History and the early English novel
Subtitle: matters of fact from Bacon to Defoe
By: Robert Mayer.
Series: Cambridge studies in eighteenth-century English literature and thought ;; 33
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 1997
Place of publication: Cambridge [England]; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 246
Subjects: Defoe, Daniel, 1661?-1731 -- Knowledge -- History.; Bacon, Francis, 1561-1626 -- Influence.; English fiction -- 18th century -- History and criticism.; Literature and history -- Great Britain -- History -- 18th century.; Historical fiction, English -- History and criticism.
Description: This new study of the origins of the English novel argues that the novel emerged from historical writing. Examining historical writers and forms frequently neglected by earlier scholars, Robert Mayer shows that in the seventeenth century historical discourse embraced not only "history" in its modern sense, but also fiction, polemic, gossip, and marvels. Mayer thus explains why Defoe's narratives were initially read as history.

It is the acceptance of the claims to historicity, the study argues, that differentiates Defoes fictions from those of writers like Thomas Deloney and Aphra Behn, important writers who nevertheless have figured less prominently than Defoe in discussions of the novel. Mayer ends by exploring the theoretical implications of the history-fiction connection.

His study makes an important contribution to the continuing debate about the emergence of what we now call the novel in Britain in the eighteenth century.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.