HISTORY OF THE NOVEL: ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT TO THE PRESENT - LITERATURE - 2024

The story of the novel began with the appearance of Robinson Crusoe (1719) by Daniel Defoe, and Moll Flanders (1722). The novel is considered the latest of all literary genres.

This genre managed to establish itself in the Middle Ages, when other genres already existed for a long time.

Robinson crusoe

This prose narrative form resulted from the evolution of epic poetry and its identity has continued to mature over the years.

Today it is considered a work of fiction of more than 50,000 words, in which a connected sequence of events involving characters in a particular setting is narrated.

Historical evolution of the novel

Predecessor genres

The first works known as samples close to the novels were produced in Greece and Rome, between the 2nd centuries BC. C. and III d. C.

However, its true ancestors were Elizabethan prose and the French heroic romances of medieval times.

These genres were long stories that dealt with contemporary characters who lived and behaved like members of the nobility.

Origin

At the beginning of 1700, with the rise of the middle class, the interest in the human character reflected in literary works entered the collective.

This resulted in the popularization of autobiographies, biographies, diaries, and memoirs.

The English novels were the forerunners of the genre. These had as their theme the lives of complex characters who struggled in the struggle between their morality and their circumstances.

Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe (1719) and Moll Flanders (1722) were not considered novels in the strict sense because their characters were not fully developed.

A few years later, Samuel Richardson's Pamela (1741) emerged as the renowned first real English novel.

Later, the writer Jane Austen published her works Pride and Prejudice (1812) and Emma (1816). The latter was honored as the best early English novel of manners.

XIX century

The fictional genre during the first half of the 19th century remained influenced by Romanticism. In his second half the focus turned to nature and imagination.

The most famous novels of the time were:

- Jane Eyre (1847) by Charlotte Bronte.

- Wuthering Heights (1847) by Emily Bronte.

- The scarlet letter (1850) and The house of seven gables (1851) by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

- Moby Dick (1851) by Herman Melville.

Victorian novels

During the reign of Queen Victoria of England, between 1837 and 1901, novels about virtuous heroes of the middle class who responded to society acquired a marked relevance. The most representative works of this period were:

- A Christmas Carol (1843) by Charles Dickens.

- Alice in Wonderland (1864) by Lewis Carroll.

Realism and Naturalism

In the same nineteenth century, from the rise of industrialization, the trend towards realistic and naturalistic writing emerged as opposed to idealism and romanticism. This is how novels arise:

- Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) by Harriet Beecher Stowe.

- Tom Sawyer (1876) and The Adventures of Huckleberry Fynn (1885) by Mark Twain.

Modern novels

Between 1900 and 1945, novels tend to reflect realities and events that marked humanity such as the Great Depression, the First and Second World Wars, and communism.

The relevant works of the time were:

- To the lighthouse (1927) by Virginia Woolf.

- Ulysses (1921) James Joyce.

- All quiet on the western front (1929) by Erich Maria Remarque.

Contemporary novels

From 1945 to present times, novels are characterized by including magical realism, metafiction, and graphic novels. From there arise:

- In Cold Blood (1966) by Truman Capote.

- The color purple (1982) by Alice Walker.

- Roots (1976) by Alex Haley.

- Fear of flying (1973) by Erica Jong.

- One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967) by Gabriel García Márquez.

References

1. Beltran, L. (nd). Notes for a Historical Theory of the Novel. Retrieved on December 10, 2017 from: cvc.cervantes.es
2. Burges, A. (March 10, 2017). Novel. In: britannica.com
3. History of the Novel. (November 14, 2017). In: wikipedia.org
4. Ordoñana, M. (September 26, 2015). Origin and Evolution of the Novel until the 18th Century. In: beingscritor.com
5. The Novel. (sf). Retrieved on December 10, 2017 from: academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu