Concetti Chiave
- The modern novel emerged in the 18th century, evolving from medieval romances and targeting a bourgeois audience with themes of social status and morality.
- Realism in novels was enhanced by contemporary settings, chronological events, and omniscient narrators, allowing readers to connect with characters' struggles for survival and success.
- Daniel Defoe, a key pioneer of the English novel, gained fame with "Robinson Crusoe" and leveraged his background in trade and politics to enrich his storytelling.
- Samuel Richardson, another novel pioneer, utilized his printing background and personal correspondence to craft epistolary novels like "Pamela" and "Clarissa."
- Novels were rapidly produced to meet demand, with authors like Defoe and Richardson shaping the genre's development through their innovative approaches.
What are the origins of the modern novel?
The novel had its precursor in the medieval romance but it rise as a genre as we know it today during the 18th century and in England it was associated with the emerging middle-classes; it dealt with everything that could affect and modify social status and it was mainly intended for a bourgeois public with simple writing that could be understood also by less educated people. The message of the novel was of reward and punishment related to the puritan morality of the middle-classes and the stories aimed to be realistic.
Realism and characters
The subject of the novel was the bourgeois man with his problems, struggling for survival or social success and the readers were expected to sympathize with him. To strengthen the idea of realism, characters were give contemporary names and they could be divided into two categories: those who believed in reason (e.g. Robinson Crusoe) and those unable to control their passions (e.g. Moll Flanders). Characters were also fitted into referenced temporal dimensions and events often followed in a chronological order. Great importance was also given to the place or setting in which the events were taking place and all this, together with detailed descriptions and the fact that the narrator was omnipresent and omniscient helped to make the novels even more realistic.
Production and pioneers
Novels were produced quickly and in great numbers as on these elements depended the reward the authors would get from the booksellers. The pioneers of the English novel are Defoe and Richardson.
Daniel Defoe
He was born in 1660 with the name Daniel Foe in a family of Dissenters (Protestants that did not recognise the authority of the Church of England).He studied to become a Minister, since the Parliament was restored, and, for this reason, he also changed his surname in Defoe (he made a crasis with Foe and Debeufoe) in order to make it sound more prestigious and sophisticated.
At the end, he became a tradesman and a member of one of the companies that controlled trade in London but he has been always active in politics.
He knew influential friends in the Government, in 1688 he was a secret agent and a propagandist for the king and he wrote several pamphlets like An Essay Upon Projects and The Shortest-Way With the Dissenters who made him end up in prison. He was imprisoned other few times and Defoe developed the habit to observe prisoners in order to catch their psychology and to deepen his knowledge of the social background of the kingdom of England.
In 1719 he published Robinson Crusoe from which he was best known.
He continued to write until 1731 when he died.
Samuel Richardson
He was born in Derbyshire in 1689 from a modest family and he died in London in 1761.He received a common first education and than he became an apprentice in a printing house.
It was a relevant place for him because not only he learnt a profession but he also married Marthe Wilde, who was his master’s daughter.
He lived fifty years without thinking about writing but, if his epistolary correspondence is analysed, it can be found out that some young women ask him to be the ghostwriter of some love letters.
In this way, he could practice the ability of emphasize with other’s feelings and the sensibility to regulate and express the intimacy.
That experience suggested him to start writing and publishing his works.
In 1740 he published the epistolary novel Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded.
In 1741 he published Familiar Letters on Important Occasions which is a manual of letterwriting.
Between 1747 and 1748 he published another epistolary novel Clarissa, or the History of a Young Lady.
Between 1753 and 1754 he published Sir Charles Grandison.
Domande da interrogazione
- What were the key characteristics of the early modern novel in the 18th century?
- What role did Samuel Richardson play in the evolution of the novel, and what was his writing style?
The early modern novel in the 18th century was associated with the emerging middle classes and focused on themes of social status, reward, and punishment, reflecting puritan morality. It aimed for realism with contemporary characters and settings, often following a chronological order.
Samuel Richardson was instrumental in the evolution of the novel with his epistolary style, as seen in works like "Pamela" and "Clarissa." His ability to empathize and express intimacy through letters was honed by ghostwriting love letters, which influenced his narrative technique.
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