The Novel In The 18th Century

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31316, 11 March 1967, Page 4

The Novel In The 18th Century

Before Jane Austen. By Harrison R. Steeves. Allen and Unwin. 399 pp. Index. The subject of Professor Steeve’s book is the development of the English novel in the eighteenth century. Beginning with a" basic definition of the novel as a form dealing with “real people, in situations which have the tang of the life of the time and which pose significant problems related to that life,” the author first glances briefly at some of the precursors of the novel, such as the Elizabethan pastoral and picaresque romances. He then goes on to consider the handful of writers who in the earlier half of the eighteenth century became the first undisputed masters of the novel as we know it: Defoe, Samuel Richardson, Fielding and Smollett. Not that, as Professor Steeves points out, any of these writers recognised their stories as novels. “Pamela” was a treatise on conduct, “Tom Jones” a comic epic in prose, “Roderick Random” a picaresque tale. But each showed a new and vital concern with social truth, and the realistic portrayal of character.

Lawrence Sterne and Jane Austen are the only great figures to emerge from the second half of the century, which was dominated by minor novelists. But throughout this fallow period, the novel continued to develop in social purpose and in precision of form. If most of the works discussed are sadly dated as literature, they are still interesting for the changing attitudes and fashions which they reflect. By the end of the century the novel had become a medium for discussion of nearly every important aspect of the social scene. Poverty, sexual morality, the abuses of privilege, the new claims of democracy, all were subjected to scrutiny. Many of these writers were

women—a fact which in itself Professor Steeves finds socially significant, since it suggests that the status of women was gradually changing. Perhaps the most popular was Fanny Burney, whose “Evelina,” written in 1778, was the first novel to examine from a feminine point of view, the polite society of her day. Her novels are still readable today; others of more historical interest included Mrs Radcliff, Charlotte Smith, Mrs Inchbold and Sophia Lee. Maria Edgeworth, however, was an altogether more considerable writer. Her novel “Castle Rackrent,” which describes landlordism in rural Ireland is, in Professor Steeves’s opinion, the greatest piece of descriptive realism of the century.

Professor Steeves also considers the profound influence of the eighteenth century cult of sensibility on the novel. Lawrence Sterne, of course, is the one great sentimentalist of the period, but Henry McKenzie is still remembered for his excessive exploitation of feeling. Harley, the hero of “Hie Man of Feeling,” is continually bursting into tears. McKenzie, however, was also an early humanitarian (he was writing in the 70’s); and his concern with the social and political problems of his day anticipates the humanitarian novelist of a generation later— Bage, Godwin, Thomas Hoicroft and Mary Wollstonecraft, all of whom receive careful appraisal. The book concludes with a chapter on Jane Austen which discusses

her debt to eighteenth century thought. Although much of the fiction discussed in Professor Steeves’s book is more the concern of the literary historian than the reader of novels, it is anything but a dull chronicle. The author is a lively scholar who can find delight and illumination in the most unpromising material; and his discussion of the social background of the age is often very entertaining. One of the most attractive features of the book is its amplitude of quotation. This is especially valuable when the more obscure fiction is being discussed, since it avoids having to study it in a vacuum. The book is attractively produced, and it contains many delightful eighteenth century illustrations. '