18th Century Novel

There are many candidates for the first English novel starting from Le Morte d’Arthur from 15th century to Gulliver’s Travels from the 18th century, however, Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe is widely accepted as the first English novel and thusly, in- 18th century occurred the rise of the novel in English. Among these candidates appears a common theme of travel and this theme has been kept using for a long while later than the first novels. Actually, travel accounts and writings were already common in other genres so it is not a surprise that it was applied to this newly emerging genre. ...

The 18th century of Britain had suffered from various issues. Most of these issues were results of the growth in population. The wealth wasn’t divided equally either, leading society to be divided into classes, which would be a fundamental issue for the next centuries.One of the most important issues of the period was crime, which took a highlighted role in the newly growing literature form: novel. The Industrial Revolution changed the life of each single person forever. While some have lost their jobs to their rivals, machines, some grow richer thanks to the same machines. Now some works could be done much faster and professionally. The Industrial Revolution would also create a mass production culture and eventually lead to consumerism in the upcoming centuries. ...

The novel in the 18th century was fledgeling and there was not an established style, however, most of the novels of the period featured satiric and realistic styles, realistic novels being the most prominent. I will examine early English novels in my article to show the prominence of realistic novels over satiric novels by exemplifying from the novels and comparing them to the period in which they were written. First of all, when I use the term realistic novel, I mean the novels that feature everyday characters with ordinary names in their casual routines and original plots unlike traditional ones as Watt’s Formal Realism suggests and most importantly, real settings with geographical and minute details, basing on real events that have happened or may happen in real life. By the term satirical novel, I mean the novels that aim to highlight the shortcomings of society or the political system through ridiculing, mimicking, mocking the acknowledged norms of society in order to change the corruption and establish a decorum. ...

There are many candidates for the first English novel starting from Le Morte d’Arthur from 15th century to Gulliver’s Travels from the 18th century, however, Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe is widely accepted as the first English novel and thusly, in- 18th century occurred the rise of the novel in English. Among these candidates appears a common theme of travel and this theme has been kept using for a long while later than the first novels. Actually, travel accounts and writings were already common in other genres so it is not a surprise that it was applied to this newly emerging genre. There are countless reasons behind its usage back then such as the advancements in science which led to the geographical discoveries and the discovery of the New World along with the renaissance movement throughout Europe which not only led scientific and literary innovations but also led politic and philosophic breakthroughs, through which people relocated heavens on earth and started to value themselves as individu- als who are able to think for themselves. All those changes led the common theme of travel writing because people constantly wanted to discover more and go beyond what has already been gone. Their enthusiasm led countless voyages towards the unknown and they always kept track on what they saw in the forms of travel reports. The first novels heavily relied on travel writing and even the first valid English novel “Robinson Crusoe” by Daniel Defoe was completely about a travel theme where the English colo- nialism was satirized and where the believability of the novel, which was back then an expected feature of a novel, could easily be implemented on the travel theme. ...