Early novels in English
a number of works of literature have each been claimed as the first novel
in English.
The Romantic period saw the first flowering of the English novel. The
Romantic and the Gothic novel are closely related; both imagined
almost-supernatural forces operating in nature or directing human fate. Just as
William Wordsworth and other poets were integral to the growth of English
Romanticism, so Mary Shelley, and Ann Radcliffe were key to the sudden
popularity of the Gothic novel.
Horace Walpole's 1764 novel, The Castle of Otranto, invented the
Gothic fiction genre, combining elements of horror
and romance. The pioneering Gothic novelist Ann
Radcliffe introduced the brooding figure of the Gothic villain which developed
into the Byronic hero. Her most popular and influential work, The Mysteries
of Udolpho (1794), is frequently cited as the archetypal Gothic novel. Vathek (1786),
by William Beckford, and The Monk (1796), by Matthew Lewis, were further
notable early works in both the Gothic and horror literary genres.
Mary Shelley is best known for her novel Frankenstein (1818),
infusing elements of the Gothic novel and Romantic movement. Frankenstein's
chilling tale suggests modern organ transplants and tissue regeneration,
reminding readers of the moral issues raised by today's medicine.
For many years, novels were considered light reading for young, single
women. Novels written for this audience were often heavily didactic and, like
earlier English literature, attempted to provide examples of correct conduct.
The English novel developed during the 18th century, partly in response to
an expansion of the middle-class reading public. One of the major early works
in this genre was the seminal castaway novel Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel
Defoe. The 18th century novel tended to be loosely structured and semi-comic.
Henry Fielding's Tom Jones is considered a comic masterpiece. Samuel
Richardson is known for his three epistolary novels: Pamela: Or, Virtue
Rewarded (1740), Clarissa: Or the History of a Young Lady (1748),
and The History of Sir Charles Grandison (1753). Novelists from the mid
to late 18th century include Laurence Sterne, Samuel Johnson, and Tobias Smollett,
who influenced Charles Dickens.
Jane Austen wrote highly polished novels about the life of the landed
gentry, seen from a woman's point of view, and wryly focused on practical
social issues, especially marriage and money. Austen's Pride and Prejudice
(1813) is often considered the epitome of the romance genre, and some of her
other works include; Sense and Sensibility, Mansfield Park
Sir Walter Scott popularized the historical novel with his series of
"Waverley Novels", including The Antiquary, Ivanhoe,
and The Heart of Midlothian.
John William Polidori wrote "The Vampyre" (1819), creating the
literary vampire genre. His short story was inspired by the life of Lord Byron
and his poem The Giaour. Another major influence on vampire fiction is Varney
the Vampire (1845), where many standard vampire conventions originated —
Varney has fangs, leaves two puncture wounds on the neck of his victims, and
has hypnotic powers and superhuman strength. Varney was also the first example
of the "sympathetic vampire", who loathes his condition but is a
slave to it.
From the mid-1820s until the 1840s, romans à clef, fashionable novels depicting
the lives of the upper class in an indiscreet manner, identifying the real
people on whom the characters were based, dominated the market.
Victorian novel
It was in the Victorian era (1837–1901) that the novel became the leading
form of literature in English. Most writers were now more concerned to meet the
tastes of a large middle class reading public than to please aristocratic
patrons. The 1830s saw a resurgence of the social novel, where sensationalized
accounts and stories of the working class poor were directed toward middle
class audiences to incite sympathy and action towards pushing for legal and
moral change. Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South contrasts the lifestyle
in the industrial north of England
Most Victorian novels were long and closely wrought, full of intricate
language, but the dominant feature of Victorian novels might be their
verisimilitude, that is, their close representation to the real social life of
the age. This social life was largely informed by the development of the
emerging middle class and the manners and expectations of this class, as
opposed to the aristocrat forms dominating previous ages.
Charles Dickens emerged on the literary scene in the 1830s, confirming the
trend for serial publication. Dickens wrote vividly about London London
and Paris
in the time of the French Revolution. Dickens' early works are masterpieces of
comedy, such as The Pickwick Papers. Later his works became
darker, but continued to display his genius for caricature.
The emotionally powerful works of the Brontë sisters: Charlotte 's
Jane Eyre, Emily's Wuthering
Heights
Although pre-dated by John Ruskin's The King of the Golden River in
1841, the history of the modern fantasy genre is generally said to begin with
George MacDonald, influential author of The Princess and the Goblin and Phantastes
(1858). William Morris was a popular English poet who wrote several fantasy
novels during the latter part of the nineteenth century.
Key to Victorian style is the concept of the intrusive narrator and the
address to the reader. For example, the author might interrupt his/her
narrative to pass judgment on a character, or pity or praise another, while
later seeming to exclaim "Dear Reader!" and inform or remind the
reader of some other relevant issue.
Wilkie Collins' epistolary novel The Moonstone (1868), is generally
considered the first detective novel in the English language. The Woman in
White is regarded as one of the finest sensation novels.
The novels of George Eliot, such as Middlemarch, were a milestone of
literary realism, and are frequently held in the highest regard for their
combination of high Victorian literary detail combined with an intellectual
breadth that removes them from the narrow geographic confines they often
depict. An interest in rural matters and the changing social and economic
situation of the countryside is seen in the novels of Thomas Hardy and others.
H. G. Wells, who, like Jules Verne, has been referred to as "The
Father of Science Fiction", invented a number of themes that are now
classic in the science fiction genre. The War of the Worlds (1898),
describing an invasion of late Victorian England by Martians using tripod
fighting machines equipped with advanced weaponry, is a seminal depiction of an
alien invasion
of Earth. The Time Machine is generally credited with
the popularization of the concept of time travel using a vehicle that allows an
operator to travel purposefully and selectively. The term "time machine",
coined by Wells, is now universally used to refer to such a vehicle.
Serial novel
Many novels of the Victorian period were published in serial form; that is,
individual chapters or sections appearing in subsequent journal issues. As
such, demand was high for each new appearance of the novel to introduce some
new element, whether it be a plot twist or a new character, so as to maintain
the reader's interest. Authors publishing serially were often paid by the
installment, which helps account for the popularity of the three-volume novel
during this period. In part for these reasons, novels are made up of a variety
of plots and a large number of characters, appearing and reappearing as events
dictate.
20th century
Important novelists of the early 20th century include D. H. Lawrence,
Virginia Woolf,
E. M. Forster,
C. S. Forester
and P. G. Wodehouse
D. H. Lawrence
wrote with understanding about the social life of the lower and middle classes,
and the personal lives of those who could not adapt to the social norms of his
time. Sons and Lovers (1913), is widely regarded
as his earliest masterpiece. There followed The Rainbow
(1915), and its sequel Women in Love (1920). Lawrence
Virginia Woolf
was an influential feminist, and a major stylistic innovator associated with the stream-of-consciousness technique. Her
novels include Mrs Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse
(1927), Orlando (1928), and The Waves
(1931). She is also known for the famous dictum, "A woman must have money
and a room of her own if she is to write fiction", from her 1929 essay, A Room of One's Own.[3]
E. M. Forster's
A Passage to India (1924), reflected
challenges to imperialism, while his earlier works such as A Room with a View and Howards End
examined Edwardian society in England. Robert Graves
is best known for his 1934 novel I Claudius.
The popularity of novelists who wrote in a more traditional style, such as Nobel Prize laureate John Galsworthy,
whose novels include The Forsyte Saga, and Arnold Bennett,
author of The Old Wives' Tale, continued in the
interwar period.
Aldous Huxley's
futuristic novel Brave New World (1932) envisions developments in
reproductive technology and sleep-learning
that combine to change society. Daphne Du Maurier
wrote Rebecca, a mystery novel, in 1938. W. Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage,
is a strongly autobiographical novel that is generally agreed to be his
masterpiece.
Evelyn Waugh satirised the "bright young things" of the 1920s and
1930s, notably in A Handful of Dust, while his magnum opus Brideshead Revisited (1945), deals with theology.
Agatha Christie was a crime writer of novels,
short stories and plays, best remembered for her 80 detective novels and her
successful West End theatre plays. Christie's
works, particularly those featuring the detectives Hercule Poirot
or Miss Marple,
have given her the title the "Queen of Crime" and made her one of the
most important and innovative writers in the development of the genre.
Christie's novels include Murder on the Orient Express (1934), Death on the Nile
(1937), and And Then There Were None (1939). Another
popular writer during the Golden Age of detective fiction was Dorothy L. Sayers.
The novelist Georgette Heyer created the historical romance genre.
Graham Greene's
works explore the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world.
His works, notable for achieving both serious literary acclaim and broad
popularity, include four Catholic novels, Brighton Rock, The Power and the Glory, The Heart of the Matter and The End of the Affair.
Nobel Prize laureate William Golding's
allegorical
novel, Lord of the Flies (1954), posits that
culture created by man fails, and uses as an example a group of British
schoolboys stuck on a deserted island who try to govern themselves, with
disastrous results.
Anthony Burgess's dystopian
novel A Clockwork Orange (1962) displays
government's control of an individual's free will through the use of a classical conditioning technique. Burgess
creates a new speech in his novel (Nadsat)
that is the teenage slang of the not-too-distant future.