Origins and Development of the Novel, 1740-1890

Browse all of the Salem on Literature series

Origins and Development of the Novel, 1740-1890 (Critical Survey of Long Fiction)

Early History

No primary genre of literature has been so often defined and redefined as the novel, and still, no consensus has been reached. Several scholars have suggested that the only valid definition of the novel is the history of the genre itself. The origins of the modern novel, however—the novel as it appears in bookstores today, encompassing both serious fiction and best-sellers—are more easily traced. The modern novel in the eighteenth century and its rise in the nineteenth coincided with the rise of the middle class. In consequence, as Ian Watt observes in The...

[The entire page is 13383 words long]

Join eNotes

The above is a free excerpt. Get total access to this content with the:

Lookup any word on eNotes with our dictionary. Highlight the word and press SHIFT + D for a definition, or SHIFT + T for a synonym.