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

Citation

Watt, I. (2001). The Rise of the Novel: Studies in Defoe, Richardson and Fielding (updated ed.). University of California Press. (First published 1957.)

Chapter Summary

Context and Argument

The book was first published in 1957. The 2001 updated edition, about 340 pages, adds a new foreword by W. B. Carnochan, which, according to the publisher, accounts for the growing interest in the English novel and for Watt's contribution to literary studies: bringing sociology and philosophy into traditional criticism. The publisher calls the book a classic description of the interworkings of social conditions, changing attitudes and literary practices when the novel emerged as the dominant literary form of the individualist era. Chapter I states the plan: Defoe, Richardson and Fielding do not form a school and are very different writers, so their appearance within one generation is unlikely to be mere accident. The book therefore asks what literary and social conditions favoured the new form, and in what ways the three novelists benefited. The contents consist of a preface, ten chapters (the last a short note), an afterword and an index.

Chapter I: Realism and the Novel Form

The opening chapter is a working definition of the novel. It argues that "realism," as used by earlier historians, is too vague, because the novel's realism lies in the way it presents life, not in the kind of life presented. Watt then draws analogies between philosophical realism (Descartes, Locke, Reid) and the new fiction: the rejection of traditional plots in favour of originality, the particularity of characters and settings, the use of ordinary proper names, personal identity through time, a concrete sense of place, and a plainer referential prose style. These are illustrated in turn from Defoe, Richardson and Fielding. The chapter ends by naming "formal realism," the narrative method of a full and authentic report of individual experience, as the lowest common denominator of the genre.

Chapters II–III: The Reading Public and the Rise of the Novel; Robinson Crusoe, Individualism and the Novel

Chapter II turns from literary form to readers. Chapter I points forward to it: it says that Defoe and Richardson were unusually independent of literary conventions, and the next chapter takes up the reasons. Chapter III links the individualism of the title to Robinson Crusoe. The contents do not describe the argument of either chapter beyond these titles.

Chapters IV–VII: Defoe, Richardson and Private Experience

Chapter IV, "Defoe as Novelist: Moll Flanders," completes the two chapters on Defoe. Chapters V to VII are built around Richardson: "Love and the Novel: Pamela" and "Richardson as Novelist: Clarissa" bracket a chapter titled "Private Experience and the Novel." The titles suggest a movement from the theme of love in Pamela to the wider category of private experience and then to Clarissa.

Chapters VIII–X: Fielding and the Later Tradition

Chapter VIII, "Fielding and the Epic Theory of the Novel," and Chapter IX, "Fielding as Novelist: Tom Jones," give Fielding two chapters. Chapter X, "Realism and the Later Tradition: A Note," is a short closing chapter, followed by the afterword.

Key Concepts

Chapter I

• Formal realism: the narrative method of the novel, a full and authentic report of human experience in which the particularity of persons, times and places is presented through referential language; Watt says it is a convention, like any literary form.
• Philosophical realism: the view that reality is discovered by the individual through the senses (Descartes, Locke, Reid), contrasted with scholastic realism, and used by Watt as an analogy for the novel's method.
• Originality and particularity: the break with traditional plots and with general types in favour of particular individuals in particular circumstances.

Chapters II–X

• The reading public: the audience that the second chapter relates to the rise of the novel.
• Individualism: the theme of Chapter III on Robinson Crusoe.
• Private experience: the subject of Chapter VI, placed between the two chapters named for Richardson's novels.
• Epic theory of the novel: the title phrase of Chapter VIII, the first of the two chapters on Fielding.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• A clear working definition. The first chapter sets out what is new about the novel, and its terms (formal realism, particularity, time, place, language) can be used on any later novel. Chapter I itself notes that formal realism was not discovered by Defoe and Richardson and is only a convention.
• Literary form tied to social history. The publisher stresses the interworkings of social conditions, attitudes and literary practices. Reviews of the original edition that the publisher quotes make the same point: the Manchester Guardian called it a pioneer work in applying modern sociology to literature, and the American Journal of Sociology called it a contribution to historical sociology and the sociology of knowledge.
• Concrete comparison among three authors. Defoe and Fielding get two chapters each and Richardson three; the chapter titles show that the argument is tested on named novels (Robinson Crusoe, Moll Flanders, Pamela, Clarissa, Tom Jones).
• Standing among critics. The publisher quotes Max Byrd and John Richetti, who call it indispensable for students of the early English novel; these endorsements are for the 2001 edition.

Limitations

• Three authors, one period. The subtitle limits the study to Defoe, Richardson and Fielding; other eighteenth-century novelists appear only in passing in Chapter I (Sterne and Smollett are mentioned in a sentence on names), so the book is not a survey of the early novel.
• A 1957 argument. The main argument dates from 1957, so scholarship since then on the novel's origins is not in it; the 2001 foreword is the only addition the publisher mentions.
• Realism as the key term. The argument rests on formal realism as the novel's defining feature. Watt admits in Chapter I that it is only a convention; readers interested in other kinds of fiction will need other accounts.
• Demanding background. Chapter I draws on Locke, Descartes and eighteenth-century critics, and quotes them extensively, so it reads more easily with some background in philosophy or the period.

Where It Fits in the Course

This is the historical account of the novel's origin in the course list. Marina MacKay's The Cambridge Introduction to the Novel gives a short overview with a chapter on origins and is the easier first step. E. M. Forster's Aspects of the Novel, which Watt himself cites in Chapter I for the novel's concern with "life by time," and David Lodge's The Art of Fiction treat the elements of the novel without a history, and they pair well with Watt's first chapter on characterisation, time and place. Bakhtin's The Dialogic Imagination and Lukács's The Theory of the Novel are more philosophical and theoretical accounts of the genre and are best read afterwards.

How to Use This Book

The book is for undergraduates and general readers who want an argument about why and how the novel emerged in eighteenth-century England. It helps to have read one of the novels discussed, such as Robinson Crusoe, Pamela or Tom Jones; Chapter I draws on Locke and Descartes, so a little background in philosophy also helps.

Read Chapter I first and slowly: it supplies the vocabulary of formal realism that the rest of the book applies. Then read Chapter II and the Defoe chapters alongside Robinson Crusoe or Moll Flanders, the Richardson chapters alongside Pamela or an extract of Clarissa, and the Fielding chapters alongside Tom Jones. Read the new foreword for the publisher's account of the growing interest in the English novel and of Watt's contribution, and treat the closing note as a pointer to later fiction. For a single-term course, Chapters I, II and III with one chapter each on Richardson and Fielding give a workable core.