Chapter - 1

Literary Terms

Question- Discuss in detail the development of English novel from the eighteenth century to the Modern Age.

Answer-

The development of the English novel begun in the second quarter of the eighteenth century immediately after the appearance of Defoe's works. Swift was another gifted prose writer of this period. His Gulliver's Travels' is a memorable work, just as Robinson Crusoe' is the great work of Defoe. Richardson, Fielding, Smollette and sterne are called the four wheels of the English novel. Of these Richardson was the oldest, but Fielding was the greatest novelist of his age. Richardson's 'Pamela' is first English, novel on record. 'Clarissa' is his next novel. It is the longest. Fielding's contribution to the development of the English novel is much greater than that of Richardson. Joseph Andrews' was Fielding's first novel. Tom Jones' is his most famous novel. It is a picaresque novel. 'Amelia' was his last novel. Smollett added satiric caricature to the novel of sensibility of Richardson and to the novel of character and humour of Fielding. Smollett's important works are Roderick Random' and Humphry Clinker'. Sterne is chiefly known for his Tristan Shandy'. It appeared in nine volumes. Oliver Goldsmith, Henry Meckenzie, William Godwin and Frances Burney are other novelists of this period.

A special features in the realm of fiction was the appearance of the Gothic Romances, the terror novel, as it was called. Horace Walpole, Clara Reeve, Ann Radcliffe, Mathew Gregory Lewis are the notable names. Horace Walpole's 'Castle of Otranto' is a very famous Gothic Romance. Reeve's "The Mysteries of Udolpho' is another famous novel in this genre. "The Bride of the Lommermoor' is the most famous novel written by Walter Scott who belonged to the younger group of the Romantic poets was essentially known for the 'Waverley Novels' which he wrote during the eighteen years of extraordinary creative activity. He wrote twenty seven novels and five tales. Jane Austen wrote social domestic novels. Her Pride and Prejudice and 'Emma' are great novels. She wrote six novels. Maria Edgeworth wrote three Irish novels and tales.

The Victorian novel absorbed into itself a very large part of the creative every of the time. It became a vehicle of ideas as well as a means of amusement. It reflected all the forces which were shaping the complex modern world. The Victorian novelists are divided into two groups the early Victorians and the later VictoriAnswer- Dickens was the greatest among the early Victorians, Hardy was the greatest among the later Victorians, Thackeray, George Eliot, Charlotte Bronte, Anne Bronte, Emily Bronte, Mrs. Gaskell, Charles Reade, Charles Kingsley, were other early Victorian novelists. Dickens belonged to the Humanitarian Movement. Thackeray was a satirist and realist. Vanity Fair' and 'Henry Esmond' are his great novels. Emily Bronte's 'Wuthering Heights' is her most famous novel. George Eliot wrote philosophical novels. Bulwer Lytton was a novelist of domestic life. Marryat wrote sea novels. George Meredith, R.L. Stevenson, W.W. Collins were other novelists. Hardy was the greatest among the later Victorians and he is chiefly known for his wessex novels.

The First World War brought about a great change in human thought and behaviour. Marry old institutions were destroyed. People were disillusioned. This affected fiction as the old ideas were destroyed and new ideas were still to take shape in the proper manner. A sort of anarchic individualism developed. This encouraged a cynical attitude to life. This disillusionment with civilization itself led to a sort of revolt against reason. Henry James, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, and Dorothy Richardson were the innovaters of new style. They revolutionized the technique of the novel. They wrote novels on the 'Stream of Consciousness' technique. The 'Stream of Consciousness novel was also called Psychological Novel. It is a withdrawl from external phenomena into the flickering half shades of the author's private world. It is preoccupied with time, subjectivity, inwardness, absence of action, plot and catastrophe. Under the 'Stream of Consciousness' technique, the 'Concept of Reality' is changed. The Reality' lies not in the outer actions, but in the inner working of the human mind, in the inner perceptions. There is decay of plot, decay of character, in this sort of Novel.

D.H. Lawrence led the revolt against reason and violently asserted the rights of the individual. Lawrence was no experimenter in technique as the innovaters were. To him novel is pure passionate experience. He is always concerned with human relationship. His novels reveal his theory of sex, love and life. But his novels were banned on the charges of obscenity and pornography. Aldous Huxley and Somerset Mangham wrote satirical novels. Huxley's 'Brave New World' and Mangham's 'Of Human Bondage' are famous novels. There are a number of women novelists who are writing splendid novels as Jeanette Winterson, Jennifer Belle, Jeffrey Archer and Susannah Jowitt. In fact, twentieth was the century of novel. Even today novel is the most popular branch of Literature.

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