Each of our novels has been interesting in terms of
the characters and issues it has presented, but also each one has given
us an understanding of the novel's development. Oroonoko
(1688)is an example of the novel in the process of shaping itself.
Part memoir, travel narrative, and biography, it exposes tensions
between romance and realism, fiction and fact, in the context of an
individual as well as political, economic, and historical events. Emma
(1815) gives us a text more narrowly focused "on pictures of domestic
life" in a country village, although London and the larger world are not
completely out of view. Focused on the realistic details of daily
life and the perspective of its protagonist, the novel reveals how Emma
is shaped by and resists social conventions and attitudes and questions
whether or not her imaginative, independent mind is compatible with
marriage, is best fostered through female friendships. Austen also
critiques, largely through narrative, the novel as a genre by showing
romance while revealing its limits. Finally, David Copperfield
(1849-50) gives us a complete world, loaded with realistic details and
characters that illustrate the bildungsroman and the issues its raises.