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Introduction

Miguel Cervantes

Herman Melville

A novel is a long prose (as opposed to verse) narrative, and it was once quite a controversial innovation in the world of literature. Before the novel came into being as a literary genre, the most common types of literature were poetry, often revolving around epic heroes, and plays that presented histories, tragedies, and comedies. Often acknowledged as the first novelist, Miguel Cervantes penned the first part of Don Quixote in 1604, but it took quite a while for the novel as a form to catch on. By 1750, Samuel Richardson still had to introduce his novel Pamela with a long explanation of its form and purpose. Today, the novel as a literary genre is so accepted and prevalent that it has become synonymous with the term “fiction.”

Essential Facts

1. The novel gained in popularity as literacy increased and the middle class expanded. Reading for pleasure, rather than for instruction or religious purposes, became a favorite pastime.
2. Daniel Defoe (Robinson Crusoe) is often cited as the founder of the modern English novel. Defoe established principles for the genre that are still followed today. Those rules include a dominant, unifying theme, a strong thesis, and an attempt to depict reality.
3. Henry Fielding (Tom Jones) was the first writer to call himself a novelist. Though many of his contemporaries considered the form “lowbrow” writing and shied away from the title of novelist, Fielding embraced it.
4. Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice) is often characterized as the greatest novelist of manners. Her books deal exclusively with the minutiae of upper-class society and landed gentry.
5. According to the Modern Library, the three best novels of all time are (1) Ulysses by James Joyce, (2) The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and (3) Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce.