Tradition and Renewal

Abstract

As Ronald Binns acknowledges in his study of J.G. Farrell’s fiction, the historical novel was not ‘a genre which … held much appeal for British novelists’ in the aftermath of World War II (14). He traces the decline of the genre to its very origins, the work of Sir Walter Scott, whose influence manifested itself on the ‘popular historical romance’ rather than on the ‘serious novel’ (14). In separating the two, Binns replicates a set of specious distinctions — between entertainment and ethical purpose, self-conscious irony and seriousness of artistic aims, accessibility and philosophical depth — that John Fowles s The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1969), J.G. Farrell’s The Siege of Krishnapur (1973), and Ruth Prawer Jhabvala s Heat and Dust (1975) seek to undermine. The popular and critical acclaim of these three novels (two were made into successful films, two won the Booker Prize) ‘helped to reverse the declining critical fortunes of the historical novel’ (Kaplan 89). That they needed reversing seems beyond doubt. Bernard Bergonzi, among the most influential critics in the decade of the novels publication, fails to discuss the historical novel at all in the first edition of The Situation of the Novel (1970); he belatedly adds a chapter on ‘Fictions of History in the revised edition (1979), but the label seems to apply indiscriminately to any work engaging with history either as past events or as historical process (214-37).