Unit 2: The rise of the Novel

Contents

1. The prehistory of the novel
2. English Renaissance prose fiction.
3. Factors that influenced the development of the British novel.
4. What made the novel “novel”?
5. Early British fiction: John Bunyan and Aphra Behn

1. The prehistory of the novel

Forerunners in classical Rome

1. Prose
2. Unheroic events
3. Picaresque
4. Settings: streets and taverns
5. Dialogues: homely and colloquial

Forerunners in classical Rome

1. The Decameron (1349 - 51) - Giovanni Boccaccio - : 100 tales told by a group of young men and women who try to escape the Black Death.
2. Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532 - 34) - François Rabelais -: 5 books which tell of the adventures of two giants.

First modern novel: Don Quijote de la Mancha (1605) - Miguel de Cervantes \n UK

1. Oral telling of myths and stories
2. Written storytelling in form of epic
3. Medieval chivalric romance
4. Written prose fiction concerned with actual life

EARLY PROSE NARRATIVE ON THE ARTHURIAN LEGEND

• Stories about King Arthur, Guinevere, Merlin and the Knights of the Round Table.
• Events take place in a historical fantasy version of Britain and France.
• Translated and compiled materials from different French and English sources.

2. English Rennaisance prose fiction

(1500 - 1660) = Preference of poetry over prose fiction

TWO ADMIRED WORKS OF FICTION

• Euphues (1578) - John Lily
  • $Didactic romance$
  • Exemplary dialogues
• Arcadia (1590) - Philip Sidney
  • $Romance and drama$
  • Five acts with verse interludes

THE REALISTIC “ROMANCE OF COMMERCE”

(All by Thomas Deloney)

• The Gentle Craft (1597) - shoemakers
  • Historical romances
  • Deals with trades and crafts
  • Material from everyday life

THE PICARESQUE TRADITION: SPANISH NOVELS

El Lazarillo de Tormes (1554)- Anónimo

El Buscón (1626)- Francisco de Quevedo

• CHARACTERISTICS
  • Usually autobiographical account.
  • Episodic structure.
  • Sympathetic anti-hero.
  • Little if any character development.
  • Plain language of realism.
  • Satiric in aim.

ENGLISH PICARESQUE NOVEL: THOMAS NASHE

• Pamphleteer, poet, playwright and satirist.
• No moral discourse (like Euphues), or poetic interludes (like Arcadia)
• An autobiographical confession of a rogue-hero, an English page at the court of Henry VIII.

  The Unfortunate Traveler (1549)

ENGLISH PICARESQUE NOVEL: RICHARD HEAD

• Playwright and bookseller.
• Born in Ireland.
• A nameless narrator tells about his criminal life.
• The central character is the victim.
• Considered by many as an autobiography.

  The English Rogue: Described in the life of Meriton Patroon (1665)

THE ROGUE TRADITION

• Central role in shaping the British novel
• Popular in British fiction from 1660 -1790
• Combined figure of picaro + notorious criminals
  • Don Tomazo
  • The London Jilt
  • The History of Jack Connor

A new prose style began to gain ground in 17th century

BEFORE

• Elaborate
• Musical
• Witty rhetorical

AFTER

• Plain
• Clear
• Concise

3. Factors that influenced the development of the British novel

• Literary influences
• Growing importance of booksellers
• Puritanism
• Scientific philosophy
• The rise of middle class

LITERARY INFLUENCES

• Biography, diaries and memoirs
• Letter writing
• Travel literature
• Religious writings
• The picaresque convention
• The mock romance
• The rise of journalism
  • The Tatler (1709), The Spectator (1711), and The Guardian (1713)
  • Simple, clear prose style.
  • Created fictional characters.

==Growing importance of booksellers: they were paid by length of work==

PURITANISM (Daniel Defoe)

• Practical attitude to world affairs
• Belief in the individual conscience
• Spirit of self-enquiry
• Love of truth
• An interest in real people

SCIENTIFIC PHILOSOPHY (John Locke, 1632-1704)

• Belief in reason at the expense of the imagination.
• Experience as the only support for knowledge.
• Emphasis on the particular (rather than the general and the universal).

THE RISE OF THE MIDDLE CLASS

Colonisation of the Americas→ Mercantilism→ Trading middle class→ Gradual extension of reading public

EXTENSION OF READING PUBLIC

• Home tutoring
• Autodidacticism
• Religious schools
• Dissenting academies
• Charity Schools
• “Public” schools: Eton, Harrow, Rugby, Westminster …

RISE OF THE MIDDLE CLASS

Even though:

• Illiteracy was very wide-spread
• Education was not available to all
• The price of books was also high

Tales of Wonder (1802)- James Gillray

PLOT PATTERNS

What altered a social relationship:

• Love followed by marriage
• Quarrelling and reconciliation
• Gain or loss of money or social status
• …

4. What made the novel “novel”?

• Original plots
• Authentic style
• Emphasis on the particular
• Importance of setting
• Air of verisimilitude
  • Many claim that the story is true
  • The source was an actual person or ancient manuscript

PURPOSE

• Old romances→ entertainment
• Novels→ instruction, psychological insight, critical views.

ECLECTICISM OF FORM AND CONTENT

• Criminal lives
• Travellers’ tales
• Satires
• Epistolary stories

WHAT DO WRITERS CALL THEIR STORIES?

The term “novel” became frequent in the last quarter of the 18th century

• History (“secret …” / “true …”)
• Letters
• Memoirs
• Tale / Story
• Romance

5. Early British fiction

THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT (The Restoration)

• 1660: The English monarchy was restored.

• 1660: Slave trade in America established.

• 1660-1669: Samuel Pepys, Diary.

• 1664-1665: The Great Plague in London.

• 1666: The Great Fire of London.

• 1678: John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress.

• 1678: The Popish Plot.

• 1685-1688: The reign of James II.

• 1688-1689: The Glorious Revolution.

• 1688: Aphra Behn, Oroonoko.

• 1689-1702: The reign of William and Mary.

John Bunyan’s morality tales

• Puritan writer and preacher.
• In 1660, imprisoned for preaching without a license.
• Grace Abounding (1666), a spiritual autobiography.
• The Pilgrim's Progress (Part I, 1678; Part II, 1684): ultimate English classic
  • Translated into over 100 languages.
  • Inspired many later novelists.
  • His inspiration was the Bible

The Pilgrim’s Progress: TRADITIONAL FEATURES

• Long title – to interest readers
• Dream convention
• Allegory
• Puritan tradition: self-examination
• Plot: a journey / a quest

The Pilgrim’s Progress: ORIGINAL INGREDIENTS

• A sense of realism with an emphasis on the particular
• Style: simple with passages of idiomatic dialogue
• Vivid humorous characterisation

APHRA BEHN

• Spent some of her youth in Surinam, Dutch Guiana.
• Professional spy for King Charles II.
• Author of popular theatre plays.
• Love Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister (1683).
• Oroonoko (1688).

Love Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister (1684-87)

• The first epistolary novel in English literature.
• Love and politics are mixed.
• Roman à clef playing with events of the Monmouth Rebellion.

This prompted the novel of amorous intrigue:

• Delariviere Manley: The New Atalantis (1709)
• Eliza Haywood: Love in Excess (1719-20)

 \n Oroonoko

• First-person narrator with a chatty narrative style.
• Realistic: careful selection of vivid detail.
• Setting: the New World.
• One of the first social statements against slavery

DELARIVIERE MANLEY

• Also playwright and political pamphleteer.
• New Atalantis (1709) - political satire: ”Secret Memoirs and Manners of Several Persons of Quality, of both Sexes …”
• The Adventures of Rivella (1714) – semi-autobiographical account.

ELIZA HAYWOOD

• Prolific novelist, poet, poet, playwright, periodical writer editor, publisher and actress.
• Love in Excess (1719-20) - The “fallen woman” is given an unusually positive portrait.
• The Adventures of Eovaii (1736) - a satire of PM Robert Walpole, told through an oriental fairy tale.