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• The novel " The novel was born in England at the end of the eighteenth century. " During the nineteenth century, especially in 1850 and 1870, it is mainly associated with the victorian novel. " Pride and Prejudice is an eighteenth century novel, in fact it is a social comedy and also the language used is that of 1700. " On the other hand, Frankenstein is a mixture of different styles: it is the first example of science fiction novel, but it is also influenced by the Gothic period, the Romanticism and the political novel genre. " During this period the novel gained a heightened aesthetic status, a salient social role and a literary tradition of its own. " The novel developed from other genres (epic, romance, journalistic report…), and it tended to accept its origins while “dialoguing” with them. The Romantic novel continued this dialogue. " Many novels of this period were referred to as “romances”, but there is a huge difference between the two genres: " - A romance deals with the marvelous, chivalry, knight-errantry and feminine perfection. It is free from formal constraint. " - A novel represents the manners and the everyday life of modern characters. As Walter Scott pointed out, it is a fictitious narrative in which the events are the ordinary events that happen in the modern society. " However, during that period the novel was seen as the lowest of literary forms. It was loose in structure, its settings and references were linked to the ordinary world, its origins were journalistic and epistolary, and it was read and often written by women. Writing a novel was considered an easy task, and reading them didn’t teach any moral value. " In such situation, novelists tried to proclaim their fidelity to accepted stylistic and moral standards. " William Wordsworth, Mary Shelley, Maria Edgeworth and others emphasized the importance of tracing causality, excavating social manners and behavioral idiosyncrasies in order to discover the “actuating principle” beneath. " Evelina, Frances Burney’s novel, makes clear in its preface the status of the readers of novels: they were a lot but they were less respectable than the readers of other genres. " Scott’s novels changed the reputation of the category and, from the last part of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth, some changes in the publishing industry made the increased the production, reception and distribution of novels. These changes created a massmarket for fiction. In this period novels were also published divided in three volumes. " The new concept of the reading public played an important role too, in fact it increased a lot. This public was able to access to books because they could be borrowed from circulating libraries instead of bought, they were expensive commodities. There were a lot of novels in circulating libraries and, in addition to this, the public taste was shaped by the reviews of the publishing houses. " During the Romantic Age the novel shifted its status and looked for some features that would have distinguished it from other forms of poetry and drama. " The evolution of the novel as a literary genre per se was facilitated by the popularity of collections of novels. These latter benefited from the ending of perpetual copyright and they consolidated the novel as an independent literary form. These series supported each other and gained critical gravitas. " The Romantic period is often associated with the French Revolution, parallels can be drawn between the social and the literary revolution. " In the 1790s a group of novels developed and it accurately illustrated how literature could influence political debate. These novels are called “Jacobin novels” and they advanced a radical critique of society. " Thomas Holcroft’s The Adventures of Hugh Trevor deals with abuses in the systems of law, church, parliament and universities. It demonstrates a strong faith in human reason, and in the growth of moral intellect against ungoverned passions and corruptions (the current state of

society according to Jacobins). This also demonstrates that a novel can concern important issues. " Novelists took part in the backlash of anti-Jacobin writing in the increasingly repressive public culture of the late 1790s. This anti-Jacobin tendency in novel writing coincides with some conservative forces typical of the novel, such as the the cult of sentiment and sensibility that explores romantic love. Sentimentalism was felt like something that undermine female rationality. " Just like sentimental novels Gothic novels were seen as a low form of literature, because of moral and stylistic factors. On the other hand, some critics, bored with the novels predictable events and recognizable surroundings, appreciated the new mysterious settings and the unexpected events. " Ann Radcliffe proposed two different kinds of Gothic novels:" 1. Works of terror, that continuously evoke acts of violence and supernatural appearances. " 2. Works of horror, in which the acts of violence and the supernatural appearances actually occur. " Radcliffe’s novels are considered works of terror whereas Lewis’ ones, dealing with murder, Satanic intervention and so on, are works of horror. " However, both terror and horror fiction, have a political meaning. They both question the nature of power, the source of its authority, and how it is constantly reinforced by the family and by gender roles. This connection is particularly evident in novels concerning the humans impotence in the face of institutions such as monasticism and the Inquisition. " Others think that these novels are only a way to escape predictable everyday life. " These novels were interested in the relationship between the individual and the society, they represented the man in different societies and at different stages of development (philosophical history). This interest influenced a lot both the regional novels and the tendency of some novels to send their characters out to other lands. These characters often comment the organization of ethnic and emigrant groups through letters home. " Regional novels are also linked to the Romantic nationalism. These stories were often set in Scotland or Ireland. " Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein very well represents the traditions of philosophical novels. The language and the intellectual debates of science finds an analogue in the moral judgement of the ambitious individual. Moreover, the novel is full of letters, oral confessions, and interpolated tales. These aspects can be associated with personal reflection and social delineation as well as with the narrative of a young man’s education. The last man also deals with the man and the society, and it is representative of the philosophical genre. " A part from philosophical history, personal history was considered as important as public history. This concept was an influence of both Rousseau and sentimentalism. Burney thought that external events are easier to tell than the ones of the heart. Edgeworth claimed that readers could take more advantages from documents of private life, defining history full of exaggerated heroes and villains. " However, the most traditional novel subject remained courtship. Heroines face the conflict between parental ambition or despotism and romantic inclination, and between their own social delusions and their true affections. " Social convention, male power, female helplessness and uncertainty are all topics that the novel of moral etiquette and the Gothic fiction share. The social propriety in the novel of moral etiquette and the physical peril of the Gothic often stand in for each other. In addition to this, the two forms both praise in their endings a retirement from sophisticated social life in favor of rural retirement dominated by simplicity. " Jane Austen accepted the conventions and the constraints of the novel of a young woman’s education. " Her style is very ironic and it exposes the pretensions and the follies of polite society. " Modern criticism aims to uncover the political aspects that don’t rise to the level of explicit debate. " Austen developed the novel subtly but significantly: she used the free indirect discourse (a way for the readers to explore the heroine’s mind) and she let her characters speak for themselves through dialogues. "

The fictionality of her novels is signaled by references to the readers’ expectations, the author’s arbitrary will and the stock phrases with which characters are released in their future lives. These aspects also underline the fragility of the happy endings to which her novels, as social comedies, conform. " By 1830 the novel had established itself as a literary genre. " Novelistic tradition is about the defeat of an older, wilder and superstitious culture, the one of romance, and by telling about it, the novel makes sure of the return of such culture. "

- Characteristics of the novel" We can’t really define the novel. It was surely born at the end of 1700 in England and we can say that it represents a revolutionary genre. " 1. History: History has an important role in the novel and it is balanced with fictional elements. We often find the word “history” in the title of novels." 2. The main character is fictional, but his features are those of a real person: he does not have to be a hero, he has to be an ordinary man and his behavior must be an example for the readers who can see themselves in him. This is the main reason why the novel is educational: it is not based on huge historical events but it focuses on ordinary people. "

- The spread of the novel" According to Ian Watt, an English critic, the birth of the novel is strongly linked to the development of Capitalism, because it changes the way in which a text can be published and distributed, and also to the spread of the Puritan ethic, which enlightens the capabilities of the human being and states that he has to give an account of his actions to God. " Furthermore, between 1600 and 1700, literacy increases considerably: in 1600 only the 25% of men can read and write, in 1700 the 80% of the population was able to read and write (including women and people whose social standing wasn’t that high). " We can’t forget that, during that period, also printing was born. " Moreover, in I. Watt’s opinion, the birth of a market-economy plays an important role in the spread of the novel genre: authors don’t need patronage anymore, if they want to write they only have to find subjects that interest readers. " Ian Watt also states that the fathers of this new genre are Daniel Defoe, Samuel Richardson and Henry Fielding. " Defoe was a journalist, Richardson a printer and Fielding wrote comedies. They did write novels but they also had other jobs, this is why they represent the Middle Class. " Their characters are lonely, they do not have a family: Robison Crusoe is a castaway, Pamela is a handmaid and Tom Jones an orphan. They are ordinary people who want to rewrite their destiny. The capability of building a better future is on of the key elements of the novel and it is strongly linked to the Puritan ethic (we can find it also in Pride and Prejudice). " Defoe, Richardson and Fielding are themselves an instance of how a man can improve his social standing through education. In fact, according to Watt, the novel is the true expression of the Middle Class and its social escalation, it is their mean to make people aware of the power that they now have (Hegel himself shares this idea). " This genre ends in 1832 more or less. " In general, 1832 is an important year of social changes in the UK: more people are able to vote, the Middle Class becomes more and more powerful whereas aristocracy loses a lot of its power. " Watt’s theory was developed in 1957, and, even though it still is very influent, some changes have been made throughout the years. "

I.

Watt only focuses on the Middle Class novel, but during the same period there also were novels of a different kind. An example is Gulliver’s Travel, written in the eighteenth century, which style is completely different (we are not sure that it can be considered a novel, we can say that it is a prose satire). " II. The life and opinions of Tristram Shandy, gentleman (written by Laurence Sterne during the second half of 1700) also has a completely different style: it does not present life as it is, Sterne wants to make readers aware of the fact that what they are reading is a book and not real life, and he accomplishes his aim by uncovering the difficulties of an author who has to build a character and by some narrative techniques. " III. There is also the “sentimental novel” or “novel of sensibility”, that focuses on feelings and emotions. The ultimate example of this genre is The man of feeling, written by Henry Mackenzie. "

- A comparison between the novel genre and the epic poem" The epic world is a world of values, dominated by the Gods, and, for this reason, everything that happens always has a reason why. " On the other hand, according to György Lukács, religion does not really exist in the novel: characters don’t have a family and they use religion as and when they like, or they don’t use it at all. Obviously, in a world where religion isn’t a thing, we abandon the theory of predestination. " Fielding defines the novel as a “comic-epic novel in prose” (he is undermining it). "

- The Romantic Age" Both Jane Austen and Mary Shelley live and write during the Romantic Age." The Romantic Age is a revolutionary movement, in fact some says that it was born in 1789, the year of the French Revolution which strongly influences it. " Others think that its birth coincides with the birth of the lyrical ballads (1798). " Romanticism focuses on the nature and on the childhood and it refuses the Enlightenment ideas. " A lot of romantic poets are also interested in politics: poorness and freedom are important themes during this period. " Romanticism keywords 1. Monsters: Romantic monsters are very similar to the ones we still find in nowadays stories or films, only their motivations and their modus operandi have changed. Monsters were very popular during the Romantic Age, and they were modeled after the creatures of age-old superstition and folklore (ghosts, vampires, werewolves, witches, and human beings transformed by occult power), in addition to them we can also find more modern creatures, such as mummies, aliens, zombie, and creatures created scientifically. This increase of monsters is due to the increased foreign immigration, urban crime, and the fear of the new “unholy” scientific researches. The Romantic ghost is inspired by Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Hamlet and Richard III. During the Romantic period people didn’t believe in ghosts anymore, but they were a metaphor for the fear of death or divine retribution. The Romantic vampire, unlike its slimy predecessors, had an aristocratical status. It represented a social metaphor. Tales about werewolves were really a thing in the regions in which there were wolves (Britain was populate by wolves untile the sixteenth century). Wolves seems to possess human cleverness, so lycanthropy was much more persecuted than witchcraft. It was seen as an evil shape-shifter. Zombies were linked to Obeah, something practiced by slaves against their owners. Obeah works psychologically, people believe in the power of its spell, often enhanced by a soporific potion. Napoleonic campaign in Egypt and the subsequent ransacking of Egyptian artifacts made the resurrected mummy very popular as a monster. Victor, in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, makes a comparison between the monster and a mummy, saying that a mummy couldn’t be more hideous. " 2. Picturesque: this term gained popularity among travelers on the Grand Tour during the eighteenth century, and it once meant “suitable for painting”. The picturesque involved both

nature imitating art and art imitating nature. Landowners hired professional landscape gardeners in order to transform their estates into something that suited the idea of “picturesque”. The “Claude glass”, named after Claude Lorrain, a landscaper, was invented to frame the scene and be able to give more than one perspective (Elizabeth at Pembley’s). Many critics, in fact, thought that the picturesque was something in between the idea of beauty and sublimity. Claude Lorrain himself, and other landscapers, divided the scene so that one side represented the pleasant and beautiful nature, and the other one showed the frightening and tormented nature (storms, clouds…). Coleridge’s idea was that the Picturesque occurs when different parts provide, thanks to their harmony, an effect of a whole, the whole must be felt, but the part are seen and distinguished. " 3. Prometheus: Prometheus is one of the Titans of Greek mythology. He is the creator of mankind and he gives fire to men, but he disobeys and he defies Zeus. As a punishment, Zeus, sentenced him to be bound forever to a rock, where an eagle would eat his liver daily, which regenerated only to be eaten again. This myth of hubris and punishment well suits the idea of revolution and Romanticism. Goethe was the first to write a poem using Prometheus as a subject, Prometheus. In this monologue Prometheus talks to a God that doesn’t listen and doesn’t care, he accuses Zeus of narcism. Goethe was followed by Blake, Byron, Shelley and Mary Shelley. Mary Shelley in particular alters the myth in Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus, she focuses on the figure of Victor and on his refusal to nurture and educate the creature that he created. He represents the father like Jupiter in Goethe’s poem. This result in the reader much more appreciating the monster, which is more human, more lovable and also more hateful, than its creator. " 4. Gothic: the term originally referred to the Germanic tribe of goths. This word is now associated with many concepts: the style of architecture introduced in 1300s, a font in printing, and the writings belonging to or imitating the style of the medieval period. William Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto is one of the first example of Gothic literature. This genre portrayed a corrupted, decadent and falling into ruin world, and it exposed the unspeakable crimes of sexual abuse. The setting often was a dark forest, or a castle or an abandoned abbey. These stories involved a hero, an heroine, a villain and the supernatural element (horror and dark). The Gothic soon inspired every genre capable of sustaining a narrative (novel, tale, ballad, melodrama and also theatre). " Women After the French Déclaration Universelle des droits de l’homme et du citoyen, women wondered whether there were comparable rights for them. But the question of women rights was always complex: men were set up as the standard and and the issue focused on the extent to which women resembled or differed from them intellectually and morally. As a consequence, women could demand some specific rights (citizenship, recognition of their rationality…) but the term “man” was still seen as a synonymous of “human”. They were considered sexual objects rather than sexual subjects and they couldn’t access the full concept of “humanity” claimed by men. " The Enlightenment and its focus on human rationality and natural rights of men didn’t help women either. There was a lack of interest in the rights or wrongs of women. " This discussion has recently been extended into medical and scientific terms. These texts show the differences between men and women and demonstrate why the rights of men were seen as sex-specific and inappropriate for women. " This emphasis on sexual differences was particularly evident in the eighteenth century, when the two different spheres of public and private life were created. Men were the center of the public, political, intellectual and industrial life; women took care of the house, the family and the early education of children. " In this sense, the influence of Evangelism played an important role. Evangelicalism consider the house the center of moral and religious life. Consequently, women became the religious and moral guides of men, the counterpart to the rationalism and brutality of the commercial world. " Therefore, women were very important both from a domestic and a public point of view. However it is important to notice that, especially middle-class men claimed not only rationality, humanity an...