The Rise of the Novel

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Why have scholars located the emergence of the novel in eighteenth-century England? What historical forces and stylistic developments helped to turn a disreputable type of writing into an eminent literary form?

This Reader's Guide explores the key critical debates and theories about the rising novel, from eighteenth-century assessments through to present day concerns. Nicholas Seager:
- Surveys major criticism on authors such as Aphra Behn, Daniel Defoe, Samuel Richardson, Henry Fielding and Jane Austen
- Covers a range of critical approaches and topics including feminism, historicism, postcolonialism and print culture
- Demonstrates how critical work is interrelated, allowing readers to discern trends in the critical conversation.

Approachable and stimulating, this is an invaluable introduction for anyone studying the origins of the novel and the surrounding body of scholarship.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Seager (Keele Univ., UK), whose study appears in the publisher's "Readers' Guides to Essential Criticism" series, focuses on the literary history of the novel and its rise in 18th-century England. Seager rightly centers his discussion on Ian Watt's classic Rise of the Novel: Studies in Defoe, Richardson, and Fielding (1957), surveying not only critical responses to Watt's formulations but also histories of the novel in general. This critical guide treats cultural history, feminism, postcolonialism, and postnationalism as challenges to Watt's narrative of novelistic evolution before moving on to print culture and thematic criticisms in related disciplines, notably law, economics, and sociology. Seager finishes with thoughts on future directions for study of the 18th-century British novel. Each chapter lucidly summarizes important critical texts as well as writers of the time, including Henry Fielding, Samuel Richardson, Jane Austen, and Aphra Behn. Seager organizes each chapter into subsections that allow him to delineate threads of critical conversation and assess the divergent critiques of Watt's seminal work. The author offers a comprehensive yet concise overview of the rise of the novel that will benefit students and teachers of English literature. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty. D. E. Magill Longwood University