Dedicated to classics and hits.

Saturday, August 11, 2018

Oroonoko (1688) by Aphra Behn

Aphra Behn by Peter Lely ca. 1670.jpg
Aphra Behn, the first professional woman writer in England (17th century)

Book Review
Oroonoko (1688)
by Aphra Behn


  If it had been written in the era of the novel, Oroonoko would be too short to qualify.  It's more like a novella in terms of length.  Since it was written before the era of the novel, it is a short work of prose fiction.  Most important for the purpose of the 1001 Books project, Aphra Behn is the first woman writer to be included, in terms of chronology.   Behn is a patron saint of all women writers in England and "one of" the first women to earn a living from her writing, which she did, as a playwright and poet, in the 17th century, in and around London.

  Behn's reputation has skyrocketed in recent years- her presence in the original 1001 Books list as the sole woman writer prior to the 18th century.  Since it was published in 1688, there is an argument that Oroonoko is the first novel, but including Oroonoko extends the time line back all the way to Greece and Rome.  Aside from the gender of the author, Oroonoko is interesting because it tells the story of an African prince, kidnapped and brought to Surinam as a slave, where he rebels and is captured, and executed.

  The Elizabethan prose does the reader no favors, but at least Oroonoko is short- the American edition I checked out from the library had it as the first chapter in a collection of writing by Aphra Behn. 

Wednesday, August 08, 2018

Callirhoe (AD 200) by Chariton


Book Review
Callirhoe (AD 200)
by Chariton


   The question of "What is a novel?" typically excludes Greek literature, which is usually classified in terms of "epic" and "drama" and "tragedy,"  which reflects both form (theater, spoken word poem) and content different then what would become the novel in the 18th century.  Recent scholarship has pushed back upon the late 19th to mid 20th century idea of the novel being created in the 18th century, and sought to include a more diverse selection of materials from ancient Greece and Rome.

   The obvious limitation to this argument is a lack of source material, antique novels having not been high on the list of texts to preserve during centuries of disruption and chaos after the collapse of the western Roman Empire.   Callirhoe is basically the only such novel from its time period that we have (most of) maintained.  It does, indeed, push back against the idea that the novel didn't exist in antiquity.  It does appear much more likely that novels were read by the small literature audience of elites and educated peoples, and not maintained, and the gap of time between ancient Rome and the inventing of the printing press was more than sufficient to ensure the destruction of most texts from that time period.

    Callihroe is surprising readable, especially when compared to the oft stilted translations of Greek and Latin poetry.  It is unmistakably from a pre-Christian time and the characters seem clearly influenced by The Odyssey and The Iliad.  Large portions of Callirhoe take place in Babylon, and they give the reader a better idea of the extent to which the ancient West and Near East co-existed over the centuries.  Callirhoe is a historical novel- a Greek author writing during the Roman Empire about an earlier period of Greek history, before the Roman empire.   The story, about a young woman thought murdered by her young lover, then kidnapped by pirates who are trying to rob her grace-goods and is then sold into slavery, married to a Satrap of the Persian empire and then pursued by the Persian Emperor herself before being "rescued" by her original husband at the head of a rebelling Egyptian army, contains enough incident to satisfy any 20th century critic.

  

Tuesday, August 07, 2018

The Unfortunate Traveller (1594) by Thomas Nashe


Book Review
The Unfortunate Traveller (1594)
by Thomas Nashe

  The Unfortunate Traveller belongs to the "pre-history" of the novel, and although scholars have recently attacked the idea of the novel being "invented" in the 18th century, the majority view is that the novel, as supposed to different kinds of narrative prose that pre-date the novel, was directly tied to the rise of the audience for a novel, and that this audience first began to exist in England in the early 18th century, part of a larger tide of print matter generated for a general audience.

  According to this argument, narrative published before the 18th century can't be a novel because there was no audience for a novel.  In other words, books like The Unfortunate Traveller, novel-like books published before the 18th century, were read by a small segment of the elite of Elizabethan England, and not widely disseminated to a general reading audience. 

  BUT- the 18th century writers who "created" the novel we know today had all read The Unfortunate Traveller and in this way you could argue that the novel was created by the 18th century equivalent of a critical audience, and then the books we actually still keep track of today were the books that invented the popular audience.

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