The Rise of the Novel: Studies in Defoe, Richardson and Fielding [Paperback]

Ian Watt (Author), W. B. Carnochan (Afterword)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 4, 2001 | ISBN-10: 0520230698 | ISBN-13: 978-0520230699

The Rise of the Novel is Ian Watt's classic description of the interworkings of social conditions, changing attitudes, and literary practices during the period when the novel emerged as the dominant literary form of the individualist era.
In a new foreword, W. B. Carnochan accounts for the increasing interest in the English novel, including the contributions that Ian Watt's study made to literary studies: his introduction of sociology and philosophy to traditional criticism.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A major contribution to the subject, in some respects the most brilliant that has appeared...Every page of Dr Watt's admirably written book repays study, as enlivening and enriching as the works themselves" Times Educational Supplement "An important, compendious work of inquiring scholarship...alive with ideas...An academic critic who in lively and suggestive detail is able to assemble round his novelists the ideas and facts among which they worked" -- V.S. Pritchett New Statesman --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

From the Inside Flap

Praise for the new (2001) edition:

"Ian Watt's The Rise of the Novel still seems to me far and away the best book ever written on the early English novel--wise, humane, beautifully organized and expressed, one of the absolutely indispensable critical works in modern literary scholarship. And W. B. Carnochan's brilliant introduction does a wonderful job of showing how Watt's book came into being and changed for good the way the novel in general is taught and understood."--Max Byrd, author of Grant: A Novel

"Ian Watt's The Rise of the Novel remains the single indispensable, absolutely essential book for students of the 18th-century novel."--John Richetti, author of The English Novel in History: 1700-1780

Praise for the original edition:

"A remarkable book. . . . A pioneer work in the application of modern sociology to literature."--Manchester Guardian

"An outstanding contribution to the field of historical sociology and the sociology of knowledge. . . . The author has set the 'rise of the novel' as a new literary genre in the social context of eighteenth-century England, with emphasis on the predominant middle-class features of the period."--American Journal of Sociology

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 339 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press (June 4, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520230698
• ISBN-13: 978-0520230699
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.8 x 8.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #956,675 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Tour de Force August 15, 2005

By Diego Banducci

Format:Paperback

Published in 1957, "The Rise of the Novel" was immediately recognized as a landmark of literary criticism. It has, justifiably, retained this status up to the present.

Recognizing that life does not present itself in neat separate packages of literature, history, and sociology, "The Rise of the Novel" integrates Watt's considerable knowledge in each of these areas to assess the impact of three authors, Defoe, Richardson and Fielding, upon the development of the English novel in the eighteenth century. In the final chapter, he shows how their contributions were integrated and further developed in the works of Laurence Sterne, Jane Austen and others.

Along the way, he makes numerous fascinating observations that I personally had not run across before. For example:

* With the rise of the city (in this case, London) in the eighteenth century, and the resulting development of a more transient population, the model for the Family shifted from the patriarchal family (with a paterfamilias) to a conjugal model (i.e., a new family is born upon each new marriage).

* During the century, there was considerable disapproval of the heroic epic (as exemplified by Homer) as a result of the manners and morals it exhibited, i.e., violence and cruelty. "Tom Jones," a comic epic, was critized at the time for glorifying these and other negative values.

* The large number of "spinsters" during the century led to formal proposals for the passage of laws allowing bigamy.

The book is remarkably fair and balanced in its assessment of Defoe, Richardson and Fielding, with Richardson coming off better than I had expected. It's not enough to make me want to read "Pamela" and "Clarissa," but I did come away with a heightened appreciation of Richardson's abilities as an observer of life and society.

Watt's own life (1917 -1999) is interesting. He joined the British Army at the age of 22 and served with distinction in World War II as an army lieutenant in the infantry from 1939 to 1946. He was wounded in the battle for Singapore in January 1942 and listed as "missing, presumed killed in action." In fact, he was taken prisoner by the Japanese and remained a prisoner of war until 1945, working on the construction of a railway that crossed Thailand a feat that inspired the Pierre Boulle novel "Bridge Over the River Kwai" and the film version by David Lean. More than 12,000 prisoners died during the building of the railroad, most of them from disease, and Watt was critically ill from malnutrition for several years.

He joined the faculty of Stanford University in 1964., and was chair of the English department from 1968 to 1971. In addition to "The Rise of the Novel," he is best known for his body of criticism of the works of Joseph Conrad.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Tour de Force August 15, 2005

By Diego Banducci

Format:Paperback

Published in 1957, "The Rise of the Novel" was immediately recognized as a landmark of literary criticism. It has, justifiably, retained this status up to the present.

Recognizing that life does not present itself in neat separate packages of literature, history, and sociology, "The Rise of the Novel" integrates Watt's considerable knowledge in each of these areas to assess the impact of three authors, Defoe, Richardson and Fielding, upon the development of the English novel in the eighteenth century. In the final chapter, he shows how their contributions were integrated and further developed in the works of Laurence Sterne, Jane Austen and others.

Along the way, he makes numerous fascinating observations that I personally had not run across before. For example:

* With the rise of the city (in this case, London) in the eighteenth century, and the resulting development of a more transient population, the model for the Family shifted from the patriarchal family (with a paterfamilias) to a conjugal model (i.e., a new family is born upon each new marriage).

* During the century, there was considerable disapproval of the heroic epic (as exemplified by Homer) as a result of the manners and morals it exhibited, i.e., violence and cruelty. "Tom Jones," a comic epic, was critized at the time for glorifying these and other negative values.

* The large number of "spinsters" during the century led to formal proposals for the passage of laws allowing bigamy.

The book is remarkably fair and balanced in its assessment of Defoe, Richardson and Fielding, with Richardson coming off better than I had expected. It's not enough to make me want to read "Pamela" and "Clarissa," but I did come away with a heightened appreciation of Richardson's abilities as an observer of life and society.

Watt's own life (1917 -1999) is interesting. He joined the British Army at the age of 22 and served with distinction in World War II as an army lieutenant in the infantry from 1939 to 1946. He was wounded in the battle for Singapore in January 1942 and listed as "missing, presumed killed in action." In fact, he was taken prisoner by the Japanese and remained a prisoner of war until 1945, working on the construction of a railway that crossed Thailand a feat that inspired the Pierre Boulle novel "Bridge Over the River Kwai" and the film version by David Lean. More than 12,000 prisoners died during the building of the railroad, most of them from disease, and Watt was critically ill from malnutrition for several years.

He joined the faculty of Stanford University in 1964., and was chair of the English department from 1968 to 1971. In addition to "The Rise of the Novel," he is best known for his body of criticism of the works of Joseph Conrad.

10 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Informative January 5, 2002

By April Blake VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

Although this is not an exciting book, it is highly informative and well-written. Watt makes a case for why Defoe, Richardson, and Fielding all have a claim to the paternity of the novel. Laborious academic bloviation is relatively nonexistent in The Rise of the Novel, and if you do much of this type of reading, you know that's a plus. Even if your focus is not Defoe, Richardson, or Fielding, this book is important to read, just so you understand where your writing fits in the greater literary tradition, or even to give contemporary writers context.