Title: History and the early English novel
First published: 1997
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.
Subjects: English Historical fiction, English fiction, Historical fiction, English, History, History and criticism, Influence, Knowledge, Literature and history, Defoe, daniel, 1661?-1731, Bacon, francis, 1561-1626, English fiction, history and criticism, 18th century, Historical fiction, history and criticism, English literature, history and criticism, Knowledge and learning
Places: Great Britain
People: Daniel Defoe (1661?-1731), Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
Time periods: 18th century
LC classification: PR858.H5 M39 1997