novel beginnings patricia meyer spacks Novel Beginnings experiments in eighteenth-century english fiction yale university press new haven & london Yale Guides to English Literature Yale Guides to English Literature survey topics in English literature from Beowulf to the contemporary scene. Each volume of the series is intended for students and general readers. Published with assistance from the Annie Burr Lewis Fund and the Mary Cady Tew Memorial Fund. Copyright © 2006 by Patricia M. Spacks. All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publishers. Printed in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Spacks, Patricia Ann Meyer. Novel beginnings : experiments in eighteenth-century English fiction / Patricia Meyer Spacks. p. cm. — (Yale guides to English literature) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-300-11031-9 (alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-300-11031-6 (alk. paper) 1. English fiction — 18th century — History and criticism. 2. Experimental fiction, English — History and criticism. 3. Literary form — History — 18th century. I. Title. II. Series. PR858.E982S66 2006 823′.509 — dc22 2005024209 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Com- mittee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 For Aubrey Williams Blest with a Taste exact, yet unconfin’d; A Knowledge both of Books and Humankind; Gen’rous Converse; a Soul exempt from Pride; And Love to Praise, with Reason on his Side. contents Acknowledgments ix 1 The Excitement of Beginnings 1 2 Novels of Adventure 28 3 The Novel of Development 59 4 Novels of Consciousness 92 5 The Novel of Sentiment 127 6 The Novel of Manners 160 7 Gothic Fiction 191 8 The Political Novel 222 9 Tristram Shandy and the Development of the Novel 254 Afterword: What Came Next 277 viii contents Suggestions for Further Reading 287 Works Cited 293 Index 299 acknowledgments more than anything else I have written, this book is indebted to my students—particularly to the several generations of graduate students with whom I have discussed eighteenth-century fiction and by whom I have been stimulated and enlightened. I am also profoundly grateful to Myra Jehlen, who read and reread key chapters, always helping me to achieve greater clarity and precision and often provoking me to fresh thought. Like my other writing during the past fifteen years, this book has profited from my weekly lunches and literary discussions with Jerome McGann. Bruce Redford provided valuable suggestions at an early stage of my thinking; and Aubrey Williams, to whom the book is dedicated, helped me, as so often before, by innumerable enlivening conversations. ix