The Cambridge Companion to the Eighteenth-Century Novel [Paperback]

A comprehensive and innovative guide to the British novel in its formative decades.Twelve contributors challenge and refine the traditional view of the novel's origins and purposes. Sentimental and Gothic fiction, and fiction by women, are discussed, alongside detailed readings of work by Defoe, Swift, Richardson, Henry Fielding, Sterne, Smollett and Burney.Twelve contributors challenge and refine the traditional view of the novel's origins and purposes. Sentimental and Gothic fiction, and fiction by women, are discussed, alongside detailed readings of work by Defoe, Swift, Richardson, Henry Fielding, Sterne, Smollett and Burney.This multifaceted picture of the British novel in its formative decades provides an indispensable guide for students of the eighteenth-century novel, and its place within the culture of its time. Drawing on new research in social and political history, the twelve contributors to this Companion challenge and refine the traditional view of the novel's origins and purposes. Sentimental and Gothic fiction, and fiction by women, are discussed, alongside detailed readings of work by Defoe, Swift, Richardson, Henry Fielding, Sterne, Smollett and Burney.1. Introduction John Richetti; 2. The novel and social/cultural history J. Paul Hunter; 3. Defoe as an innovator of fictional form Max Novak; 4. Gulliver's Travels and the contracts of fiction Michael Seidel; 5. Samuel Richardson: fiction and knowledge Margaret Anne Doody; 6. Henry Fielding Claude Rawson; 7. Sterne and irregular rhetoric Jonathan Lamb; 8. Smollett's Humphry Clinker Michael Rosenblum; 9. The romance in Frances Burney's novels Julia Epstein; 10. Women writers and the eighteenth-century novel Jane Spencer; 11. Sentimental novels John Mullan; 12. Enlightenment, popular culture and Gothic fiction James Carson. ...especially persuasive in describing the new scene of writing opended by the novel....All in all, this is an indispensable guide and highly recommended. Choice