Hadfield, Andrew (2007) When was the first English novel and what does it tell us? Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century (10). pp. 23-34. ISSN 0435-2866

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Abstract

This article seeks to explore and challenge the common assumption that the novel is a peculiarly modern form and that its development in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries is central to the onset of modernity. The real story is undoubtedly more complex and more interesting. The novel does dominate modern literature but the particular form that it has assumed resulted from diverse and contingent factors. This suggests that there is nothing inevitable about the rise of the realist novel; other counterfactual literary histories could have happened and we should be wary of assuming that modern literature resulted from an inexorable process.

Item Type:	Article
Schools and Departments:	School of English > English
Depositing User:	Andrew Hadfield
Date Deposited:	06 Feb 2012 21:07
Last Modified:	17 Jul 2012 08:36
URI:	http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/29673

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