The Cambridge introduction to the eighteenth-century novel
By: April London
Series: Cambridge introductions to
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Cambridge; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 260
ISBN-13: 9780521895354; 9780521719674
Subjects: History and criticism; LITERARY CRITICISM / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh; English fiction
Description: "In the eighteenth century, the novel became established as a popular literary form all over Europe. Britain proved an especially fertile ground, with Defoe, Fielding, Richardson and Burney as early exponents of the novel form. The Cambridge Introduction to the Eighteenth-Century Novel considers the development of the genre in its formative period in Britain. Rather than present its history as a linear progression, April London gives an original new structure to the field, organizing it through three broad thematic clusters - identity, community and history. Within each of these themes, she explores the central tensions of eighteenth-century fiction: between secrecy and communicativeness, independence and compliance, solitude and family, cosmopolitanism and nation-building. The reader will gain a thorough understanding of both prominent and lesser-known novels and novelists, key social and literary contexts, the tremendous formal variety of the early novel and its growth from a marginal to a culturally central genre"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note: Introduction; Part I. Secrets and Singularity: 1. Daniel Defoe and the power of singularity; 2. The virtue of singularity; 3. The punishment of singularity; Part II. Sociability and Community: 4. The reformation of family; 5. Alternative communities; 6. The sociability of books; Part III. History and Nation: 7. History, novel, and polemic; 8. Historical fiction and generational distance.