Eighteenth century novel.

the author of writer : Mr. salah

The 18th century in Europe was the age of enlightenment and literature explored themes of social upheaval reversals of personal status political satire geographical exploration and the comparison between the supposed natural state of man and the supposed civilized state of man Edmund burke in his A vindication of natural society (1757) says the fabric of superstition has in this our age and nation received much ruder shocks than it had ever felt before and through the age of enlightenment or age of reason exhibited a rational and scientific approach to religious social political and economic issues that promoted a secular view of the world and a general philosophers who were inspired by the discoveries of the previous century and the writings of Descartes lake and bacon. They sought and discover and to act upon universally valid principles governing humanity nature and society. They variously attached spiritual and scientific authority dogmatism intolerance censorship and economic and social restraints. They

Considered the state the proper and rational instrument of progress. The extreme rationalism and skepticism of the age led naturally to deism the same qualities played a part in bringing the later reaction of romanticism.

The idea we have of the novel comes from the 18th century before that time there were plenty of forms of prose fiction that did not present a picture of real life. It was more than a century later that real life become the dominant topic of the novel helped by the rise of philosophical rationalism the expansion of the reading public and the influence of books such as Don Quixote which was one of the books that provided a model for 18th century writers. The pioneer of the English novel is generally considered to be Daniel Defoe. His three great novel Robinson Crusoe moll Flanders Rosanna were all published before 1730. Along with Defoe other pioneers of the novel were Samuel Richardson and henry fielding. The early years of the development of the novel can be described as a period of formal experimentation. There was no dominant form writes were still influenced by the improbable tales of the past. The works of all these authors are very different from each other in term of both form and form and provided models for the novelists who followed.

The 18th century saw the development of the modern novel as literary genre in fact many candidates for the first novel in English date from this period of which Daniel Defoe 1719 Robinson Crusoe is probably the best known. Subgenres of the novel during the 18th century were the epistolary novel the sentimental novel histories the gothic novel and the libertine novel. In the 18th century the genre of novel superseded the romances chants and the epic stories of the 17th century by replacing the themes from historical realistic fiction historical non fiction and chivalry romances with more fictional story lines that had not been seen before in English literacy. Precious to Robinson Crusoe which two more novels had been published but it was Robinson Crusoe which obtained the attention and the importance that would be characteristic of the modernistic novel one that comes with a fictional thematic narrative detached from historical non fiction and categorized by ease of use.

DEBATE

The growth of the English novel

Before the eighteenth century prose fiction was a relatively

Rare phenomenon and aroused controversy about narrative fabrication a largely religious concern quite foreign to readers today. Nonetheless seventeenth and early eighteenth century readers of for example travel narratives were apt to criticize authors for making up tales rather than recording actual experiences. Consequently author of the same period typically presented their writings as manuscripts they had found and edited for public consumption.

In this way realism in the novel was synonymous with veracity it denied altogether its functionality and in prefaces and other narrative devices asserted its reality to the reader.