Letteratura inglese - Corso monografico The rise of the novel and Campus Novels.

The rise of the novel

Defoe, Richardson and Fielding

They’re all English, they use English as their first language. They belong to the same time, the first half of the XVIII century. According to critics, something unusual happened in the first years of the XVIII century: a new literary genre was born.

Y. Watt: The Rise of the Novel. The rise of the novel spread in the middle-class. Only English call the ‘romanzo’, ‘romance’… ‘novel’. They called it this way because it was something new, to underline it.

“La nascita della tragedia”, Nietzsche: he tries to define the birth of the tragedy. What is a novel? In our time, the novel is the usual way of writing. Nowadays, prose is the commonest way of writing and reading. Before the XVIII century, they used the term ‘romance’. For some years, the two terms went together. ‘Romance’ is linked to fantasy (Harry Potter should be called romance) and ‘novel’ to realistic stories. Then the term ‘novel’ became the most common.

Features of the novel

• Novels are written in prose. Up to the XVIII century, great writers used to write in prose. Poetry was considered more popular and used for everyday purposes.
• Novels have a plot (the way in which the events of the story are arranged).
• Novels have characters.

Definition of ‘novel’ from the Oxford English Dictionary: “A fictitious prose narrative or tale of considerable length (now usually one long enough to fill one or more volumes), in which characters and actions representative of the real life of past or present are portrayed in a plot of more or less complexity.”

• Fictitious: to invent.
• Prose narrative: story.
• Considerable length: a story has to be long; otherwise, it is not a novel, but for example a ‘short story’, a ‘novella’…
• Characters are fictitious, but may be taken from real life. Two ways: they can represent real historical people or, most of the times, they are not biographical real, they just look like real people (realistic).
• Action may be more or less complex. In some novels, action is predominant. Novels may be more or less eventful.
• Real life. ‘Real’ is the central term, the central concept. A novel is different from previous fiction because it is realistic: it is real or looks like real. Characters are not so distant from average people, whereas ancient heroes aren’t real; they are very distant from the average man or woman.
• Realism. Different concepts of realism.
• Past or present times. The story can be set either in the present or in the past. Historical novel (past). The future is obvious for us, but not for the OED, because it was written long ago, when science fiction was considered secondary literature (Brave New World, 1984).

Notable authors and works

Daniel Defoe (1660-1731). He was born before the Glorious Revolution, the revolution of that middle-class that gave birth to the novel.

Samuel Richardson (1689-1761). Henry Fielding (1707-1754). He was the only gentleman of the group, the other two were middle-class people.

Brendan Kennelly (b. 1936). Irish writer. The Florentines. Novel set in a college. David Lodge (b. 1935). Changing Places. English teacher and well-known critic. The story is about two English teachers, one from England, the other from California, that switch their places.

Four notable novels

Four novels. Two men and two women. The title was usually given to men, not to women. This is an exception. The title stresses proper names.

When we say ‘Robinson Crusoe’, we think of one single person, not of a general type (Hobbes, Leviathan: “Proper names bring to mind one thing only: universals recall any of many”). An anonymous contemporary critic pointed out that Fielding called his characters “not with fantastic high-sounding Names, but such as, tho’ they sometimes had some reference to the Character, had a more modern termination”. He uses very good English names. The names of heroes and heroines of antiquity were not proper names. Thenovelists feel the necessity to call his heroes with real good English names. In Shakespeare’s time, characters of fiction might have names like Euphues, which means a well-born gentleman from ancient Greek. Fielding was a novelist, but also a journalist. He wrote for ‘The Rambler’ (=il girovago), a magazine of his time. It had a list of subscribers and the names in his novels are identical to the names in this list.

Famous incipits

Incipit: beginning. How it begins.

Iliade

“Cantami, o Diva, del Pelìde Achille l'ira funesta che infiniti addusse lutti agli Achei, molte anzi tempo all'Orco generose travolse alme d'eroi, e di cani e d'augelli orrido pasto lor salme abbandonò (così di Giove l'alto consiglio s'adempìa), da quando primamente disgiunse aspra contesa il re de' prodi Atride e il divo Achille.” First character: Pelide Achille, one of the most famous heroes of antiquity. ‘Orco’ is one of the classical worlds for hell or never world. There is the reference to Jupiter and to another great hero, Agamemnon, the chief of the Greek forces in Troy. We don’t know when the story is played, there is no time indication. The poet is referring the listener to a war which is already well known. Those who heard the story already knew the story.

Odyssey

“Parlami o Musa dell’uomo versatile e scaltro che andò vagando tanto a lungo, dopo che ebbe distrutto la sacra roccaforte di Troia. Egli vide le città di molti uomini e ne conobbe i costumi: soffrì molte traversie in mare cercando di salvare la sua vita il ritorno dei compagni. Ma neppure così i compagni li salvò, sebbene lo desiderasse e volesse. Morirono per le loro colpe e follie, quegli insensati: ché mangiavano i buoi del Sole Iperione. E il dio gli tolse il ritorno. Tali vicende dille anche a noi, o dea figlia di Zeus, partendo da un punto qualunque della narrazione.” “Egli vide le città di molti uomini e ne conobbe i costumi.” Sentence very similar to the title page of Tom Jones. The versatile man is obviously Ulysses, who is so well known that the poet doesn’t need to mention him at all. Stories were well known. This was up to Shakespeare’s time. Destruction of Troy’s walls and city. Ritorno: Itaca, in Greece. Two Gods: God and Hyperion (sun god). We don’t know where and when the story takes place.

Orlando Furioso

“Le donne, i cavallier, l'arme, gli amori, le cortesie, l'audaci imprese io canto, che furo al tempo che passaro i Mori d'Africa il mare, e in Francia nocquer tanto, seguendo l'ire e i giovenil furori d'Agramante lor re, che si diè vanto di vendicar la morte di Troiano sopra re Carlo imperator romano. Dirò d'Orlando in un medesmo tratto cosa non detta in prosa mai, né in rima: che per amor venne in furore e matto, d'uom che sì saggio era stimato prima; se da colei che tal quasi m'ha fatto, che 'l poco ingegno ad or ad or mi lima, me ne sarà però tanto concesso, che mi basti a finir quanto ho promesso. Piacciavi, generosa Erculea prole, ornamento e splendor del secol nostro, Ippolito, aggradir questo che vuole e darvi sol può l'umil servo vostro. Quel ch'io vi debbo, posso di parole pagare in parte e d'opera d'inchiostro; né che poco io vi dia da imputar sono, che quanto io posso dar, tutto vi dono.” Captatio benevolentiae. Little wit. He promised to someone to sing about the knight who fought in France against the Chiasm: love (donne), arms (cavalieri), arms (cavalieri), love (amori). Legendary and famous characters.

Canterbury Tales

“WHAN that Aprille with his shoures soote The droghte of Marche hath perced to the roote, And bathed every veyne in swich licour, Of which vertu engendred is the flour; Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth Inspired hath in every holt and heeth The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne Hath in the Ram his halfe cours y-ronne, And smale fowles maken melodye, That slepen al the night with open ye, (So priketh hem nature in hir corages: Than longen folk to goon on pilgrimages, And palmers for to seken straunge strondes, To ferne halwes, couthe in sondry londes; And specially, from every shires ende Of Engelond, to Caunterbury they wende, The holy blisful martir for to seke, That hem hath holpen, whan that they were seke.” It is April, it is spring time. Chaucer wanted to set the story in spring. They went to give homage to a saint.

Paradise Lost

“Of Mans First Disobedience, and the Fruit Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal tast Brought Death into the World, and all our woe, With loss of EDEN, till one greater Man Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat, Sing Heav'nly Muse, that on the secret top Of OREB, or of SINAI, didst inspire That Shepherd, who first taught the chosen Seed, In the Beginning how the Heav'ns and Earth Rose out of CHAOS: Or if SION Hill Delight thee more, and SILOA'S Brook that flow'd Fast by the Oracle of God; I thence Invoke thy aid to my adventrous Song, That with no middle flight intends to soar Above th' AONIAN Mount, while it pursues Things unattempted yet in Prose or Rhime.” 1660. A few years before Daniel Defoe was born. Milton says he is trying to do something never done before: the Christian epic, the story of the fall of men. Everybody knows the story of Adam and Eve chased from the Paradise. The new thing is the way. The characters come from the Bible, they are not real, Mr. Jones or Mrs. Smith. Time and space are not specified. The Garden of Eden is an unusual place.

Great poems and novels

All these are great poems. Robinson Crusoe – Daniel Defoe 1719. Frontispiece. Has more information than today. “Written by himself”: it is not true, it is fictitious, even if Defoe had a very adventurous life. Obviously, it was written here because it was very important. The public would have been drawn by the idea of an autobiography. It is fairly new. The great works were not autobiographical, they were not in the first person.

The book is going to be about the life of Robinson Crusoe, a mariner. We know, for instance, that he was a mariner, had a shipwreck, and lived twenty-eight years on an unexplored exotic South American island. All other mariners died drowning. It is a very exotic story. We can also read about pirates, which were a good topic for a story. Defoe knew it very well; he was also the author of another story about buccaneers. He was a very prolific writer.

These title pages were put up out of the bookshops in London. If you passed by seeing them and reading the frontispiece, you would have bought the book. You could also read about the book in the newspaper. The frontispiece is made like this because it was going to be a commercial story. For the first time in history, novels became a commercial product. Life is the biggest word on the page, because it is the most important. It becomes important also in narrative terms, because he is not a hero; he is a simple man from York. There is nothing special about it, except that this is his life.

Preface

It was a standard choice for writers in the 19th century, but it was written also by writers in the 18th century. They declared their purpose. It is the story of a private man’s adventures which are going to be public. Defoe presents himself as the editor of a story. I’m just the editor of the story, I found it. Typical (I Promessi Sposi, Moll Flanders). Disclaiming paternity makes the story more realistic. I found the story so you can believe it is an autobiography made of true facts.

“The story is told…” He wants to be a moral and serious writer. He wants to entertain us but he does it through teaching (docere et delectare). He still has to conform, to accept rules, he has to be moral. Importance of the religious application and of the Providence (not the Manzonian Providence, but very similar to it). “The editor.” He states again that he is the editor. This is not fiction, he wants to disclaim the fiction of the work. He works on facts. Probably people knew it was not a real story. Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish mariner, lived four years and a few months on a deserted island. When he was discovered and brought back to England, he really made the news and also Defoe interviewed him to write about him in his newspaper. He was real, so he was not all fiction. Viz.: that is.

Incipit

Robinson Crusoe is supposed to be the very first novel in history. The very first word is “I”. Also, the second paragraph begins with “I”, the third with an implicit “I” (“Being”: I was) and the fourth with “My”. It was not usual and became usual just after Robinson Crusoe. It was very strange at that time. There is officially not “I” in literature before the novel.

From the first paragraph, we know who the character is: name, date and place of birth, family background, occupation (sailor). We have a sort of ID. The family background makes things more credible. Being the son of an English mother and a German father doesn’t matter, but the details and the migration story give the impression of reality. Also having the surname of the mother as a name was very common in the North of England at that time, it is very real. Information about the family is not important for the story, but it gives again the idea of reality.

The use of proper names is very important, but also the specification of time shouldn’t be underestimated. “I was born in the year 1632.” Time setting is new. It corresponds to a new concept of time, which has a lot to do with the modern philosophy of Locke and Hume. The main idea was that time was a shaping force in men’s history. In the past, time it was an abstract form identified with death. Time was a winged creature or moved on a winged chariot. Usually, time was another word for death or old age. Memento mori, like dance in the dance macabre: time was represented as a skeleton covered with a long cloth and with a … in the hand. In the XVII and XVIII century empiricism changed the idea of time. With the new technologies, time became something different, it could be measured out quite precisely. With the evolution of clocks, time could be measured out, in a way conquered. We are changed by time. The idea that personality changes during the years is related to the idea of time.

John Locke, An Essay on Concerning Human Understanding (1690). He defines personal identity as an identity of consciousness through duration in time.

David Hume, Treatise of Human Nature (1739): “Had we no memory, we never should have any notion of causation, nor consequently of that chain of causes and effects, which constitute our self or person”.

Locke (1690) and Hume (1739) influenced the public (and Defoe) with their theories. This is fully reflected, for the first time in history, by the novel. What was true of time was also true for space. In the past, it wasn’t specified, also in Shakespeare. The difference between Defoe and the past is the idea of space and time. Up to Shakespeare, it wasn’t important to be precise about time and place. Geography was important only if you were a sailor or so.

There’s no work for him. He wants to travel around the world, but his father wants him to be a lawyer. However, he wants to go to sea and he is very stubborn about it. Already in the third paragraph, we have a clear idea of how the story will go. There is a contrast with the father since the beginning. Everyone wants Robinson to be a lawyer and to stay at home (father, mother, friends), but in his destiny, there was the sea.

There is an anticipation of the novel since the beginning. Robinson says that what he did was wrong: he went against his father, he didn’t listen to the other people and God punished him. Here he doesn’t mention God yet and just talks about destiny (“fatal”).

Both Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders in the end achieve financial success and become rich, even though they continue saying that they repent their life of disobedience and crime. The question is open: do they really repent it or they are happy with the success and money they achieved? Both novels are adventure stories turning around money.

Frontispiece of Moll Flanders – Daniel Defoe

1721. In fact, it was 1722, but for publisher’s reasons, they wrote 1721. The summary is much clearer than the one of Robinson Crusoe. Moll Flanders was modeled on a famous thief in Defoe’s London: Molly Cutpurse. Again she made the news and again Defoe interviewed her when she was in prison. Defoe was a journalist and interviewed someone who was famous at the time and after a few years wrote a novel about this figure. That’s why Moll Flanders is defined “famous”.

Newgate was a famous jailhouse. We are going to follow sixty years of her life. Besides her childhood, he was twelve years a prostitute, five times a wife (once also of her brother: theme of the incest), twelve years a thief, eight years a transported felon (criminal) in Virginia, she became rich and died as a penitent. At that time, criminals were transported to America, where they were indentured (contract by which you were bound to a piece of land, obliged to work for the owner for seven or fourteen years, so you were a slave). In the colonies, there was also white slavery. Did she really die penitent or not?

Robinson Crusoe is a modern myth. It is the story of a shipwreck. He reaches an unnamed island. He leaves England (York), he gets to the island, then he gets back to England and goes to Portugal, Brazil... The island is the core of the story, but what comes before and after...