THE RISE OF ENGLISH NOVEL (18th

CENTURY)
18th Century
The 18th century in Europe was The Age of Enlightenment and literature
explored themes of social upheaval, reversals of personal status, political satire,
geographical exploration and the comparison between the supposed natural state
of man and the supposed civilized state of man. European literature of the 18th
century refers to literature (poetry, drama, satire, and novels) produced in
Europe during this period. The 18th century saw the development of the modern
novel as literary genre, Subgenres of the novel during the 18th century were
the epistolary novel, the sentimental novel, histories, the gothic novel and
the libertine novel.
Background of the novel.
The novel arose very late as a literary form. The epic, tragedy, comedy,
essay, and short story all preceded it by centuries. The novel appeared when
people were beginning to be careful about distinguishing fact and fiction. The
novel represented fiction, whereas the epic was presented as historical truth in
spite of the legends it transmitted.
According to Oliver Elton:
“it came to express, far better than the poetry could do, the temper of the
age and race”
In the eighteenth century the years after the forties witnessed 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”. The novel is a worldwide cultural
instrument which helped the way we speak, talk, feel and what we do. In the
eighteenth century a new literary genre established into the English novel, the
novel maybe the last form of literature to establish but since in eighteenth
century its success has been alarming. 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 and the credit goes to the main novelists.
Novel
A novel is any relatively long work of narrative fiction, normally
in prose, and typically published as a book. A novel (from French nouvelle
Italian novella, "new") is an extended, generally fictional narrative in prose.
Until the 18th century the word referred specifically to short fictions of love and
intrigue as opposed to romances, which were epic-length works about love and
adventure. During the 18th century the novel adopted features of the old
romance and became one of the major literary genres.
When and where it grew
The dominant genre in world literature, the novel is a relatively young
form of imaginative writing. Only about 250 years old in England—and
embattled from the start— its rise to pre-eminence has been striking. After
sparse beginnings in 17th century England, novels grew exponentially in
production by the 18th century and in the 19th century became the primary form
of popular entertainment.
Hybrid genre
Hybrid genre is a genre which blends themes and elements from two or
more different genres. The novel is the combination of many different genres
and with the other genres from the very beginning.
Reasons for the rise of English novel
Various reasons are there for the rise and popularity of the novel, let us
consider the important reasons for the rise of the novelin the eighteenth century.
 Rise of middle class
 Growth of newspaper and magzines
 Rise of realism
 Role of women
 Decline of drama
 Democratic movement
 Novel gave writer much space
 Novel suited the genius and temper of time
Rise of middle class
According to David Daiches,
“The novel was in a large measure the product of the middle class,
appealing to middle class ideals and sensibilities, a patterning of imagined
events set against a clearly realized social background and taking its view
of what was significant in human behaviour from agreed public attitudes”
The eighteenth century is known as the social history of England for the
rise of the middle class. The 18th century in England social history is characterised
by the rise of the middle class. Because of tremendous growth in trade and
commerce, the England merchant class was becoming wealthy and this newly rich
class wanted to excel in the field of literature also. This class was neglected by the
high-born writers and their tastes and aspirations were expressed by the novelists
of the time. The Novel was, in fact, the product of middle class. With the rise of
middle class, hence, the rise of the novel was quite natural.
According to another critic:
“The novel was not only a product of emphasis on the common man, it also
was in rapport with the psyche of the middle classes”

According to Cazamian:
“There is a deep affinity between the dominant instincts of the middle
classes and this branch of literature, the possibilities of which have
remained intact. It lends itself better than any other to morality and
sentiment”
Growth of newspaper and magzines
In the 18th century, the appearance of newspapers and magazines attracted a large
number of readers from the middle class. These new readers had little interest in
the romances and the tragedies which had interested the upper class. Thus need for
new type of literature rose that would express the new ideas of the 18th century and
this new type of literature was none but novel.
Rise of realism
The eighteenth century was imbued with the spirit of realism. In that age
whether he was a poet, a dramatist, they believed that for the success of his art
the showing of reality is essential. The novel was another instrument for the
exploration and representation of social reality. According to David Daiches:
“The novel tended to realism and contemporaneity in the sense that it dealt
with people living in the social world known to the writer”
Role of women
In the 18th century, women of upper classes and the middle classes could partake in
a few activities of men. Although they could not engage themselves in
administration, politics, hunting, drinking etc. hence, in their leisure time, they
used to read novels.
Decline of Drama
The decline of drama also contributed to the rise of the novel in the eighteenth
century. It was the genre that rose from the ashes of drama. Drama in the
eighteenth century was no longer a social force as it had been in the age of
Elizabeth or even that of Charles II. The licensing act of 1737 which was meant
to curb such scurrilous political satire as Fielding had levelled in his comedies
against Sir Robert Wolpole, in the words of Ifor Evans:
“Cut the very heart of drama”
 It did not remain influential literary form. The reading public desired a
new form to satisfy its craving for story and social pictures that’s why novel
rose.
Novel gave writer much space
The rise of the novel was also due to the fact that this new literary form gave
more freedom than drama to the writer for the performance of the task which
the temper of the age imposed upon the writer.
Novel gave much space to the writer for what Cazamian calls
 Morality
 Sentiment
These two elements make literature popular. Novelists of 18th century gave the
element of realism.
Features of 18th century novel
 Realism and drama of individual consciousness has precedence over
external drama.
 Focus on experience of the individual as subject matter
a) Appearance of probability in character, setting and event
b) Logical cause and effect sequence
c) Solidity of detail in order to acheive the reader’s willing suspension of
disbelief.
 Exploration of individual consciousness and perception.
Major Writers
Richardson and fielding created a consciousness among readers and
potential writers that a significant and lasting form had come about and that
literary careers could be built upon the genre. Besides, Richardson and Fielding,
some other writers have also contributed in the field of novel before. They were,
 Swift
 Defoe
 Addison
 Steele
Actually these novelists paved the way for others 18th century novelist. Though
between 1740-1800 a large number of novel of all kind were written but the real
masters of 18th century like.
 Richardson
 Fielding
 Smollete
 Sterne
According to Oliver Elton:
“The work of the four masters stands high, but the foothills are low”
Sir Edmund Gosse calls Richardson “the first great English novelist” and
Fielding “the greatest of English novelists”
SAMUEL RICHARDSON
He is considered as the father of the English novel of 18th century. His
first novel was Pamela. Pamela narrates the story of rustic maid who guards her
honour against his masters but later she was married to that master. After
completion of Pamela, Richardson wrote CLARISSA HARLOWE (1747-48)
his third novel and last novel was SIR CHARLES GRANDSON (1754)
It is important to note that Richardson had the quality of having
knowledge of human being. He was aware of the emotional problems of
common people and especially the females.
Richardson concentrated on social reality in his novels. His famous
themes in his novel were “Morality and sentiment” however he depicts all these
merits, Richardson was criticised because of his enormous length in novel, the
epistolary technique which he adopted in all these three novels is essentially
dilatory and repetitive, and therefore makes for bulkiness. He is at any rate a
good psychologist as a critic calls:
“The delineation of the delicate shades of sentiment as they shift and
change and the cross-purposes which the troubled mind envisages when in
the grip of passion”
His last novel, the history of Sir Charles Grandison. Richardson got great
fame for his writings and had many admires. Richardson’s main contribution in
English novel was to tell the stories of human life from within depending for
their interest not on incident on adventures but on their truth to human nature. A
Critic remarks on him:
“His novels have been attacked on account of their self-satisfied and
calculating middle class morality”
Major works
 Pamela or virtue rewarded
 Clarissa Harlowe
HENRY FIELDING
According to Hudson:
“Fielding was a man of very different type”
He was virile, vigorous and somewhat coarse nature and his knowledge of life
was very wide. One can see the strength and breath in his novel.
In November 1740, Samuel Richardson published his Pamela or virtue
rewarded. The novel took the entire reading public by storm, but Fielding was
annoyed at the utilitarian concept of morality that Pamela stood for. In this
novel an attractive servant girl successfully resists her employer’s attempt to
seduce her and eventually prevails upon him to marry her. Fielding felt that this
concept of virtue as advocated by Richardson in his novel was far removed
from the true Christian virtue. He parodied Pamela in his Shamela revealing
Richardson’s chaste heroine to be no better than a common prostitute.
His very first novel “Joseph Andrew” was as same as “Pamela” because
of sentimentality and morality. According to Wilbur,
“Fielding was sentimental because he had the quality of creating pathetic
scenes in his novel”
In joseph Andrews he light-heartedly tilted against morbid
sentimentalism and sham morality.
His next work were “Tom Jones” (1749) “Amelia” and “Jonathan wild
the great”. The later one is an ironical novel in nature, so in his novel we find an
element of realism, healthy satire and humourous statements. Another main
point is that he was very impressed by the physical beauty of a female. So he
was also given the title of “Masculine Writer”
Contribution in development of novel
It is true that even before Fielding, Defoe and Richardson had written novels,
but it is with Fielding only that the novel gets its proper shape. He made
invaluable contribution to the development of plot construction and the art of
characterisation and explored the hidden potentialities of this genre as an art
form.
 Plot construction
 Novel as a comic epic in prose
 Art of characterisation
  Dialogues
 Humour
 Moral vision
PLOT CONSTRUCTION-----. Plot before Fielding did not hold much
importance for the novelist. Bunyans plot were only long, exhausting. Defoe’s
plots were mechanical. It was Fielding who really developed the art of Plot-
construction. In Joseph Andrews he constructed an outstanding plot after it
when we come to Tom Jones we find a very coherent and organic plot
conducted with utmost skill.
NOVEL AS A COMIC EPIC IN PROSE-----. Another contribution of Fielding
is his concept of the novel as a comic epic in prose. He brought mildly ironical
tone and imbued it with as solemn a purpose as any epic poet could think of.
ART OF CHARACTERISATION----- Fielding breathed life into the characters
he portrayed. Fielding’s understanding of people was more intimate than that of
most of his contemporaries. On Fielding art of characterisation, Harold Child, in
the Cambridge History Of English Literature observes:
“Fielding, a master of the philosophical study of character, founded the
novel of character, and raised it to a degree of merit which is not likely to
be surpassed”
DIALOGUES-----. His dialogues are lively as well as natural. Richardson also
done a good deal for the development of Dialogues but Fielding makes an
effective use of them.
HUMOUR-----. Fielding contributed a lot in novel with the sense of humour. In
his novels he employed all types of humour. Fielding’s humour is spontaneous,
tolerant and exercised on realities.
MORAL VISION----- Fielding brought to the novel a healthy moral vision in
contrast to Richardson’s morality. Fielding is tolerant of natural human
weaknesses but he does not tolerate hypocrisy.
CONCLUSION
So great is Fielding’s contribution to the English novel that Walter Scott
was tempted to describe Fielding as the father of the English novel. As Walter
Allen sums up Fielding’s contribution in the following words:
“the form the novel took in England for more than a hundred years had its
origin in Fielding, and in this respect, Smollett, Scott, Dickens, Thackeray
and Meredith all wrote in his shadows”
Major works
 Joseph Andrews (1742)
  Jonathan Wild (1743)
 Tom Jones (1749)
 Amelia (1751)
TOBIAS SMOLLETT
Smollett is also considered as one of the master of 18th century novel. But
Hudson criticized him by saying,
“His work is on a much lower level than other writers”
His novels are of the picaresque kind. His famous novels are
 Roderick Random (1748)
 Perigrine pickle (1751)
 Humphrey Clinker (1771)
Smollett was a realistic in nature he was a keen observer of the bad facts of life.
Smollett heroes in his novels are mechanical puppets rather than living beings.
In Smollett novel we find horror and brutalities in the novels which are
mistaken for realism. He never bothered about the construction of plot nor did
he bother about morality. Smollett was also the originator of the funny novel.