The Enlightenment's first theory of the novel

[Blankenburg, Christian Friedrich von]. Versuch über den Roman.

€ 2,500.00

First edition of the first theory of the novel developed on a philosophical foundation. Published anonymously, the book sought to advance the hitherto underappreciated genre by shifting the critical focus from the French courtly novel tradition to Fielding's, Smollett's, and Sterne's bourgeois English novel. With this work, Blankenburg (1744-96) achieved for the novel of the Enlightenment what Lessing had for dramatic theory and the stage.

"Blankenburg's forte was aesthetics, more especially poetics. His important 'Versuch über den Roman' (Leipzig & Liegnitz 1774), which was received to critical acclaim, was the fruit of his penetrating studies of the novel. Indeed, it was the first German work of the 18th century to examine in depth the theory of this genre, which had previously been sidelined by the aestheticians, finally winning it its rightful place within the system of poetics. This work, which elevates the entwicklungsroman to the only legitimate form of the novel [...], stands at the crossroads between enlightened and new poetics: despite its rationalist stance and terminology, there is clear innovation in its emphasis on the personal development of the protagonist. In this respect, the author's insightful analysis of Goethe's 'Werther' is of particular importance" (cf. NDB).