Origin and meaning of the word

 The word novel is considered to have been derived from the

Italian word novella (“a little new thing, tale, or short story)
 It was Boccaccio who first used the term novella storia (short
tale in prose)
 Boccaccio published his collection of ten short stories titled
Decameron in 14th century.
 However, the meaning of the word novel meant the kind of
short stories written and collected by Boccaccio until the 17th
century.
 The Precursors of the Novel

 Though English novel as a literary genre gained popularity in the

18th century, its beginning can be traced back to (612 BC) when
world‟s oldest literature Epic of Gilgamesh was written.
 Homer was the first notable poet who wrote the famous Greek
epics, The Iliad and The Odyssey.
 After the epics came a new form of literature called the
romances originating in France in the 12th century.
 It was also popularly known as chivalric romance or medieval
romance (having flourished in the medieval age)
 The Precursors of the Novel

 Even though traditional epics are written in

verse, they clearly distinguish themselves from
other forms of poetry by length, narrative
structure, depiction of characters, and plot
patterns.
 therefore both epic and romance are regarded
as precursors of the modern novel.
 Novel
• The novel emerged in Spain during the
seventeenth century and in England during the
eighteenth century. Miguel de Cervantes‟ (1547–
1616) Don Quixote (1605; 1615). Robinson
Crusoe – Daniel Defoe (1719), Pamela – Samuel
Richardson (1740)
• The novel originated in the early 18th century
after the Italian word “novella,” which was used
for stories in the medieval period.
 RISE OF NOVEL IN THE 18TH CENTURY:

 Factors that influenced the rise of the novel:

 The Industrial Revolution
 The rise of an educated middle class,
 the invention of the printing press,
 Decline of Romance and drama
 Also a modified economic basis which allowed
authors to pursue writing as an independent
profession
 Industrial Revolution
 With machinery work could be done faster and people could get
more time for rest and leisure time during which people resorted
to reading novels.
 Printing press were available for production of multiple copies at
cheaper rate.
 Even low income people could afford to buy and read books
unlike in the past when only aristocrats were the reading public
 Besides variety of reading materials such as newspapers, novels
and magazines were made easily available due to printing press.
 The newspapers and magazines helped develop the habit of reading
which ultimately led people to start reading novels.
 Decline of Romance
 Romances were mainly suitable to be read by elite, aristocratic or
noble families, it could not sustain the readership.
 The common people got bored with romances for they had no
relevance of any sort to them.
 In addition, the stories themselves being centuries old were no
longer of interest to the people.
 The settings in which the stories in the romances took place were
also unrealistic.
 People started to take interest in the contemporary issues.
 Unlike romances, the novels were written in first person (making it
appear „more personal and recent‟) with ordinary characters that the
readers could relate with.
 Decline of Drama

 Decline of drama was also one factor that

promoted the rise of the novel.
 In the 17th century, during the rule of Cromwell,
theatres (which were so popular during the
Elizabethan times) were banned
 Moreover, novel could reach vast audience when
theatre could reach only to a limited audience.
 When drama came back with the restoration age,
it could not establish its essence since novels got
well established then.
 Rise of the middle class
 One outcome of industrial revolution was the rise of an
educated middle class
 The people were increasingly becoming wealthy with
even poor people of lower class being able to raise their
status.
 Therefore, the additional newly attained middle class
status, this group of people started behaving like the
traditional landed gentry demanding books to read.
 with improved living standard many (both men and
women) could acquire education and be able to read.
 Rise of the middle class
 Women readers increased with greater leisure time
with the rise of middle class and it was a fashion for
high status women to remain engaged in reading
literature.
 Further the new group of middle class people did not
like the traditional medieval stories of the knights.
 Thus the novelist wrote about common people
revealing the “the psyche of the middle class” in their
novels.
 Epistolary Novel

 A novel told through the medium of letters written by one or

more of the characters.
 Originating with Samuel Richardson‟s Pamela; or, Virtue
Rewarded (1740).
 The word epistolary comes from Latin where „epistola‟ means a
letter.
 Letters are the most common basis for epistolary novels but
diary entries are also popular
 Examples: Samuel Richardson‟s Pamela and Clarissa, Bram
Stoker‟s Dracula, Alice Walker‟s The Color Purple and Bridget
Jones‟ Diary.
 Bildungsroman

 This fictional autobiography concerned with the

development of the protagonist‟s mind, spirit, and characters
from childhood to adulthood.
 It describes the development of a protagonist from
childhood to maturity.
 German terms that indicates a growth.
 Examples: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, David
Copperfield by Charles Dickens, The Magic Mountain by
Thomas Mann etc.
 Gothic Novel
 It is mostly known by Gothic horror, is a genre or mode of
literature and film that combines fiction and horror, death, and at
times romance

 Gothic novel includes terror, mystery, horror, thriller,

supernatural, death, decay, old haunted buildings with ghosts and
so on.

 Examples: Mary Shelley‟s Frankenstein, John William Polidori‟s

The Vampyre, Bram Stoker‟s Dracula, The Castle of Otranto by
Horace Walpole
 Autobiographical novel

 An autobiographical novel is a novel based on the life of

the author.

 Examples: Charles Dickens‟ David Coppefield, Great

Expectations, D. H. Lawrence‟s Sons and Lovers, Sylvia

Plath‟s The Bell Jar, Ralph Ellison „s Invisible Man, Maya

Angelou‟ s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings , Virginia

Wolfe‟s The Light House etc.

 Utopian Novel
 Utopian : science fiction novels create alternative worlds as a
means of criticizing real sociopolitical condition.

 A utopia is a community or society possessing highly

desirable or perfect qualities.

 It is a common literary theme, especially in speculative

fiction and science fiction.
 Examples: Utopia by Thomas Moore, Laws (360 BC) by
Plato, New Atlantis (1627) by Sir Francis Bacon, Robinson
Crusoe (1719) by Daniel Defoe, Gulliver’s Travels (1726) by
Jonathan Swift.
 Science Fiction
 Science fiction is a genre of speculative fiction dealing
with imaginative concepts such as futuristic settings,
futuristic science and technology, space travel, time
travel, faster than light travel, parallel universes and
extraterrestrial life.
 Science fiction often explores the potential
consequences of scientific and other innovations.
 Examples: The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells, The
Time Machine.
 Historical : the action the story take place within a
realistic historical context.
 Examples: Thackeray‟s Vanity Fair, Charles
Dickens‟s A Tale of Two Cities
 Satirical : highlights weaknesses of society through
exaggeration of social conventions.
 Examples: George Orwell‟s Animal Farm, Jonathan
Swift‟s Gulliver’s Travel, Joseph Heller‟s Catch 22,
Mark Twin‟s The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn
 A Picaresque Novel
 A picaresque novel relates the adventures of an
eccentric or disreputable hero in episodic form.
 The picaresque novel is a popular style of novel that
originated in Spain and flourished in Europe in the 17th
and 18th centuries and has continued to influence
modern literature.
 The term denotes a subgenre of usually satiric prose
fiction and depicts in realistic, often humorous detail
the adventures of a roguish hero of low social degree
living by his or her wits in a corrupt society.

 Example : Lazarillo de Tormes

 Novel of Manners
 The novel of manners is a literary genre that deals with aspects of
behavior, language, customs and values characteristic of a
particular class of people in a specific historical context.
 The novel of manners often shows a conflict between individual
aspirations or desires and the accepted social codes of behaviour
 Jane Austen‟s wrote Pride and Prejudice , Sense and sensibility
Mansfield Park, Persuasion.
 Vanity Fair: A Novel Without a Hero by William Makepeace
Thackeray
 North and South and Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell
 The House of Mirth and The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton