- Novel of manners
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The novel of manners is a literary genre that deals with aspects of behavior, language, customs and values characteristic of a particular class of people in a specific historical context. The genre emerged during the final decades of the 18th century. The novel of manners often shows a conflict between individual aspirations or desires and the accepted social codes of behaviour. There is a vital relationship between manners, social behaviour and character. Physical appearances are overall less emphasised while manners and social behaviour remain the particular interests in the novel. The idea of manners assumes not only a social significance, as it is applied today, but a moral one as well, which preceded the social context in which it was used. What connects the two is the idea of "pleasing".[clarification needed] Characters in the novels are not always morally and socially obliging to each other, however, but there is differentiation between the upstanding hero or heroine and the socially less acceptable characters. The different degrees of how the characters uphold the standard level of social etiquette is what usually dominates the plot of the novel.
Contents
Background
Books and notes in this period instructing one how to behave in society are countless. In particular, Lord Chesterfield's letters to his son are a prime example to anyone concerned with propriety. He instructs his son to engage society in a pleasing manner which includes avoiding possibly offensive or controversial subjects, speaking in peaceful tones, and acquiring a poised posture, all in consideration of the company one is in. This obsession with proper social conduct spawned a wave novels concerned with this sort of behaviour. In 1778, Frances Burney wrote Evelina, one of the first legitimate novels of manners. Social behaviour in public and private settings accounts for much of the plot of Evelina. This is mirrored in other novels that were more highly popularised in the beginning of the 19th century. Jane Austen's novels are perhaps the most recognisable works in the genre. Because of Austen's works, the novel of manners is mostly associated with the early 19th century.
Relation to Gothic fiction
The rise in the importance of social behaviour had not gone unnoticed by one Horace Walpole, the widely credited inventor of Gothic fiction. Walpole's knowledge of Chesterfield and the importance of manners perhaps influenced not only his work but carried over into other authors' novels dubbed "Gothic" as well. Walpole wrote what is generally accepted to be the first Gothic novel during Chesterfield's lifetime, The Castle of Otranto in 1764. It is theorised[by whom?] that the emergence of the novel of manners as a full genre was in retaliation to the rise in the popularity of the Gothic novel.
This near-simultaneous emergence of the novel of manners and the Gothic novel led to a crossover of characteristics between the genres. The main link between the novel of manners and the Gothic novel is the language of manners. In both cases, social and moral manners are dominating factors in the structure of the novel. In the Gothic novel, the starkest difference is the supernatural or the indication of supernatural events. However, many of the characters are often so far below the accepted level of social behaviour that it is considered horrific. Another feature that differs from the novel of manners is the outcome of the novel. In Gothic fiction, the outcome is not always the positive reinforcement of morals that the novel of manners offers. An example of this morally anti-climactic ending would be Charlotte Dacre's Zofloya.
Another theory for the emergence and growth of the novel of manners is that the changes taking place in English society were eroding the class boundaries. Changes in the social hierarchy were taking place due to leaps in technology and the novel of manners was a way to reestablish this class order. The different classes represented in the novels served to represent how the different classes in society were supposed to behave in different settings. This includes public versus private, rural versus urban, and settings where there were men versus women. This contrast between the genders highlights the fact that there were many more women that were authors of novels of manners than there were men. This brought the focus of many of these novels to the social issues and conventions that plagued women of the time.
Notable works
Well known examples of the novel of manners include:
- Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Emma, Mansfield Park, Persuasion
- Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, Villette
- Henry Mackenzie's The Man of Feeling
- William Makepeace Thackeray's Vanity Fair
- Evelyn Waugh's A Handful of Dust
- Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence, The House of Mirth
- F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.
See also
References
- Andrzej Diniejko (2004). Introduction to the Study of Literature. Wydawnictwo Akademii Swietokrzyskiej.
- Novel Beginnings: Experiments in 18th century English Fiction
Patricia Meyer Spacks Yale Guides to English Literature U.S. 2006
- Lord Chesterfield's Letters
Lord Chesterfield, Introduction and Notes by David Roberts Oxford University Press Great Clarendon Street, Oxford 1992
- The Castle of Otranto
Horace Walpole Oxford University Press Breat Clarendon Street, Oxford 1996
- Zofloya
Charlotte Dacre Oxford University Press Great Clarendon Street, Oxford 1997
- Evelina
Frances Burney Oxford University Press Great Clarendon Street, Oxford 2006
Categories:- Literary genres
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