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History of ENGLISH LITERATURE

Introduction:
Novel, long work of written fiction. Most novels involve many characters and tell a complex story by placing
the characters in a number of different situations. The word novel came into use during the Renaissance (14th
century to 17th century). Over the centuries writers have continually experimented with the novel form, and it
has constantly evolved in new directions. Many readers consider the novel the most flexible type of literature,
and thus the one with the most possibilities. The novel can be described as a narrative prose, based in story, in
which the author may portray character, and the life of an age, and analyze sentiments and passions, and the
reaction of men and women to their environment.
The novel is only one of many possible prose narrative forms. It shares with other narratives, like epic and the
romance, two basic characteristics; a story and a story teller. In a novel, the writer has the freedom to develop
plot, characters, and theme slowly. The novel may celebrate grand designs or great events, but it also may pay
attention to details of everyday life, such as daily task and social obligations.
A novelist has more freedom than a playwright to portray events outside the framework of the immediate story,
such as historical events that happen at the same time as the story.
Elements of Novel:
To create a fictional world that seems real to the reader, novelists use five main elements: plot, characters,
conflict, setting, and theme.
 PLOT: The plot is the novel’s story and its underlying meaning. Plots can be anything the writer dreams
up, from narratives so realistic that they seem like nonfiction to tales of the fantastic.
 CHARACTER: To engage the reader, a novel must feature characters with complex and complete
personalities. Characters do not need to be physically realistic. Meaningful characters usually have
hopes, fears, concerns, and ambitions that the reader can recognize.
 CONFLICT: The novelist makes the reader care about the story by introducing some sort of conflict.
The conflict can be physical, emotional, or ethical, but it always creates some sort of tension that the
characters must resolve.
 SETTING: Another element that the novelist uses to draw in the reader is the setting of the work—the
time and place that the story occurs.
 THEME: The theme of a novel is the major idea that the novelist is setting forth in writing the book.
The theme gives the novel greater depth than it would have if it were a simple recitation of a series of
actions.
Techniques of Novel:
There are several major techniques that novelists employ to make their novels rich in meaning and rewarding to
the reader, including point of view, style, and symbolism. A novelist’s style is the approach the writer takes in
putting together words, phrases, sentences, and paragraphs. Many novelists deepen the meaning of their stories
by employing symbolism, the use of objects or ideas as symbols that represent other, more abstract concepts.
1. POINT OF VIEW: The point of view of a literary work is the perspective from which the reader views
the action and characters.
 Omniscient Point of View: In a novel written from the point of view of an omniscient narrator, the
reader knows what each character does and thinks. The reader maintains this knowledge as the plot
moves from place to place or era to era. An omniscient narrator can also provide the reader with direct
assessment of action, character, and environment.
 First-Person Point of View: The first person provides total subjectivity and all the immediacy,
intimacy, and urgency of a single individual’s conflicts. The first person also shows a character’s
awareness at telling a story. The first person allows the author to write in the voice of a particular
character.
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 Third-Person-Limited Point of View: the third-person-limited narrator allows the reader access to the
thoughts of the main character.
2. STYLE: Style is the novelist’s choice of words and phrases, and how the novelist arranges these words and
phrases in sentences and paragraphs. Style allows the author to shape how the reader experiences the work.
Style can be broken down into three types: simple, complex, and mid-style.
 Simple: A simple style uses common words and simple sentences, even if the situation described is
complex. The effect of the simple style can be to present facts to the reader without appealing to the
reader’s emotions directly.
 Complex: A complex style uses long, elaborate sentences that contain many ideas and descriptions. The
writer uses lyrical passages to create the desired mood in the reader, whether it be one of joy, sadness,
confusion, or any other emotion.
 A mid-style: A mid-style is a combination of the simple and complex styles. It can give a neutral tone to
the book, or it can provide two different effects by contrast.
3. SYMBOLISM: Many novels have two layers of meaning. The first is in the literal plot, the second in a
symbolic layer in which images and objects represent abstract ideas and feelings. Using symbols allows authors
to express themselves indirectly on delicate or controversial matters. Novelists have created symbolic patterns
of imagery since the beginning of the genre. English novelist Joseph Conrad felt that the novelist must search
for the “image,” meaning “the outward sign of inward feelings.” Even when symbols appear to have a clear
meaning in one part of a novel, they can have another meaning in another part of the book. Symbols are not
necessarily limited to one or two easy-to-identify meanings.
4. IMAGERY AND IRONY: In addition to point of view, style, and symbolism, novelists use many other
specific techniques in their works. Two of the most important are imagery, the collection of descriptive details
that appeal to the senses and emotions of the reader by creating a sense of real experience, and irony, the
reader’s recognition that what is expected from a statement, situation, or action is different from what actually
happens.
The difference between imagery and symbolism is that the purpose of imagery is not to embody meaning but to
create an illusion of reality by stimulating the reader’s senses. Nevertheless, an image may also serve as a
symbol when it has special meaning and represents another idea, either to the reader or to the novel’s characters.
Irony can be dramatic (acting without knowing that the effect of one’s actions is the opposite of what one
expected). Irony can also be situational. Authors may also use irony to reveal something about characters to the
reader without having the characters become aware of it themselves.
Genres of Novel:
Novels can be classified into dozens of genres, and novels may belong to several of these categories at the same
time.
SOCIAL NOVEL: The social novel focuses on the behavior of characters and how the characters’ actions
reflect or contradict the values of their society.
 Novel of manner: focuses on a small segment of society.
 Chronicle Novel: paints a broad survey of society as a whole.
PSYCHOLOGICAL NOVEL: The psychological novel’s intent is to reveal its characters’ inner selves at
a particular time in life.
EDUCATION NOVEL: The education novel describes stages in the life of its main character as the
individual develops as a person.
PHISOPHICAL NOVEL: Novels in which intellectual exploration is the main purpose are sometimes
called philosophical novels.
POPULAR NOVEL: Popular novels are novels whose primary intention is to entertain. They are
accessible to a wide range of people and are usually written to achieve commercial success by providing readers
with a good story.
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History of ENGLISH LITERATURE

 Western novels: Western novels are set in the American West and feature cowboys and Native
Americans. These books feature cattle rustlers, stage and train robbers, and gunfights.
 Detective novels: Detective stories and mystery stories typically involve convoluted plots, so that the
reader remains as puzzled as the characters within the story.
 Popular novels: Many popular novels take the form of spy stories. Some writers emphasize the
glamorous side of a spy’s life.
 Science-fiction novels: Science-fiction novels are books based on actual or imagined scientific
discoveries. Some common subjects for science fiction include space travel, time travel, the discovery of
other intelligent beings in space, and the creation of self-aware robots.
 Fantasy novels: Fantasy novels deal with magical and supernatural characters and events. Many fantasy
works are written in a lyrical or witty style, and some appeal especially to children.
 Horror novels: Horror novels, also called occult novels, usually deal with a battle between supernatural
forces of good and forces of evil. They are typically darker than fantasy novels.
 Romance novels: Romance novels are the stories of love
 Historical novels: The historical novel places its characters in a past time. The novelist attempts to
portray that era realistically in both fact and spirit.
GOTHIC NOVEL: The eighteenth century novel from Richardson to Miss Burney was, on the whole,
conceived on realistic lines. Towards the close of the century the novel, like poetry showed signs of change, as
it began to exhibit romantic tendencies. During the transitional period return to nature, absorption in the remote
in time and space, especially in the middle Ages, became the marked literary characteristics. The new interest
in nature made scenic descriptions or landscape an important element in novel. The interest in the past brought
into being a new type of novel, known as the gothic novel, which anticipated the historical novel of the
nineteenth century. The Gothic novel or the novel or terror is the peculiar product of the late eighteenth century.
It is a new genre of the romantic fiction which drew its inspiration from the general revival of interest in
medieval life and art, in Gothic castles, in churches and Cathedrals and in ruins. The novelists resorted to the
use of ghosts, portents and satanic forces in order to arouse emotions of awe, mystery and terror.
Gothic Novel, type of romantic fiction that predominated in English literature in the last third of the 18th
century and the first two decades of the 19th century, the setting for which was usually a ruined Gothic castle or
abbey (see Gothic Art and Architecture). The Gothic novel, or Gothic romance, emphasized mystery and horror
and was filled with ghost-haunted rooms, underground passages, and secret stairways. The principal writers of
the English Gothic romance were Horace Walpole, author of The Castle of Otranto (1764); Clara Reeve, who
wrote The Champion of Virtue (1777); Ann Radcliffe, author of The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794); Matthew
Gregory Lewis, author of Ambrosio, or the Monk (1796); Charles Robert Maturin, who wrote The Fatal
Revenge (1807); and Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, who wrote Frankenstein (1818). Charles Brocken Brown,
the first American professional novelist, is best known for his Gothic romances. The genre was one phase of the
literary movement of romanticism in English literature and was also the forerunner of the modern mystery novel
(see Mystery Story). Later American writers who used Gothic elements in their fiction include Henry James,
William Faulkner, and Flannery O'Connor. The term Gothic is also used to designate narrative prose or poetry
of which the principal elements are violence, horror, and the supernatural. Many of the works of the late-20th-
century American novelists Stephen King and Anne Rice demonstrate the continued influence and popularity of
the Gothic form.
HISTORY OF NOVELS:
THE 16TH CENTURY:- The novel developed in its modern form in Europe in the late 1500s and early
1600s, during the flowering of the Renaissance (14th century to 17th century), a time of renewed interest in
learning and culture. The subject matter of the early novels reflected the concerns of society in general,
including the emergence of the middle class as a social group, the questioning of traditional religious and moral
values, curiosity about science and philosophy, and an appetite for exploration and discovery.
The earliest novels, called picaresque novels, were stories of adventure featuring roguish main characters, or
picaros, who traveled widely, depended on their wits for survival, and took advantage of those less clever than
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History of ENGLISH LITERATURE

themselves. In contrast to the poetic romances of chivalry, which told of the pursuit of high spiritual ideals,
picaresque novels celebrated adventure for its own sake. They also were episodic, meaning that the story was
told in a series of episodes that did not depend on one another to make sense.
A major picaresque novel was Lazarillo de Tormes (1554; Lazaro of Tormes), a rambling, anonymously written
Spanish work that traces the misadventures of a boy making his way in a world of savage peasants, corrupt
clergy, conniving nobles, and an array of rough characters. Through his experiences Lazaro learns the art of
survival, including how to eat bread without being noticed—he takes mouse like bites from the loaf. In England,
an early picaresque was The Unfortunate Traveller, or The Life of Jack Wilton (1594) by Thomas Nashe. A racy
treatment of 16th-century Italy, it features sinister clerics, beautiful endangered women, and appearances by
German theologian Martin Luther and Dutch scholar Desiderius Erasmus.
Don Quixote (Part I, 1605; Part II, 1615) by Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes is a more serious work. It
depicts an idealistic Spanish nobleman who imagines himself a hero but is actually an undistinguished, middle-
aged man who has read so many romances of chivalry that he has lost touch with reality. Featuring remote
castles, strange inns, and motley company, the work dramatizes the collision between idealism and realism.
With his work, Cervantes introduced the idea that the novel should penetrate surface appearances. For example,
when Don Quixote encounters a barber wearing a brass basin on his head to shield himself from the rain, Don
Quixote thinks that the basin is a magical golden helmet. His mistake represents the idea that things are not
always as they appear. Despite Don Quixote’s foolish misinterpretations, the work is not cynical and deflating,
but instead celebrates the freedom that dreaming and idealizing can provide to people.
The novel made few major advances in the 1600s. During that century public interest in the drama was strong,
and English masters such as John Milton and John Dryden wrote outstanding narrative poetry. Many people
considered the new form of the novel cheap and vulgar compared with drama and poetry. It also seemed to
require less skill to create than verse did, and its subject matter was rarely as refined as that of the other literary
forms. One exception was La princesse de Clèves (1678; The Princess of Clèves), an elegant work by French
writer Marie de La Fayette about a married noblewoman who falls in love with another man. She keeps her
feelings secret and does not remarry, even after her husband’s death. The courtly setting of the book placed it
apart from the picaresque adventure tales. The book also treats the emotional states of its characters in much
more depth than the picaresque novels do.
GROWTH OF NOVEL:
18th CENTURY: - In the eighteenth century the years after the forties witnessed a wonderful efflorescence
of a new literary genre which was soon to establish itself for all times to come as the dominant literary form. Of
course, we are referring here to the English novel which was born with Richardson's Pamela and has been
thriving since then.
When Matthew Arnold used the epithets "excellent" and "indispensable" for the eighteenth century which had
little of good poetry or drama to boast of, he was probably paying it due homage for its gift of the novel.
The eighteenth century was the age in which the novel was established as the most outstanding and enduring
form of literature. The periodical essay, which was another gift of this century to English literature, was born
and died in the century, but the novel was to enjoy an enduring career. It is to the credit of the major eighteenth-
century novelists that they freed the novel from the influence and elements of high flown romance and fantasy,
and used it to interpret the everyday social and psychological problems of the common man. Thus they
introduced realism, democratic spirit, and psychological interest into the novel— the qualities which have since
then been recognized as the essential prerequisites of-every good novel and which distinguish it from the
romance and other impossible stories.
Reasons for the Rise and Popularity: Various reasons can be adduced for the rise and popularity of the
novel in the eighteenth century. The most important of them is that this new literary form suited the genius and
temper of the times. The eighteenth century is known in English social history for the rise of the middle classes
consequent upon an unprecedented increase in the volume of trade and commerce. Many people emerged from
the limbo of society to occupy a respectable status as wealthy burgesses. The novel, with its realism, its
democratic spirit, and its concern with the everyday psychological problems of the common people especially
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History of ENGLISH LITERATURE

appealed to these nouveaia riches and provided them with respectable reading material. The novel thus appears
to have been specially designed both to voice the aspirations of the middle and low classes and to meet their
taste. Moreover, it gave the writer much scope for what Cazamian calls "morality and sentiment"-the two
elements which make literature "popular." The decline of drama in the eighteenth century was also partly
responsible for the rise and -ascendency of the novel. After the Licensing Act of 1737, the drama lay moribund.
The poetry of the age too-except for the brilliant example of Pope's work—was in a stage of decadence. It was
then natural that from the ashes of the drama (and, to some extent, of poetry, too) should rise the phoenix-like
shape of a new literary genre. This new genre was, of course, the novel.
Before the Masters: Before Richardson and Fielding gave shape to the new form some work had already
been done by numerous other writers, which helped the pioneers to some extent. Mention must here be made of
Swift, Defoe, Addison, and Steele. Swift in Gulliver’s Travels gave an interesting narrative, and, in spite of the
obvious impossibility of the "action" and incidents, created an effect of verisimilitude which was to be an
important characteristic of the novel. The Coverley papers of Addison and Steele were in themselves a kind of
rudimentary novel, and some of them actually read like so many pages from a social and domestic novel. Their
good-humoured social satire, their eye for the oddities of individuals, their basic human sympathy, their lucid
style, and their sense of episode-all were to be spired after by the future novelists. Defoe with his numerous
stories like Robinson Crusoe, Moll Flanders, and Roxana showed his uncanny gift of the circumstantial detail
and racy, gripping narrative combined with an unflinching realism generally concerned with the seamy and
sordid aspects of life (commonly, low life). His lead was to be followed by ' numerous novelists. Defoe's
limitation lies in the fact that his protagonists are psychologically too simple and that he makes nobody laugh
and nobody weep. But his didacticism was to find favour with all the novelists of the eighteenth, and even many
of the nineteenth, century. Some call Defoe the first English novelist. But as David Daiches puts it in A Critical
History of English Literature, Vol. II, whether Defoe was "properly" a novelist "is a matter of definition of
terms."
The Masters: Between 1740 and 1800 hundreds of novels of all kinds were written. However, the real
"masters" of the novel in the eighteenth century were four-Richardson, Fielding, Smollett, and Sterne. The rest
of them are extremely inferior to them. Oliver Elton maintains: "The work of the four masters stands high, but
the foothills are low." The case was different in, say, the mid-nineteenth century when so many equally great
novelists were at work. Fielding was the greatest of the foursome. Sir Edmund Gosse calls Richardson "the first
great English novelist" and Fielding, "the greatest of English novelists." Fielding may not be the greatest of all,
but he was certainly one of the greatest English novelists and the greatest novelist of the eighteenth century.
FUTURE OF NOVEL:-
At the beginning of the 21st century, the novel, one of the most flexible of literary forms, remains a powerful
way for authors to represent the human experience both on the individual level and on the societal level. In
countries all over the world, writers use the novel to give insight into people’s actions, ideas, and aspirations.
Novelists keep the form fresh by continuing to explore subject matter of vital interest to readers and by
constantly innovating in form and technique. For five centuries the novel has been one of the most important
ways for writers to comment on the human condition, and it shows no signs of weakening.
CAUSES OF THE POPULARITY AND RISE OF NOVEL IN THE
AUGUSTAN AGE:-
The following factors contributed to the development of novel during the eighteenth century.
I. The Spread of Education and the New Reading Public.
In the eighteenth century the spread of education and the appearance of newspapers and magazines led to a
remarkable increase in the number of readers. The newspaper and the periodical essay ―encouraged a rapid,
inattentive, almost unconscious kind of reading habit‖. It is exactly such a kind of habit that is required for
novel reading. The middle-class people, who had a foremost place in English life and society, wanted to read
for pleasure and relaxation without caring for any high classical or literary standards, and this change of
emphasis favored the growth of the novel.
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History of ENGLISH LITERATURE

Moreover, the new reading class wanted to read about itself, about its own thoughts, motives and struggles. It
did not have leisure enough for reading the lengthy heroic romances. It demanded new type of literature. So the
novel was born, which mirrored the tastes and requirements of this new class of readers. Women, who had
plenty of leisure, sought pleasure through novel reading.
II. The Democratic Movement.
The rise of the novel is also associated with the democratic movement in the eighteenth century. Hudson
remarks: “The comprehensiveness of the novel, its free treatment of characters and doings of all sorts and
conditions of men, and especially its handling of middle class and low life, are unmistakable evidences of its
democratic quality.”
The rise of the middle class is closely related with the democratic movement. With the growth of commerce
and industry, the prestige of the old feudal nobility was on the wane. And the middle classes were increasing
steadily in social and political power. The middle classes were inclined to morality, sentiment and reality. The
novel reflected the temperament of the middle class and, therefore, it became popular.
III. Comprehensiveness of Form.
Novel as a new form of literary art offered a fresh field, in which the writers were to work independently.
Hudson writes: “Finally, as the form of the novel, gives a far wider scope allowed to the corresponding form of
drama for the treatment of motives, feelings, and all the phenomena of the inner life, it tended from the first to
take the peculiar place as the typical art form of the introspective and analytical modern world.”
IV. The Development of the New Prose Style.
One of the important causes of the development of novel is the evolution of a new prose style. As the novel
deals with ordinary life, ordinary people, and ordinary events and with all sorts of miscellaneous matters, it
requires plain, lucid and straightforward style. During the eighteenth century, writers like Addison, Steele,
Goldsmith, Burke etc. evolved a plain style which was capable of expressing the realities of life. It has a close
relation with the reflections and expressions the novel expresses.
V. The Decline of Drama.
Drama had grown artificial, unnatural and immoral during the earlier part of the eighteenth century. It was the
decline of drama during the first half of the eighteenth century that made way for the novel.
The latter part of the eighteenth century was the golden age of the novel. A true novel is simply a work of
fiction which relates the story of plain human life, under stress of emotion, which depends for its interest not on
incident and adventure, but on its truth to nature. Richardson, Fielding, Smollett and Sterne, known as the
―four wheels of novel‖- all seem to have seized upon the idea of reflecting life as it is, in the form of a story,
and to have developed it simultaneously.