"Serio-comi-epic" adventures of a young man who learns "prudence" through a series of comic misfortunes. Notable for its self-conscious acknowledgment of fiction as art. Pretty funny reading, too.
Novel History: a few important ones
The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes, His Fortunes and Misfortunes, Author unknown (1553).
Comic picaresque Spanish "biography" of a rogue who lies, cheats and steals to survive: pointed criticism of the hypocritical society that spawns such vagabonds as Lozarillo.
Don Quixote de la Mancha, Miguel de Cervantes, 1605, 1615.
Episodic adventures of a madman who fancies himself the hero of a typical "romance": Don Quixote valorously attacks windmills and herds of sheep in misguided attempts to distinguish himself as a "knight-errant" spreading the glory of his chosen maiden (a rude farm-wench). Don Quixote is a rollicking mockery of the types of romance that passed as popular entertainment before there were novels.
Oroonoko, Aphra Behn, 1688.
Tragic adventures of a noble African prince who is kidnapped and put into slavery in an English colony. Often considered the first English novel.
Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe, 1719.
Ostensibly the real-life story of a man shipwrecked on an uninhabited island. Noted for its detailed descriptions.
Moll Flanders, Daniel Defoe, 1722.
You know this one!
Pamela, or, Virtue Rewarded, Samuel Richardson, 1740-1741.
Epistolary novel describing a female servant's resistance to seduction by a gentleman, Mr. B__. Noted for its ostensible "psychological realism."
Tom Jones, the History of a Foundling, Henry Fielding, 1749.
"Serio-comi-epic" adventures of a young man who learns "prudence" through a series of comic misfortunes. Notable for its self-conscious acknowledgment of fiction as art. Pretty funny reading, too.
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