The Cambridge introduction to the eighteenth-century novel / April London.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

London, April, author.

Series:

Cambridge introductions to literature.

Cambridge introductions to literature

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English fiction--18th century--History and criticism.

English fiction.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (vii, 250 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2012.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In the eighteenth century, the novel became established as a popular literary form all over Europe. Britain proved an especially fertile ground, with Defoe, Fielding, Richardson and Burney as early exponents of the novel form. The Cambridge Introduction to the Eighteenth-Century Novel considers the development of the genre in its formative period in Britain. Rather than present its history as a linear progression, April London gives an original new structure to the field, organizing it through three broad thematic clusters - identity, community and history. Within each of these themes, she explores the central tensions of eighteenth-century fiction: between secrecy and communicativeness, independence and compliance, solitude and family, cosmopolitanism and nation-building. The reader will gain a thorough understanding of both prominent and lesser-known novels and novelists, key social and literary contexts, the tremendous formal variety of the early novel and its growth from a marginal to a culturally central genre.

Contents:

Part I. Secrets and Singularity: 1. The power of singularity; 2. The virtue of singularity; 3. The punishment of singularity

Part II. Sociability and Community: 4. The reformation of family; 5. Alternative communities; 6. The sociability of books

Part III. History and Nation: 7. History, novel, and polemic; 8. Historical fiction and generational distance; Afterword: the history of the eighteenth-century novel.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-139-36568-1

1-107-22623-6

1-280-66392-8

9786613640857

1-139-37822-8

1-139-02155-9

1-139-37536-9

1-139-37679-9

1-139-37965-8

1-139-37137-1

OCLC:

794707330