AUGUSTAN AGE
SOCIETY
MERCHANTS
Own mines and manifacturing factories
Marry into aristocracy to gain prestige
MIDDLE CLASS
Artisans and Craftsmen - work long hours - get little pay
Its expansion continues in the Augustan Age
Strongly influences this age
URBAN POPULATION
No political rights - Live in terrible conditions
THE RISE OF THE NOVEL
MAIN REASONS
Increased popular interest in reading
Libraries gain popularity
Growing importance of midddle class - influenced development of prose genre
MAIN FEATURES
Novelist as 'spokeman' of the middle class
Write in simple way - understood by everyone
Sense of 'reward & punishment' typical of the Puritan Ethics of Middle Class
The HERO
burgeoise man w/ his problems
'mouthpiece' of the author
readers are expected to sympathise
All CHARACTERS
Realistic
Struggle for 'survival' or 'social success'
Events are in chronological sequence
Narrator never abandons his characters