The Rise of the Novel in Britain

The XVIII century and the Rise of the Novel

While the 16th century can be considered the great age of the English Drama and you may remember that Shakespeare was and is still considered the greatest dramatist of the English Renaissance , the years that followed the dath of Elizabeth I marked a new period with lots of social changes and as we have seen there were also a lot of religious problems.

But it was in the 18th century that we have the beginning of a new literary genre: the Novel.

The rise of the middle classes in Britain and the great importance of commerce had influence on the Birth of this new form of writing which became very popular. It also met the taste of these social classes.

Daniel Defoe can be considered the father of the English novel as he wrote many books from Robinson Crusoe to Moll Flanders and combined in his narration details with aspects of life which we can consider low life. People loved reading about his stories and bought his books or borrowed them from the lending libraries.

Between 1740 and 1800 hundred of novels were written and as we consider D.Defoe the father of the novel me must bear in mind that there were other important writers like Richardson, Fielding and Sterne.

The genre continued to be important during the Romantic age with Mary Shelly who wrote a romantic novel Frankenstein (1818), Jane Austen and also W.Scott.

However, it was in the Victorian Age ( 1837-1901) that the Novel became the most important literary genre. We will find a lot of female writers like Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte and George Eliot.

D.Defoe: Robinson Crusoe

Trying to understand Robinson Crusoe