...1936. THE RAMBLER (selections) [The Modern Novel]1 '750 Simul et jucunda et idonea dicere vitae.The works of fiction with which the present generation...diversified only by accidents that daily happen in the world lThe Rambler, no. 4, Saturday, March 31, 1750. 'Horace, Art of Poetry, 334. One line from the famous...

...incredible heroic romances of the preceding age, Johnson describes the new writings as 'exhibit [ing] life in its true state, diversified only by accidents...are really to be found in conversing with mankind'. Through their 'accurate observation of the living world' , he judges these books to be addressed first...

...his essay in The Rambler (31 March 1750), in which he saluted the new art of fiction as exhibiting 'life in its true state, diversified only by accidents...are really to be found in conversing with mankind'. The province of the Novel, he says, is 'to bring about natural events by easy means, and keep up curiosity...

...fulfills a moral responsibility in avoiding the "wild strain of imagination" and showing, instead, "life in its true state, diversified only by accidents...world, and influenced by passions and qualities which 22. Schink, Dnmaturguche Fragmentr, 699, 65, 420, 534, 758; p. l5: "Was nicht auf menschliches Herz...

...modern fashion that favours 'the comedy of romance', 'natural events [brought about] by easy means', and 'life in its true state, diversified only by accidents that daily happen in the world'; instead he recommends 'the most perfect idea of virtue; of virtue not angelical, nor above probability'....

...Samuel Johnson himself was aware of this shift in focus, and he notes in the Rambler that the "words of fiction, with which the present generation seems...are really to be found in conversing with mankind." 1 Thus it is that the later female novelists explore and critique the very form they write. Like earlier...

..."heroic romance" dominated by "giants . . . knights . . . desarts . . . [and] imaginary castles": "The works of fiction, with which the present generation...only by accidents that daily happen in the world. . . ,"34 At midcentury, the new form — innovative, rebellious, surprising, and full of novelty but...

...modern sense of the word romance, as it was used to describe popular novels, in Rambler Number 4: "The works of fiction, with which the present generation...are really to be found in conversing with mankind." While he preferred this type, in theory, to the romance of "imaginary castles" and "personages in desarts,"...

...describes it, discussing the new fiction in the first half of the eighteenth century, realist works "exhibit life in its true state, diversified only...qualities which are really to be found in conversing with mankind."3 The definition clearly applies to drama as well as narrative, and it could be applied as...

...further erodes the critical authority of the text. The hesitant verb seems in the opening sentence—"The works of fiction, with which the present generation...delighted, are such as exhibit life in its true state" 137 —as well as the provisional tone of the phrase "these familiar histories may perhaps be made...