Introduction What is novel? A novel is a long narrative in literary prose. The genr(文学、艺术等的)类型, 体裁, 风格has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella短篇小说，中篇小说. The latter supplied the present generic term专业术语 in the late 18th century. Artistic merits长处, 优点: The construction of the narrative, the plot, the way reality is created in the works of fiction, the fascination of the character study, and the use of language. Most of these requirements were introduced in the 16th and 17th centuries, in order to give fiction a justification outside the field of factual真实的 history.

The Rise of the English Novel From dairy/journal/ epistolary form of reality record to fictional creation. From Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver’s Travels and Pamela to Tom Jones. From detailed record to selection of event. From event to characterization. From individual to society. From 1st person to 3rd person point of view. From outside to inside. From flat character to round character.

Point of View Point of view: the ways a story is told. In the 3rd –person narrative, the narrator is someone outside the story who refers to all the characters in the story by name, or as “he” or “she”, “they”. In the 1st- person narrative, the narrator speaks as “I”, and is to a greater or lesser degree a participant in the story (Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness). in the 2nd-person narrative, the narrator address to someone he calls “you”. (Italo Calvino’s If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler)

Point of View The 3rd –person point of view include the omniscient无所不知的 point of view and the limited point of view. An intrusive narrator appears in the omniscient point of view narratives, he not only reports, but comments on and evaluates the actions and motives of the characters, and sometimes expresses personal views about human life in general. In the limited point of view, the narrator tells the story in the 3rd person, but stays inside the confines限度，范围 of what is perceived理解，察觉, thought, remembered and felt by a single character (or at most by very few characters )within the story. (Henry James’s The Ambassador and Katherine Mansfield’s Bliss).

Flat Character and Round Character A flat character (a type or two dimensional维量，维数 character) is built around a single idea or quality, and is presented without much individualizing detail, therefore can be described in a single phrase or sentence. A round character is complex in temperament and motivation and is represented with subtle particularity; such a character therefore is as difficult to describe with any adequacy适当，恰当 as a person in real life, and like real person, is capable of surprising the readers.

Types of the Novel Bildungsroman教育小说: the novel about upbringing and education. (Somerset(独腿者乘坐的)有衬垫的马鞍Maugham’s Of Human Bondage奴役，束缚 and James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man) Historical novels历史小说 Gothic novels (Gothic romance):哥特式小说 Picaresque传奇式流浪冒险的novels Psychological novels心理小说 Realistic novels现实主义小说 Romantic novels浪漫主义小说

English Novel in the 18th Century Realistic fnovel Daniel Defoe Jonathan Swift Henry Fielding Sentimental//psychological Novel Samuel Richardson Laurence Sterne

Robinson Crusoe It is the first novel in the complete modern sense. It is not only a masterpiece of story –telling, but also an interpretation of life. As a novel, it has all the essential constituents: unity of theme, of action, and of style; character, narrative, dialogue, and etc. No story, whether true or fictitious虚构的编造的, has been told with such a combination of minute and inexhaustible无穷无尽的 realism and of curiosity that keeps the mind on the stretch to the very end.

Robinson Crusoe Date, places, names and particulars of Crusoe’s relatives and similar details, are given with great exactness, and the method of journalism is followed to the uttermost, to give the impression that everything is a record of real life. The novel’s main attention is in the narration of various events and actions, instead of the emotion.

Daniel Defoe’s Other Writings Although Defoe began to write when he was already in his 60s, he wrote other novels: Captain Singleton(1720), Moll Flanders(1722), Colonel Jack(1722), Roxana(1724). Of these by far the most important is Moll Flanders. It may be considered the first sociological novel, because it is a study of the effects of heredity and environment in the making of criminals. From the artistic point of view, Moll Flanders may be regarded as the female counterpart of Robinson Crusoe. His history is a great realistic epic of human courage and energy fighting a lonely battle, while hers is a lonely woman fighting a world that has done its worst to destroy her, body and soul.

Gulliver’s Travels The novel bears resemblance to Robinson Crusoe. I is another tale of imaginary seaman’s experience. It is full of nautical航海有关adventures, wanderings in unknown regions, and various accidents that result in leaving the hero in a new place. The focus of the narration is still events.

Pamela and Clarissa The innovation in Pamela is in the psychological subtlety with which Pamela’s character was revealed. Another feature of the novel is that, for the first time, a person of the low social status is portrayed seriously as a complex and admirable human being. In Clarissa, the character began to appear with multi-dimensional features: Lovelace in the novel is not simply a villain, and Clarissa becomes the archetype of inviolable spiritual purity (honor, dignity, integrity of personality, the pursuit of freedom and pure love).

Tom Jones The third person narration (with an intruding强加于 narrator). The characterization of Tom Jones: round character. Dialogue is fully and naturally used to reveal characters through their own words and actions than by explicit commentary. Frankness in artistic creation yet true to life.