‎English Novel in the 19th Century

The 19th century contains the most important authors, genres, and trends in the field of novel. The importance can be seen both in terms of literary canonicity and in terms of historical change. There are landmarks in the history of novel as a literary genre. The 196 century introduces development of the following genres: the Bildungsroman; the historical novel; the regional novel; the provincial novel; the gothic novel; the industrial novel; the sensation novel; the detective novel; the science fiction novel; the New Woman novel. Although all these types of novel have been definitely identified as discrete genres, either by nineteenth century readers or by recent literary criticism, yet these generic divisions are not fixed and there is an evident mutability in case of some works.

For instance, the most canonical of all Victorian novels -Eliot's Middlemarch- might be defined as a provincial novel, a historical novel, a double Bildungsroman, or (more generally) a classic work of realism. In contrast, clear generic categories can more easily be assigned to the less canonical novels which mark a historical breakthrough (for instance, the emergence of the regional novel with Edgeworth's Castle Rackrent.).

‎Major political and social changes at the end of the eighteenth century, particularly the French Revolution, prompted a new breed of writing known as Romanticism. William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge began the trend for bringing emotionalism and introspection to English literature, with a new concentration on the individual and the common man. Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice 1813, is often considered the epitome of the romance genre. She wrote highly polished novels about the life of the landed gentry, seen from a woman's point of view, and wryly focused on practical social issues, especially marriage and money. Walter Scott's novel-writing career was launched in 1814 with Waverley, often called the first historical novel, and was followed by Ivanhoe. Mary Shelley's best known novel Frankenstein 1818 is saturated with the elements of the Gothic novel and Romantic Movement. From the mid-1820s until the 1840s, fashionable novels depicting the lives of the upper class in an indiscreet manner, identifying the real people whom the characters were based, dominated the market. It was in the Victorian era (1837-1901) that the novel became the leading form of literature in English. Most writers were now more concerned to meet the tastes of a large middle-class reading public than to please aristocratic aris patrons. The 1830s saw a resurgence of the social novel, where sensationalized accounts and stories of the working class poor were directed toward middle class audiences to incite sympathy and action towards pushing for legal and moral change. Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South contrasts the lifestyle in the industrial north of England with the wealthier south. Charles Dickens emerged on the literary scene in the 1830s, confirming the trend for serial publication. Dickens wrote vividly about London life and struggles of the poor. Dickens early works are masterpieces of comedy, such as The Pickwick Papers. Later his works became darker, without losing his genius for caricature. The emotionally powerful works of the Bronte sisters: Charlotte's Jane Eyre, Emily's Wuthering Heights and Anne's Agnes Grey were released in 1847. William Makepeace Thackeray's satirized British society in Vanity Fair 1847, while Anthony Trollope's novels portrayed the lives of the landowning and professional classes of early Victorian England.

‎Literature for children was published during the Victorian period, some of which has become globally well-known, such as the works of Lewis Carroll, notably Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, while Anna Sewell wrote the classic animal novel Black Beauty. Wilkie Collins epistolary novel The Moonstone 1868 is generally considered the first detective novel in the English language. The Woman in White is regarded as one of the finest sensation novels. The novels of George Eliot, such as Middlemarch, were a milestone of literary realism, and combine high Victorian literary detail with an intellectual breadth that removes them from the narrow confines they often depict. Novels of Thomas Hardy and others, dealt with the changing social and economic situation of the countryside. An important forerunner of modernist literature, Joseph Conrad wrote the novel Heart of Darkness 1899, a symbolic story within a story or frame narrative about an Englishman Marlow's foreign assignment, that is widely regarded as a significant work of English literature and part of the Western canon.