The Rise of the Novel

1
The Rise of the Novel

• In British Literature

2
Ancestry

• Novel derives from frame tales like Chaucers
  Canterbury Tales, or Boccaccios Decameron.
• It also derives from Aesops Fables, stories from
  Old Testament. (Waterhouse)

3
Ancestry (cont.)

• The Medieval Romances of Chretien de Troyes and
  Malorys Le Morte dArthur
• are a precedent.
• (Burne-Jones)

4
Epistolary Novels

• In England some of the earliest popular novels
  were epistolary, published as letters between
  characters
• Richardsons Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded 1740)
  and Clarissa are examples.

5
Picaresque Novels

• Novels centered around wanderings or journeys of
  the central character-called picaresque after
  Picaro in Don Quixote by Cervantes.
• (Dore)

6
Picaresque Novels (cont.)

• Henry Fielding adopted this type in Joseph
  Andrews and Tom Jones.
• Also, Tobias Smollett, Humphrey Clinker

7
The Psychological NovelLaurence Sterne

• Interest in association of ideas-John Locke and
  others
• Tradition of the Learned Wit
• Tristram Shandy by Lawrence Sterne published in 9
  vols starting 1759.

8
Tristram Shandy- a forerunner of the stream of
consciousness novel

• Freedom of form and willingness to experiment
  with digressions and other techniques---linked to
  novels of Virginia Woolf, James Joyce (Wiliam
  Faulkner)

9
The Coming of Age novel or Bildungsroman

• On the continent, Goethes The Apprenticeship of
  Wilhelm Meister models this form
• A young person grows to learn from lifes
  adventures hardships

10
In England

• The type becomes popularTom Jones, the foundling
  who grows and learns his true identity,
• Dickens David Copperfield, also Great
  Expectations

11
More recently,

• Joyces Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man a
  young man growing up in Catholic Ireland
• Evelyn Waughs Brideshead Revisited-a young man
  learns from his relations with the aristocracy

12
The Gothic Novel

• First becomes widely popular with Mathew Lewis
  The Monk 1795.
• Complete with corrupt priests, murders, ghosts,
  it took Europe by a storm.

13
Other early Gothic novels

• Anne Radcliffes The Mysteries of Udolpho 1795
• Horace Walpoles The Castle of Otranto 1765
• Jane Austens Northanger Abbey 1818 (satirical)

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Gothic novels

• Contain medieval or exotic settings, elements of
  supernatural
• Mary Shelleys Frankenstein 1818 and William
  Beckfords Vathek (the life of Caliph Vathek)
  1764, were popular

15
The Novel of Manners

• Setting and characters limited to a particular
  social group and their customs/mores
• Focus is on relationships, especially marriage,
  and social status.
• Eg. Austen, Wharton
• Aphra Behn

16
The Lyrical/Regional Novel

• Less a tradition than a style, these novels rely
  heavily on description of setting,
• Thomas Hardys Wessex novels exemplify this
  trend. The Return of the Native, Far from the
  Madding Crowd, The Mayor of Casterbridge,
• etc.

17
Later Practitioners in the Lyrical Novel

• D. H. Lawrence midland novels The Rainbow, Sons
  and Lovers, Women in Love
• Joseph Conrad Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim

18
The Victorian Novel

• The novel is the genre best adapted to the
  Victorian sensibility
• Concerned with issues and problems of
  contemporary society
• They create a richly detailed, realistic sense of
  19th century life.

19
Victorian novel

• Novels of this period are known for their length
• Many were published serially
• Authors often responded to reader input on
  earlier episodes

20
Charles Dickens

• Master of serial publication
• The leading novelist from 1837 until death in
  1870.
• Gives a realistic, humorous portrayal of all
  walks of London life
• Social and political concerns

21
Others points of view

• William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-63)and Anthony
  Trollope (1815-82) thought Dickens too theatrical
• They wanted more emphasis on characters inner
  lives
• More restrained and traditional emphasize more
  precise shades of Victorian manners, behavior

22
George Eliot 1819-80

• (Mary Ann Evans) greatest novelist of inner moral
  life
• Political and social worlds of her novels are as
  vast as Dickens
• Primary concern is with the free will and moral
  intelligence of her characters
• Silas Marner Middlemarch

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Thomas Hardy 1840-1928

• Also focused on the inner life of his characters
• Emphasize question of free will and
  self-determination
• Ones fate is shaped by forces outside of
  control passions, coincidence, historical forces

24
Thomas Hardy

• Born in Dorset, east of Dorchester in 1840.
• Trained as an architect
• Death of his first wife influenced his later
  Poems 1912-13

• Novels set in partly imaginary region of Wessex.
• Portray English countryside prior to railways,
  factories
• His characters struggle against forces of nature
  and human nature

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Hardy (cont.) The novels

• Far From the Madding Crowd 1874
• Return of the Native 1878
• The Mayor of Casterbridge 1886

• Tess of the DUrbervilles 1891
• Jude the Obscure 1895. Jude was criticized for
  its sexuality and affront to the institution of
  marriage. Hardy turned to poetry following.

26
Thomas Hardys Wessex

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Hardy (conclusion)

• Hardy had become a celebrity among British
  novelists by 1900s
• Identified with the school of naturalism
• His religious beliefs unclear determinism along
  with acceptance of supernatural (spiritism)
• Novels were increasingly fatalistic
• Hardy married a 2nd time in 1905

28
Hardy (conclusion)

• Died in 1928 of pleurisy
• His ashes are in Poets Corner in Westminster
  Abbey
• His heart is buried in Stinsford next to 1st
  wife, Emma.

29
Hardys study at Max Gate
30
Joseph Conrad

• Born Teodor Jozef Konrad Korzeniowski 1857-1924
  in Ukraine to Polish patriots, landowners
• Worked as gunrunner on French vessels, later
  British

31
Conrad (cont.)

• Became British subject and published fictional
  works
• His Romanticism imbued with irony
• Heart of Darkness reflects his own sea-going
  history
• Describes and encounter with Evil

• Story within a frame narrative (retired sea
  captain Marlowes yarn)
• Symbolic overtones as a journey of self-discovery
  or a Night Journey
• Originally published in 3 parts in Blackwoods
  Magazine 1899

32
Credits

• Romance Wikipedia
• Web Images David Copperfield, Wilhelm Meister
  Frankenstein,UlyssesHeart of Darkness
• Joseph Conrad Wikipedia
• Amazon.com images of The Castle of Otranto,
  Vathek
• The Castle of Otranto Wikipedia.
• Thomas Hardy Wikipedia
• Thomas Hardy Country A Photographic Tour
  http//members.aol.com.hardy.1001.
• The Thomas Hardy Association www.yale.edu.hardysoc