The Classical Form of the Historical Novel
THE historical novel arose at the beginning of the nineteenth century at about the time of Napoleon's collapse(Scott's Waverley appeared in 1814). Of course, novels with historical themes are to be found in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, too, and, should one feel inclined, one can treat medieval adaptations of classical history or myth as'precursors of the historical novel and indeed go back still further to China or India. But one will fnd nothing here that sheds any real light on the phenomenon of the historical novel. The so-called historical novels of the seventeenth Calpranede, etc.) are historical only as regards century(Scudéry, their purely external choice of theme and costume. Not only the psychology of the characters, but the manners depicted are entirely those of the writer's own day.