Historical Novel (British)

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

Nathan Uglow (Trinity All Saints, Leeds)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.06: English Writing and Culture of the Romantic Period, 1789-1837.
Vol. editors: Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Daniel Robinson (Widener University)

Dates

Date of occurrence 1814-09

Places

United Kingdom (Location)

Genres and Modes

Historical
Novel

The historical novel is a literary genre characterized by the attempt to fuse strong dramatic plot lines and credible human psychology, within a setting constituted from specific historical detail (typically based upon diligent research into actual events, locations, and characters, as well as cultural customs, costume, and speech).

By common consent, the founder of this genre was Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), whose numerous novels starting with Waverley in 1814, unleashed a passion for the historical novel among readers and writers that remains strong to this day. The impact of the genre on Romantic Europe was swift and decisive, contributing to the privileged place that historical consciousness has henceforth come to e…

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

2507 words

Citation: Uglow, Nathan. "Historical Novel (British)". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 March 2002 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1213, accessed 26 November 2024.]

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Historical Novel (British)

Dates

Places

Genres and Modes

Save this article

Leave Feedback