Definition of the Novel With Special References to the Geneses and Development in the 18Th Century.

Until the 17th century the “ novel ”, was meant to be a short story of the kind written and collected by Boccaccio ( )in his Decameron. By about 1700, it had got something like its present meaning, which, as the shorter Oxford Dictionary tells us is “ a fictitious prose narrative of considerable length in which characters and actions representative of real life are portrayed in a plot of more or less complexity ”. Until the 17th century the “ novel ”, was meant to be a short story of the kind written and collected by Boccaccio ( )in his Decameron. By about 1700, it had got something like its present meaning, which, as the shorter Oxford Dictionary tells us is “ a fictitious prose narrative of considerable length in which characters and actions representative of real life are portrayed in a plot of more or less complexity ”.

So it can be defined as “ a story longer, more realistic and more complicated than the Italian Novella which was written by Boccaccio and other writers of this time ”. So it can be defined as “ a story longer, more realistic and more complicated than the Italian Novella which was written by Boccaccio and other writers of this time ”.

The tendency of the 18th century fiction. It began with Defoe. He wrote wonderfully realistic stories, but he hardly begins the novel proper, for in the novel, as generally defined, the characterization should be as important an element as the story element, whereas in Defoe ’ s tales the characters have less interest for us than the story. Thus Defoe chiefly advances towards the novel on its narrative side. The tendency of the 18th century fiction. It began with Defoe. He wrote wonderfully realistic stories, but he hardly begins the novel proper, for in the novel, as generally defined, the characterization should be as important an element as the story element, whereas in Defoe ’ s tales the characters have less interest for us than the story. Thus Defoe chiefly advances towards the novel on its narrative side.