Novel Beginnings: Experiments in Eighteenth-Century English Fiction (Yale Guides to English Literature)

321 Pages·2006·1.39 MB·English

novel beginnings

patricia meyer spacks
Novel Beginnings
experiments in eighteenth-century
english fiction
yale university press new haven & london
Yale Guides to English Literature
Yale Guides to English Literature survey topics in English literature from Beowulf to
the contemporary scene. Each volume of the series is intended for students and general
readers.
Published with assistance from the Annie Burr Lewis Fund and the Mary Cady Tew
Memorial Fund.
Copyright © 2006 by Patricia M. Spacks.
All rights reserved.
This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any form
(beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and
except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publishers.
Printed in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Spacks, Patricia Ann Meyer.
Novel beginnings : experiments in eighteenth-century English fiction / Patricia Meyer
Spacks.
p. cm. — (Yale guides to English literature)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-300-11031-9 (alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-300-11031-6 (alk. paper)
1. English fiction — 18th century — History and criticism. 2. Experimental fiction, English —
History and criticism. 3. Literary form — History — 18th century. I. Title. II. Series.
PR858.E982S66 2006
823′.509 — dc22
2005024209
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Com-
mittee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Aubrey Williams
Blest with a Taste exact, yet unconfin’d;
A Knowledge both of Books and Humankind;
Gen’rous Converse; a Soul exempt from Pride;
And Love to Praise, with Reason on his Side.

contents
Acknowledgments ix
1 The Excitement of Beginnings 1
2 Novels of Adventure 28
3 The Novel of Development 59
4 Novels of Consciousness 92
5 The Novel of Sentiment 127
6 The Novel of Manners 160
7 Gothic Fiction 191
8 The Political Novel 222
9 Tristram Shandy and the Development of the Novel 254
Afterword: What Came Next 277
viii contents
Suggestions for Further Reading 287
Works Cited 293
Index 299
acknowledgments
more than anything else I have written, this book is indebted to
my students—particularly to the several generations of graduate students
with whom I have discussed eighteenth-century fiction and by whom I
have been stimulated and enlightened. I am also profoundly grateful to
Myra Jehlen, who read and reread key chapters, always helping me to
achieve greater clarity and precision and often provoking me to fresh
thought. Like my other writing during the past fifteen years, this book
has profited from my weekly lunches and literary discussions with Jerome
McGann. Bruce Redford provided valuable suggestions at an early stage of
my thinking; and Aubrey Williams, to whom the book is dedicated, helped
me, as so often before, by innumerable enlivening conversations.
ix