Formal Experimentation and Theories of Fiction
This chapter situates the theory and practice of the early novel in the context of developing ideas about literary art in general. It argues that issues such as the relationship between fiction and probability, or between historical fact and allegorical truth, belonged to a wider and evolving discussion of literary art. The neoclassical rules that predominated in the Restoration came under challenge in the early eighteenth century, a reassessment that facilitated the ‘rise of the novel’ after 1740. On the other hand, the evident exclusion of the novel from an authoritative classical tradition made this ambiguous form artistically undisciplined and morally suspect. Particularly as the outlaw ‘novel’ began to gain a real foothold in the print marketplace during the 1720s, proving its ability to captivate readers in ways not authorized in neoclassical theory, it needed to be harmonized with the tradition of the epic, comic drama, and other ancient genres.