The Rise and Evolution of the Novel

Posted on Feb 8, 2025 in English Studies

The Novel as a Literary Genre

Historians have often assumed that the words fiction and novel are synonymous and interchangeable, which is not true. Ever since human beings have told stories, there has been fiction – verse or prose – and only in this sense, any work of fiction written before the 1600s in England is somehow an ancestor of the novel.

The concept “novel” comes from “novela” and “nouvelle”. It has its origin in “novellus” from Latin and has the meaning of something new or current (happens right now and truth). Definition: “A fictitious prose narrative or tale of considerable length (now usually one long enough to fill one or more volumes) in which characters and actions representative of the real life of past or present times are portrayed in a plot of more or less complexity.” Many features conventionally associated with the term do not necessarily apply to today’s novels. The novel, as conceived in the early 18th century, was perceived as a ‘new’ genre with an instructive purpose.

The Rise of the Novel in the 18th Century

  • 1678: John Bunyan, a tinker and itinerant preacher, in jail for his religious convictions, wrote The Pilgrim’s Progress.
  • 1719: Daniel Defoe, a failed haberdasher turned journalist and government spy, wrote Robinson Crusoe. In 1722, he wrote Moll Flanders.
  • 1740: Samuel Richardson, a middle-aged master-printer, wrote Pamela.

The novel, as understood in the 18th century, provides an imitation of the life of men and women on Earth and in society. Novelists provide a working model of life according to their views, by means of the characters they invent, the situations in which those characters are placed, and the words which are chosen for them. Novelists have given manifold reasons for writing novels:

  • Richardson: to inculcate right conduct
  • Fielding: to reform the manners of the age
  • Dickens: to expose social evils
  • Trollope: to make money by providing acceptable entertainment

Features of the Early 18th-Century Novel

  • Realism: The use of realism as applied to the novel reveals the most original feature of the novel form – the fact that it attempts to portray all the varieties of human experience, and not merely those suited to one particular literary perspective. The novel’s realism does not reside in the kind of life it presents, but in the way it presents it. Modern realism begins from the position that truth can be discovered by the individual through his senses. It has its origins in Descartes and Locke: the external world is real, and our senses give us a true report of it (empiricism). The spirit of the Augustan Age and the 18th century, in general, placed emphasis on reason and rationality. The novel is the form of literature which most fully reflects this individualist and innovating reorientation expressed in philosophy: truth to individual experience.
  • Individualism: Emphasis on individual experience. The various technical characteristics of the novel described all seem to contribute to the furthering of an aim which the novelist shares with the philosopher – the production of what purports to be an authentic account of the actual experiences of individuals.
  • Focus on the everyday (vs. Romance, supernatural, and unrealistic tone in pre-18th-century prose).
  • Originality: The novel is the logical literary vehicle of a culture which has set an unprecedented value on originality. Actually, previous writers in the English canon, such as Chaucer, Spenser, Shakespeare, or Milton, took their plots from mythology, history, legend, or previous literature.
  • Didactic purpose: to teach readers what is right and what is wrong.

Social Conditions of the Rise of the Novel

Defoe, Richardson and Fielding do not, in the usual sense, constitute a literary school. Their works show signs of mutual influence and are so different in nature that, at first sight, it appears that our curiosity about the rise of the novel is unlikely to find any satisfaction. The present inquiry takes another direction: assuming that the appearance of our first three novelists within a single generation was probably not sheer accident and that their geniuses could not have created the new form unless the conditions of the time had also been favorable.

Favorable Conditions

  1. The growth of the middle class: Since the very beginning, the novel was born as a literary form about the average citizen and for average readers. This means that novels generally differed from the elaborate poetic language and classical-fueled topics of Augustan poetry.
  2. Changes in philosophy: The rise of realism in Philosophy and its emphasis on truth triggered writers to adopt a more realistic approach to writing, differing from the inclusion of romance elements which characterized previous English literature written in prose.
  3. Decline of patronage – individualism: During the Middle Ages and all through the Renaissance, writers generally depended on a patron, whose (mainly economic) support meant that writers’ works had to match their patrons’ political stances and views. This idea declined during the 18th century, and writers adopted a more individualistic and personal approach to literature.
  4. Growth of reading public and literacy: The rise of the middle classes went hand in hand with the rise of literacy among the average population. This process was fueled by the vogue for circulating libraries around Britain in the 18th century, which meant a wider reading public.
  5. Social consciousness: The mid-18th century is also marked by a higher social consciousness, illustrated by the setting-up of charity schools and the improvement of prisons, for example. The rise of the novel matched this growing social consciousness, and novel writers adopted a humanitarian stance with the intention of improving society through literature.
  6. The Licensing Act (1737) and theatre: The Licensing Act (1737) forbade the inclusion of political matters on the stage. This governmental attack on freedom of speech no doubt triggered dramatists to turn to the novel in order to escape censorship.

Fathers and Mothers of the Novel

  • Aphra Behn: Oronooko, or the Royal Slave: Combination of 1st person and 3rd person narration. Poet, playwright, translator, fiction writer, pamphleteer. Considered the first female professional writer. Firm defender of aristocracy and royalism. Controversial: Wrote openly about sexual topics. Dismissed or ignored by critics until the 20th century.
  • Daniel Defoe: Robinson Crusoe: 1st person homodiegetic narrator and no chapter subdivisions. Tradesman, Dissenter, Learned man, Journalist, writer, Government spy. Narrative realism. Robinson Crusoe is certainly the first novel in the sense that it is the first fictional narrative in which an ordinary person’s daily activities are the center of continuous literary attention.
  • Samuel Richardson: Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded: Epistolary novel with a 1st person homodiegetic narrator. “The father of the English novel”. Printer’s apprentice, journalist. Pioneer in psychological analysis of characters. Epistolary novels.
  • Henry Fielding: The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews: Spin-off of a previous novel. Started as a playwright – censorship. External approach to characters. Focus on male point of view. Highly critical of Richardson’s moralism and sentimentality. Parody and comedy + moral.

Brief Mentions

  • Jane Austen: Represents the transition between the Age of Reason (rules, order, rationality, balance) and Romanticism (irrational, supernatural, emotions, spontaneity, experimentation).
  • Charlotte Brontë: Known for Bildungsroman, a narrative genre characterized by a recompilation of someone’s whole life, from childhood to adulthood. The heroine’s coming of age, personal fulfillment, lifelong evolution. Combines Romanticism (feelings, emotions, love, nature) with Gothic elements (supernatural elements, madness, horror).
  • Charles Dickens: Dickens and social criticism: Mid-Victorian writers believed in writers’ moral and social responsibility to expose the evils of society.
  • Jean Rhys: Explores themes of Postcolonialism (fiction written in the aftermath of colonialism; ‘writing back’ against English classic literature), Neo-Victorianism (contemporary fiction that rewrites the Victorian era), Intertextuality (interrelation between texts – prequel to Jane Eyre), and Feminism (repressed female experiences: Bertha (Antoinette)).

Key Events in the Victorian Period

  • The Reform Act (1832) (Men over 21 got the vote).
  • The Industrial Revolution:
    • Rise of factories, electricity, railways.
    • England becomes the ‘world’s factory’.
    • The Great Exhibition (1851).
    • Working classes lived in miserable circumstances (slums).
    • Rise of Trade Unions.
  • Charles Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species (1859):
    • Science vs. Religion (Religious crisis).
  • Consolidation of British Imperialism: Africa, India, Canada, Australia, the Caribbean.
  • The ‘Woman Question’ – Rise of feminism:
    • Challenges to the ‘Angel in the House’ prototype and the dichotomy private vs. public.

The Victorian Novel

  • Rise of literacy in middle classes (+ Reading public).
  • Typically, novels were long and dense (plot-heavy).
  • Often published in volumes or in serial form (magazines).
  • Novels dealt with social issues – Writers’ social and moral role (vs. Late-Victorian writers).

What is Modernism?

  • Movement that dominated art and culture in the first half of the 20th century.
  • In English literature, 1910-1930 is the most significant period. (MOTTO = MAKE IT NEW).
  • A strong emphasis on subjectivity – a concern about how we see things (e.g. stream of consciousness) – rather than what we see.
  • Rejection of traditional realism in favor of innovation and experimentation.
  • A break away from the illusory objectivity of the omniscient narrator and fixed narrative viewpoints.
  • A new interest in fragmented forms – discontinuous narratives, non-linear narratives, open-ended plots, collage.

Is Postmodernism Just a Continuation of Modernism?

Postmodernism is an evolution of modernism, so both share similar tenets (eclecticism, fragmentation, non-realist forms…) BUT Postmodernism has a radically different historical context to Modernism. This has two implications:

  • The shared features between each movement are exploited differently.
  • Postmodernism has a distinct mood.
  • Fragmentation:
    • Modernism: Fragmented forms evoke nostalgia, pessimism, lament, despair, loss (of an earlier age, of values, of faith…). Influence of 1st World War.
    • Postmodernism: Fragmentation is celebrated as liberating (from fixed forms, beliefs, narratives) and is a source of parody, pastiche, and playful forms.
  • High culture vs. Popular culture:
    • For modernism, only ‘high culture’ should be part of cultural debate and discussion.
    • Postmodernism challenges that distinction by mixing up from both categories.

Features of Postmodernism

  • Celebration of fragmentation as liberation.
  • It places “low” art side by side with traditional “high” art.
  • Postmodernism questions ‘grand narratives’: history, religion, race, gender, the literary canon, reality…
  • Beyond mere subjectivity, it places emphasis on reflexivity or self-consciousness: breaking the fourth wall, narrators who know they are inside a novel, use of metafiction, etc.
  • Instead of rejecting traditional forms, postmodernism reinvents them (intertextuality, parody, pastiche…).