The rise of

the novel
The novel

1. The rise of the novel

The Augustan Age saw a rise in the number of people reading because of

increasing the individual’s the practice of

significance faith in reason and self-
of the middle class his own abilities analysis

Most readers were They used to borrow books

middle-class women from circulating libraries
The novel

2. The novelist

• The spokesman of the middle class.

• The fathers of the English novel:

• Daniel Defoe  the realistic novel

• Samuel Richardson  the sentimental novel
• Henry Fielding  the mock-epic novel
• Jonathan Swift  the satirical novel
The novel

3. The novelist’s aim

• To be understood widely  He wrote clearly and concisely.

• Realism  not only related to the life that was depicted, but
also to how it was depicted.

• Speed and abundance  his most significant economic

strengths given that the bookstore, not the customer, was the
one to compensate him.
The novel

4. The characters
A bourgeois, self-made,
The Hero self-reliant man

The mouthpiece The reader is expected

of the author to sympathise with him

had contemporary struggled for

All the names and survival or social
characters surnames  success
Robinson Crusoe
The novel

5. The setting
• Chronological sequence of events

• References to particular times of the year or of the day

“I was born in the year 1632, in the city of York”

(Robinson Crusoe)

• Specific names of towns and streets

• Detailed descriptions of interiors  to make the narrative more realistic
The novel

6. The narrative technique

1ST-PERSON 3RD-PERSON PATTERN
NARRATOR NARRATOR

Daniel Defoe Fictional

Jonathan Swift autobiographies

Samuel Letters
Richardson exchanged
between the main
characters
Henry Fielding The mock-epic
style
The novel

7. Themes

1. Real life

2. Everything that could affect social status

3. The sense of reward and punishment  linked to the Puritan

ethics of the middle class