The Development of the English Novel Author:Wilbur Lucius Cross Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: most worthy of notice are 'Francion' (1622), by Charles Sorel, 'Le Roman Comique' (1651-57), by Paul Scan-on, and 'Le Roman Bourgeois' (1666), by Antoine Furetie... more »re. These stories were all translated, sometimes curiously mutilated, into English. Scarron's facetious manner of beginning and ending his chapters, Fielding has made us familiar with in 'Joseph Andrews' and 'Tom Jones.' The 'Roman Bourgeois' is the most graphic account of the ways and doings of the bourgeoisie that had appeared in fiction. There are scenes in it that might have been written by Zola. It seems to have given rise to those numberless sketches, written by Tom Brown and others, that were soon appearing in London, of adventures and scenes at Bartholomew Fair, on the streets, and in the playhouses. 5. The Restoration After the battle of Worcester, the English began once more to read fiction. Lyly, Greene, and Sidney all survived the literary wreckage of the civil wars. From now on the French romances were translated as fast as they were published in France. And for reading them and discussing love, friendship, and statecraft, little coteries were formed, the members of which addressed one another as 'the matchless Orinda,' 'the adored Valeria,' and ' the noble Antenor.' Best known in their own time were the groups of platonic lovers, professing an immaculate chastity, who hovered about Katherine Philips and Margaret Duchess of Newcastle. The literary efforts of these romantic ladies and gentlemen were directed to poetry and letter-writing ratherthan to fiction. There proceeded from them only one romance, ' Partheuissa' (1664, 1665, 1677), by Roger Boyle, an admirer of Katherine Philips. The most noticeable thing about this inexpressibly dull imitation of Scuderi, is its mixing up in much confusion several g...« less