The Development of the Historical Novel and its Rise in the 19 th Century

The 19^th century witnessed a rising interest in historical material which finally culminated in the emergence of the historical novel. As has already been stated, historical data had of course entered imaginative writing long before the actual ascent of the historical novel itself:

“[d]ie Benutzung geschichtlicher Vorgänge, Ereignisse und Personen in der Literatur ist beinahe so alt wie die Literatur selbst” (Steinmetz 1988, 8). History plays a major part in ancient epic writing, and it also figures prominently as a theme in classical tragedy. This tradition continues in Elizabethan theatre, as Shakespeare’s history plays prove. His dramas about historical events were indeed very popular with the Elizabethan audience as they reflected the patriotic zeal of the age and described historical actions of the past that still seemed to shape the life of the contemporary audience. Already Renaissance writers used such literary genres as the history play or the historical poem as means to create a picture of the past as well as to highlight the past’s influence on the present. This connection between past and present is an important notion which is still of relevance today. Contemporary

historical writing continues to stress the idea that history is to be regarded as a bridge which arches the stream of time and thus connects past and present. Indeed, as A.S. Byatt argues,

“the novelists are trying to find historical paradigms for contemporary situations” and are convinced that “[one] cannot understand the present if [one does] not understand the past that preceded and produced it” (HS, 11).

It is however important to note that Shakespeare’s history plays are not always strictly historically accurate. The famous playwright took for instance the freedom not to follow a historical chronology of events for the purpose of dramatic effects. This intervention of the narrator has to be kept in mind when reading historical fiction: historical facts have always been filtered through the mind of the narrator and thus probably lost their objectivity. The poet Shakespeare had thus coloured historical facts with subjective opinions and digressions. He thus resembles 20^th century philosophers of history such as Hayden White, who states that historical facts do indeed not speak for themselves and are therefore subject to the historian’s subjective selection and interpretation. Historiography and literature can therefore not be clearly separated anymore.

Toward the end of the 18^th century history eventually began to invade a then still new and innovative literary genre – the novel. It became a topic not only because of the general wish “to understand, celebrate or assess a national past” (Alexander, 124) and the need to give the individual a place in history, but also to grant the novel a certain attitude of truthfulness. Authors used the past as an appropriate background and setting for their nevertheless mainly fictional characters. As Elizabeth Wesseling states in her description of the emergence of the classical model of historical fiction, novelists began “to draw upon information collected by antiquarians concerning the manners, customs, clothes, and architecture of former ages in order to situate the adventures of predominantly fictional characters in concretely detailed, historical surroundings” (Wesseling, 27). The writers thus emphasized an impression of reliability that they wanted their works to convey and which helped them to distance themselves and their works from their literary predecessors: “Nicht mehr das Schicksal edler Prinzen und Prinzessinnen, die abenteuerlichen Kämpfe tapferer Ritter oder wunderbare, übersinnliche Ereignisse und Begebenheiten standen auf dem Programm, sondern die realistische Darstellung zeitgenössischer gesellschaftlicher Wirklichkeit” (Mengel, 11).

Though the past has already figured as an important element in literature for a long time it is nevertheless one author whose name is forever connected with the creation and rise of the historical novel. In 1814 Sir Walter Scott’s Waverley, or ‘Tis Sixty Years Since was published and with it the historical novel began its triumphant progress. Scott is generally considered to be the one author who left an indelible mark on a whole genre – or at least upon the first phase of its development.⁸ Heinz-Joachim Müllenbrock stresses that this 19^th century writer was indeed the first novelist to achieve the balance between history and fiction that has long been sought after. Scott managed to combine historical facts with fictional narration without blurring the borders between both areas. He regarded the historical facts as his raw material which he as a novelist could shape and arrange and thus fictionalize.⁹ Whereas in the years and centuries before Scott historiography and historical fiction often intertwined, he considered both different branches of, however, the same tree.

Walter Scott consequently regarded the historical novel as an addition to historiography which he dismissed as a dry and unattractive collection of historical facts only. Müllenbrock puts it thus:

Andererseits […] ließ sich nicht verleugnen, dass den vielfältigen, hauptsächlich dem Mittelalter geltenden historiographischen Bemühungen bei aller Aufgeschlossenheit für den Reiz des Vergangenen der Staub des Altertümlichen anhaftete. In diesem Manko nun erkannte Scott die sich dem historischen Roman eröffnende Chance. […] Das für die Fachhistoriographie insgesamt kennzeichnende Fehlen imaginativer Wärme ließ in Scott die Einsicht reifen, in dem historischen Roman ein Instrument zu schaffen, mit dem die Einverleibung der Vergangenheit in das Gegenwartsbewusstsein auf anschaulichere und somit wirksamere Weise erreicht werden konnte.

(Müllenbrock, 34/35)

Traditional historiography was in Walter Scott’s opinion not able to capture the whole power, the turmoil and emotions caused by historical events and thus the historical novel had to assume this duty. Scott furthermore gave attention to the daily lives of ordinary people, an aspect that had until then been excluded from general historiography. His

8 It is however interesting to take a closer look at the postscript to Waverley in which Scott acknowledges the influence of Maria Edgeworth. In fact, Edgeworth’s first novel Castle Rackrent, published in 1800, is often regarded as the first historical novel and so the early female influence on this genre long dominated by men is undeniable. Castle Rackrent further displays the interplay of historical facts with fiction as Edgeworth used a real-life family history as the basis of her story.

9 For more information concerning Scott’s treatment of historical facts in combination with fiction I recommend a closer look at Heinz-Joachim Müllenbrock’s essay “Scott’s The Heart of Midlothian.

Überlegungen zur Leistungsfähigkeit des historischen Romans.” in: H.-J. Müllenbrock. Der Historische Roman – Aufsätze: 25/26.

historical novel was therefore to complete historiography or, as Petra Deistler puts it: “Der historische Roman kann sich nur als Ergänzung zu einer wahrheitsgetreuen Geschichtsschreibung etablieren, indem er sich zur Aufgabe setzt, dem Leser die Lebendigkeit, den Geist vergangener Zeiten nahezubringen“ (Deistler, 21). Moreover, it is very interesting that Scott’s historical fiction not only

reflected but also influenced nineteenth-century historians’ work. […] Scholars have argued that Scott’s work influenced historians such as Augustin Thierry, whose History of the Conquest of England by the Normans (1871) turns to the particular and oral to fill in the gaps of official recorded history, and Thomas Babington Macaulay, who called for a redefinition of history that would include the specific and particular. (Elias 2001, 10)

Of course, other novelists took up history as a subject as well and thus continued and expanded the tradition of the historical novel founded by Scott. Among his followers in the 19^th century were such famous writers as Dickens, Eliot, Thackeray, or Trollope. Yet, the new century came along with a new generation of novelists who thought the whole genre of the historical novel over and eventually tried to break its tradition. Elizabeth Wesseling even points out that “Scott suffered a steady loss of prestige in the twentieth century” (Wesseling, 67).