Novels:Contemporary Views
From Marteau
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1651
- Paul Scarron, The Comical Romance, Chapter XXI. ”Which perhaps will not be found very Entertaining“ (London, 1700). — Why the French should follow the Spanish and write novels.
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1683-1712
- One text in five versions: "novels" — "little histories" of intrigues have replaced the old "romance" with its bombast adventures:
- [Du Plaisir,] "Sentimens sur l’histoire" from: Sentimens sur les lettres et sur l’histoire, avec des scruples sur le stile (Paris: C. Blageart, 1683). — On the art of the modern novel, ist character observation and its structure.
- Abbe Bellegarde, "Lettre à une Dame de la Cour, qui lui avoit demandé quelques Reflexions sur l’Histoire" from: Lettres curieuses de littérature et de morale (La Haye: Adrian Moetjens, 1702). Exploiting Du Plaisir's treatise.
- [Abbe Bellegarde,] The Preface to The Secret History of Queen Zarah and the Zarazians (Albigion, 1705) and its versions into French and German. A translation of Bellegarde's text which turns the rise of the novel into a European and ultimately English phenomenon.
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1703
- Gottlieb Stolle, Notiz eines Gesprächs mit Pierre Bayle vom 6. August 1703. — Bayle on recent developments of the market of French fiction.
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1713
- Deutsche Acta Eruditorum, Review of the French translation of Delarivier Manley's New Atalantis 1709 (Leipzig: J. L. Gleditsch, 1713). — A learned journal rewiews a scandalous roman à clef.
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1715
- Jane Barker, Preface to Exilius of the Banish’d Roman. A New Romance (London: E. Curll, 1715). — A plea for a return to the traditional romance (as Chaucer and Fénelon wrote it) to end the age of the modern production.
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1718
- [Johann Friedrich Riederer,] "Satyra von den Liebes-Romanen", published in: Die abentheuerliche Welt in einer Pickelheerings-Kappe, No. 2 ([Nürnberg,] 1718). Readers of all classes devour romances and novels and dream of being amorous heroes, a satire.
