The Rise of the Novel: Daniel Defoe, Samuel Richardson, Laurence Sterne

Linked below are three short videos by Robert McCrum discussing the earliest novels and novelists. It is somewhat hard to believe that the novel as we know it was invented in the eighteenth century. Yes, there are plenty of "proto-novels" and novelistic texts from earlier centuries, all the way back to antiquity. However, these texts differ greatly in scope and content. In most respects, the novel was born to meet the burgeoning market for print. In other words, there was money to be made. 

Defoe's Robinson Crusoe

Richardson's Clarissa

Sterne's Tristram Shandy

Darnton on Tristram Shandy