The Rise of the NovelPraise for the new (2001) edition: "Ian Watt's The Rise of the Novel still seems to me far and away the best book ever written on the early English novel—wise, humane, beautifully organized and expressed, one of the absolutely indispensable critical works in modern literary scholarship. And W. B. Carnochan's brilliant introduction does a wonderful job of showing how Watt's book came into being and changed for good the way the novel in general is taught and understood."—Max Byrd, author of Grant: A Novel "Ian Watt's The Rise of the Novel remains the single indispensable, absolutely essential book for students of the 18th-century novel."—John Richetti, author of The English Novel in History: 1700-1780 Praise for the original edition: "A remarkable book. . . . A pioneer work in the application of modern sociology to literature."—Manchester Guardian "An outstanding contribution to the field of historical sociology and the sociology of knowledge. . . . The author has set the 'rise of the novel' as a new literary genre in the social context of eighteenth-century England, with emphasis on the predominant middle-class features of the period."—American Journal of Sociology |
Contents
Realism and the novel form | 11 |
The reading public and the rise of the novel | 37 |
Robinson Crusoe individualism and the novel | 62 |
Defoe as novelist Moll Flanders | 95 |
Love and the novel Pamela | 137 |
Private experience and the novel | 176 |
Richardson as novelist Clarissa | 210 |
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Common terms and phrases
achieve action actual attitude booksellers certainly characters Clarissa comic conscious contemporary course courtly love critical Crusoe's Defoe and Richardson Defoe's Defoe's novels doubt E. M. Forster economic individualism eighteenth century England epic episode Essay example expression fact Fanny Burney feelings feminine fiction Fielding's formal realism genre Grandison hero heroine Homer human important irony Jane Austen Jones Joseph Andrews kind labour Lady later least letters literary form literature London Lovelace Lovelace's marriage McKillop ment modern Moll Flanders Moll's moral narrative nature novelists outlook Pamela perhaps personal relationships philosophical realism plot polygamy present problem prose psychological Puritan readers reading public reality reflected religious Richardson and Fielding rise Robinson Crusoe role romance romantic love Samuel Richardson scene sense sexual social society Sophia story suggests surely tended tendency thought tion Tom Jones tradition Tristram Shandy Watt Watt's wholly women writing