The English Realist Novel | Arnold Kettle (essay date 1951)
Arnold Kettle (essay date 1951)
SOURCE: "Realism and Romance," in his An Introduction to the English Novel, 2d ed., Vol. 1, Hutchinson University Library, 1967, pp. 25-38.
[In the following chapter from his history of the English novel, Kettle locates the origins of the novel in the traditions of the literary romance.]
The moment we found ourselves, a few pages back, asking, by implication, the question, 'Why were the first novels written?' we had to begin thinking in terms of history, and it is essential that we should not run away from history. The rise and development of the English novel, like any other phenomenon in literature, can only be understood as a part of history.
History is not just something in a book; history is men's actions. History is life going on, changing, developing. We, too, are characters in history. Men make history. Every action of every man, consciously or not, is directed, satisfactorily or not, towards...
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