velis a long narrative, normally inprose, which
describesfictionalcharacters and events, usually in the form of a
sequential story.WhileIan WattinThe Rise of the Novel(1957)
suggests that the novel came into being in the early 18th century,
thegenrehas also been described as "a continuous and comprehensive
history of about two thousand years",[1]with historical roots
inClassical GreeceandRome,medieval, earlymodernromance, and in the
tradition of thenovella. The latter, an Italian word used to
describeshort stories, supplied the present generic English term in
the 18th century.Miguel de Cervantes, author ofDon Quixote, is
frequently cited as the first significant Europeannovelistof
themodern era; the first part ofDon Quixotewas published in
1605.[2]While a more precise definition of the genre is difficult,
the main elements that critics discuss are: how the narrative, and
especially the plot, is constructed; the themes, settings,
andcharacterization; how language is used; and the way that plot,
character, and setting relate toreality.The romance is a related
long prose narrative.Walter Scottdefined it as "a fictitious
narrative in prose or verse; the interest of which turns upon
marvellous and uncommon incidents", whereas in the novel "the
events are accommodated to the ordinary train of human events and
the modern state of society".[3]However, many romances, including
thehistorical romancesof Scott,[4]Emily Bront'sWuthering
Heights[5]andHerman Melville'sMoby-Dick,[6]are also frequently
called novels, and Scott describes romance as a "kindred term".
Romance, as defined here, should not be confused with thegenre
fictionlove romance orromance novel. Other European languages do
not distinguish between romance and novel: "a novel isle roman,der
Roman,il romanzo."[7]Contents[hide] 1Defining the genre 1.1A
fictional narrative 1.2Literary prose 1.3Media: paper and print
1.4Content: intimate experience 1.5Length 2Early forerunners
3Medieval period 11001500 3.1Romances 3.2The novella 4Renaissance
period: 1500-1700 4.1Chapbooks 4.2Romances 4.2.1Heroic romances
4.2.2Satirical romances 4.3Dubious and scandalous histories
4.4Cervantes and the rise of the novel in the 17th century 5The
rise of the novel in England: 1700-1770 5.1Changing cultural status
5.2Realism and art 5.3Novel and romance 5.4The acceptance of the
novel as literature 5.5The reformation of manners 5.6Philosophical
novels 6Romanticism: 17701837 7The Victorian period: 1837-1901
7.1Literary realism 7.2The creation of national literatures 7.3The
modern individual 8The 20th century and later 8.1Global market
place 8.2Modernism and post-modernism 8.3Writing world history
8.4Popular fiction 9See also 9.1Genres of the novel 9.2Literature
9.3Novels-related articles 10Notes 11References 12Further reading
12.117th- and 18th-century views 12.2Secondary literatureDefining
the genre[edit]
Madame de Pompadourspending her afternoon with a book, 1756
religious and scientific reading has a differenticonography.A novel
is a long, fictional narrative which describes intimate human
experiences. The novel in themodern erausually makes use of a
literary prose style, and the development of the prose novel at
this time was encouraged by innovations inprinting, and the
introduction of cheappaper, in the 15th century.The present English
(and Spanish) word for a long work of prose fiction derives from
theItaliannovellafor "new", "news", or "short story of something
new", itself from theLatinnovella, a singular noun use of the
neuter plural ofnovellus, diminutive ofnovus, meaning "new".[note
1]Most European languages have preserved the term "romance" (as in
French, Dutch, Russian,Serbo-Croatian, Romanian, Danish, Swedish
and Norwegian "roman"; German "Roman"; Portuguese "romance" and
Italian "romanzo") for extended narratives.A fictional
narrative[edit]Fictionalityis most commonly cited as distinguishing
novels fromhistoriography. However this can be a problematic
criterion. Throughout theearly modern periodauthors of historical
narratives would often include inventions rooted in traditional
beliefs in order to embellish a passage of text or add credibility
to an opinion. Historians would also invent and compose speeches
for didactic purposes. Novels can, on the other hand, depict the
social, political and personal realities of a place and period with
clarity and detail not found in works of history.However, up until
the 1750s historians were the main critics of the novel and they
emphasised its lack of veracity and therefore serious worth, and
criticised it for being merely entertainment. Then in the second
half of the 18th-century criticism evolved and withRomanticismcame
the idea that works of fiction could be art.Literary
prose[edit]While prose rather than verse became the standard of the
modern novel, the ancestors of the modern European novel include
verse epics in theRomance languageof southern France, especially
those byChrtien de Troyes(late 12th century), and inMiddle
English(Geoffrey Chaucer's (c. 1343 1400)The Canterbury
Tales).[8]Even in the 19th century, fictional narratives in verse,
such asLord Byron'sDon Juan(1824),Alexander Pushkin'sYevgeniy
Onegin(1833), andElizabeth Barrett Browning'sAurora Leigh(1856),
competed with prose novels.Vikram Seth'sThe Golden Gate(1986),
composed of 590Onegin stanzas, is a more recent example of the
verse novel.[9]However, in the 15th century, following the
invention ofprinting, prose began to dominate European fiction.
This immediately led to the development of a special elevated prose
style modelled on Greek and Roman histories, and the traditions of
verse narrative. The development of a distinct fictional language
was crucial for the genre that aimed at creating works that readers
would actually identify, and appreciate, as fiction rather than
history.At the beginning of the 16th century, printing had created
a special demand for books that were neither simply published for
the nonacademic audience nor explicitly scientificliterature,
butbelles-lettres. This included modern history and science in the
vernacular, personal memoirs, contemporary political scandal,
fiction and poetry. However, prose fiction was soon far more
popular than verse,rhetoricand science. Fictional prose, though
aiming for stylistic elegance, was closer to everyday language, to
personal letters, to the art of "gallant" conversation, and to the
personal memoir and travelogue.Pierre Daniel Huetsummarised the
stylistic ambition of fictional prose accordingly in 1670: "It must
be compos'd with Art and Elegance, lest it should appear to be a
rude undigested Mass, without Order or Beauty."[10]By the 18th
century, however, English authors began to criticize the French
ideals ofbelles lettreselegance, and a less aristocratic prose
style became the ideal for them in the 1740s. When, in the 1760s,
it became the norm for the author to open his or her novel with a
statement of the work's fictionality, the prose became even more
informal.Media: paper and print[edit]The development of printing
technology, along with the availability of paper, changed the
situation for prose fiction. Paper allowed the production of cheap
books that would not necessarily be read twice, and which could be
bought exclusively for private diversion. The new medium produced
the modern novel in Europe in the course of the 15th and 16th
centuries. The formatsduodecimoandoctavo, or