Poerty and Prose 1660-1800

Female Authors and the Novel

The contribution of female authors towards the development of the novel is significant . Indeed it can be argued that feminine sensibility plays a key role here . G K Chesterton describes the novel as a feminine art form , and he explains that it is the female eye for homely detail , as well as the talent to depict the intricacies of relationships , that make it so (39 . These qualities are important because they serve to counteract the male tendency towards philosophy and idealism . Such tendencies must be overcome because

the novel is aiming for an individualistic and democratic voice which is beyond all factionalism The search for an individual voice had been the aim of literature since the Protestant Reformation . It was the aim too of the Enlightenment but the practical effect was only to introduce the rigid formality of classicism . So the constraints of the Church had been replaced by just another form of constraint . Such constraints were overcome in the end by the female prose , and gradually over a long period . In this respect we will examine the two Aphra Behn and Mary Shelley separated by a century and a half . The former presages the advent of the novel , while the latter perfects the form and paves the way for the great Victorian age of the novel

Classicism was the key barrier to the development of the novel . All efforts towards informality were frowned upon by the stalwarts of Augustan literature , led by Dryden and Pope , so the novel was perforce directed underground . Here it flowered in the hands of the women , who were mostly ignored because they concentrated on sentimental romance , and appealing to woman readers alone . Daniel Defoe is now regarded as the first proper novelist , but it is plain to see that he has adopted a form established by the female , who produced mostly trifling and salacious romances . Such a may be applied to Aphra Behn 's Love Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister , but it is also notable for being the first epistolary novel . Her reputation , however , rests on Oroonoko , a love story involving an African prince captured by slave traders . Though not yet a proper novel it contains many innovations that point in that direction . Behn assumes a conversational tone with the readers in places , inspiring familiarity It also contains an omniscient voice of narration , which was to become the most distinctive characteristic of the novel proper . However , she feels obliged to explain her omniscience , and so the narrator is tangentially involved in the story itself . She knows all the incidents in Africa because she has lived the slave plantation and has conversed with the African prince

By the time Mary Shelley writes Frankenstein , the novel form has almost come into its own element , and its history boasts such great novelists as Defoe , Fielding , Richardson , Sterne , Smollet and Austen Nevertheless , Shelley 's original contribution in not insignificant . The voice of the novel reflects `individual...