular time,
and according to Walter Allen, the greatest novelist is the one who is able to write about his time in a way to
distinguish it from another (1958: 23-24).
Characters:
Characterization went through different stages in order to reach the kind of ‘people’ we have in novels. The
first break with the old tradition was to select characters from lower classes, no more kings and queens, nor
knights. The new hero of the new genre was an ordinary man that we might meet throughout our lives, and
the importance of the realistic aspect of characters is demonstrated by Lionel Stevenson: “no matter how
believable the action may be in itself, it does not win the reader’s full credulity unless it is performed by
distinct individuals who are recognizable in terms of our experience” (1960: 8). The character in a novel
resembles strangely and realistically human beings in real life.
The Different Types of the Novel:
 The epistolary novel: it is made up of letters exchanged by the characters, such as Pamela (1740)
and Clarissa (1748) by Richardson
 The picaresque novel: from picaro (dishonest and unusual) a kind of journey in search of an ideal,
with characters rather foolish and involved in situations too complex to be resolved.
 The comic novel: the characters and/or the situations they live are absurd. The comic novel can be
cruel and have a pessimistic view of life. The word is exposed as bizarre and irrationality is
emphasized.
 The historical novel: it is a form of fictional narrative which constructs history and recreates it
imaginatively.
 The psychological novel: modern and postmodern, it is fiction devoted to the investigation of
spiritual, emotional and mental life of characters caring nothing for plot or actions (Virginia Woolf).
 Thesis novel: it deals with social, religious or political issue having a didactic purpose (Hard Times
by Dickens)
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  The saga novel: it is a narrative about the life of a large family.
 The key novel: it is a fiction in which actual people (usually public figures) are caricatured
(presented) under fictitious names and the keys are provided later.
 The sentimental novel: it is a form of fiction highlighting the distresses of the virtuous attempting to
show that the sense of honour and moral behaviour is ultimately fairly rewarded showing as well that
sentimentality is a sign of goodness and kindness.
 The gothic novel: it appeared with the Romantic Movement, the supernatural is the highlighting
feature.
 The detective / thriller novel: it refers to a wide variety of fiction. It is considered as a sensational
novel where suspense is continual and violence is much of the time included.
 The anti-novel: there is no element of the novel (plot, characters...).
Major writers of the 18th century:

During the early years of the eighteenth century, Daniel Defoe (1659/1661-1731) produced Robinson
Crusoe (1719), and that was quite different from previous works. This book is about the adventures of a
common man, not those of a king, a knight or an extraordinary hero.

Yet, the real break from the previous tradition was made by Samuel Richardson (1689-1761) in Pamela
(1740) and Clarissa (1748), when he introduced the narrative combined with the epistolary form. He added
a “dramatic presentation of events through a series of letters, and the analysis of human emotions and
motivation in prose story form” (Smith & co 1974: 172-3), as well as sentimentality influenced all the
coming novelists. He was considered as sexual moralist and for women he was a prophet of emotion.

Henry Fielding (1707-1754) introduced irony and satire (the comic form) and used many characters to
represent all social classes. He wrote Shamela (1741); a total imitation of Pamela in which he ridicules
Richardson’s simplistic reduction of virtue to female virginity and it was a failure. Then, he wrote Joseph
Andrews (1742), The History of Tom Jones (1749), and many others. Fielding wanted to reform manners
whereas Richardson worked to improve them.

Laurence Sterne (1713-1768) The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy (1759) a comic novel on
morals in which he introduced sentimentality, and Tobias Smollett (1721-1771) a moralist and satirist who
used comedy to talk about what disgusted him in society. The Adventures of Roderick Random (1748).
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