Question

Mention the reasons for the popularity of novels in the nineteenth century.?????

Answer 1

The rise of the Middle Class(in the British sense that is to say the Bourgeoisie)

Explanation:

The rise of the middle class is the main element that explains the popularity of novels and of fiction. In the early nineteenth century, they were both read and written by women and many men despised it for that reason. The middle class or Bourgeoisie had the opportunity to have hobbies and leisure and thus reading became one of the most widespread ones.

The industrial revolution revolutionized printing as well and made books more affordable. Nevertheless, they remained hardly available for working class people until the fifties and the sixties of the twentieth century in the western world.

Before the rise of fiction(i.e novels), literature was not necessarily associated with books that you read individually, poetry was read in public in Ancient Rome. Drama was hardly read but it was exclusively aimed at spectactors.