Novel Beginnings

Novel Beginnings

Author: Patricia Meyer Spacks

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2008-10-01

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 0300128339

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In this study intended for general readers, eminent critic Patricia Meyer Spacks provides a fresh, engaging account of the early history of the English novel. Novel Beginnings departs from the traditional, narrow focus on the development of the realistic novel to emphasize the many kinds of experimentation that marked the genre in the eighteenth century before its conventions were firmly established in the nineteenth. Treating well-known works like Tom Jones and Tristram Shandy in conjunction with less familiar texts such as Sarah Fielding’s The Cry (a kind of hybrid novel and play) and Jane Barker’s A Patch-Work Screen for the Ladies (a novel of adventure replete with sentimental verse and numerous subnarratives), the book evokes the excitement of a multifaceted and unpredictable process of growth and change. Investigating fiction throughout the 1700s, Spacks delineates the individuality of specific texts while suggesting connections among novels. She sketches a wide range of forms and themes, including Providential narratives, psychological thrillers, romans à clef, sentimental parables, political allegories, Gothic romances, and many others. These multiple narrative experiments show the impossibility of thinking of eighteenth-century fiction simply as a precursor to the nineteenth-century novel, Spacks shows. Instead, the vast variety of engagements with the problems of creating fiction demonstrates that literary history—by no means inexorable—might have taken quite a different course.


The Cambridge Companion to the Twentieth-Century English Novel

The Cambridge Companion to the Twentieth-Century English Novel

Author: Robert L. Caserio

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2009-04-30

Total Pages: 299

ISBN-13: 1139828339

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The twentieth-century English novel encompasses a vast body of work, and one of the most important and most widely read genres of literature. Balancing close readings of particular novels with a comprehensive survey of the last century of published fiction, this Companion introduces readers to more than a hundred major and minor novelists. It demonstrates continuities in novel-writing that bridge the century's pre- and post-War halves and presents leading critical ideas about English fiction's themes and forms. The essays examine the endurance of modernist style throughout the century, the role of nationality and the contested role of the English language in all its forms, and the relationships between realism and other fictional modes: fantasy, romance, science fiction. Students, scholars and readers will find this Companion an indispensable guide to the history of the English novel.


Handbook of the English Novel of the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries

Handbook of the English Novel of the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries

Author: Christoph Reinfandt

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2017-06-12

Total Pages: 613

ISBN-13: 3110369486

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The Handbook systematically charts the trajectory of the English novel from its emergence as the foremost literary genre in the early twentieth century to its early twenty-first century status of eccentric eminence in new media environments. Systematic chapters address ̒The English Novel as a Distinctly Modern Genreʼ, ̒The Novel in the Economy’, ̒Genres’, ̒Gender’ (performativity, masculinities, feminism, queer), and ̒The Burden of Representationʼ (class and ethnicity). Extended contextualized close readings of more than twenty key texts from Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (1899) to Tom McCarthy’s Satin Island (2015) supplement the systematic approach and encourage future research by providing overviews of reception and theoretical perspectives.


Two Centuries of Silence

Two Centuries of Silence

Author: Avid Kamgar

Publisher: AuthorHouse

Published: 2016-08-19

Total Pages: 323

ISBN-13: 1524622524

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How Farsi language broke its two centuries of silence. This book is the translation of Do Gharn Sokoot, into English by an Iranian scientist and scholar. Two Centuries of silence is the saga of 200 years of struggle by Iranians in order to free themselves from the yoke of Muslim Arabs- elegantly and passionately told by Abdolhossein Zarinkoob. The book elucidates thekey reasons for the success of Muslim Arabs in their assault on Iran- a fact that was not written in the stars, nor was it an act of God. For its readers, this translation hopes to shed light on what forms the foundation of todays Iran and helpbring some understanding of Iranians and their culture. The fall of Nahavand in 642 CE marked the end of a glorious fourteenth-century history of Iran-a fascinating and dynamic history spanning the years from 700 BCE to 700 CE. For two centuries thereafter, a brutally long, chilling silence cast its shadow over the history and language of Iran. Professor Zarinkoob explores the reason behind the Sasanian downfall and how the uncouth Bedouins triumphed over an immense and glorious civilization such as that? During these two centuries- about which our recent historians have remained silent-why did Farsi become a "lost" language, obscure and traceless? In the time when Iranian swordsmen revolted against the Arabs under any pretext, fighting the Arabs and Muslims, how did Zoroastrian priests argue and debate in the light of knowledge and wisdom against the Muslim faith? Finally, why a book that tells the tale of a most turbulent period of Iran's history is titlesTwo Centuries of Silenceand not Two Centuries of Chaos and Uproar? Prof. Zarinkoob's colorful narrative unravels these mysteries through Iranian eyes and is delivered here only as they may.


A Companion to the Eighteenth-Century English Novel and Culture

A Companion to the Eighteenth-Century English Novel and Culture

Author: Paula R. Backscheider

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2009-10-19

Total Pages: 576

ISBN-13: 1405192453

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A Companion to the Eighteenth-century Novel furnishes readers with a sophisticated vision of the eighteenth-century novel in its political, aesthetic, and moral contexts. An up-to-date resource for the study of the eighteenth-century novel Furnishes readers with a sophisticated vision of the eighteenth-century novel in its political, aesthetic, and moral context Foregrounds those topics of most historical and political relevance to the twenty-first century Explores formative influences on the eighteenth-century novel, its engagement with the major issues and philosophies of the period, and its lasting legacy Covers both traditional themes, such as narrative authority and print culture, and cutting-edge topics, such as globalization, nationhood, technology, and science Considers both canonical and non-canonical literature


The Origins of the English Novel, 1600-1740

The Origins of the English Novel, 1600-1740

Author: Michael McKeon

Publisher: JHU Press

Published: 2002-05-22

Total Pages: 564

ISBN-13: 9780801869594

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The novel emerged, McKeon contends, as a cultural instrument designed to engage the epistemological and social crises of the age.


Reading the Eighteenth-Century Novel

Reading the Eighteenth-Century Novel

Author: David H. Richter

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2017-05-01

Total Pages: 248

ISBN-13: 1118621107

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Reading the Eighteenth-Century Novel is a lively exploration of the evolution of the English novel from 1688-1815. A range of major works and authors are discussed along with important developments in the genre, and the impact of novels on society at the time. The text begins with a discussion of the “rise of the novel” in the long eighteenth century and various theories about the economic, social, and ideological changes that caused it. Subsequent chapters examine ten particular novels, from Oroonoko and Moll Flanders to Tom Jones and Emma, using each one to introduce and discuss different rhetorical theories of narrative. The way in which books developed and changed during this period, breaking new ground, and influencing later developments is also discussed, along with key themes such as the representation of gender, class, and nationality. The final chapter explores how this literary form became a force for social and ideological change by the end of the period. Written by a highly experienced scholar of English literature, this engaging textbook guides readers through the intricacies of a transformational period for the novel.


Space and the Eighteenth-Century English Novel

Space and the Eighteenth-Century English Novel

Author: Simon Varey

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1990-07-27

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 9780521374835

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In this challenging and illustrated study, first published in 1990, Simon Varey relates the idea of space in the major novels of Defoe, Fielding and Richardson to its use in the theory and practice of eighteenth-century architecture. Concepts of divine design, expressed in the work of philosophers and theologians, introduced an ideological element to the notion of space which gave it a heightened significance in contemporary thought. Professor Varey's central argument is that space becomes a political instrument used to establish conformity, assert power and give form to the aspirations of social classes. He draws on a wide range of architectural books, both English and European, and on the example of Bath (focusing in particular on its chief architect in the eighteenth century, John Wood). The discussion of novels such as Robinson Crusoe, Tom Jones and Clarissa examines narrative as a form of spatial design, the use of architectural imagery to describe people, and the political control of social space.