Oriental novel

The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature | 2003 | 700+ words | Copyright

Oriental novel (or Eastern novel or Oriental tale Eastern tale), a class of story exotically set in the Middle or Far East, and varying greatly in tone, from Johnson's Rasselas to Beckford's Vathek and Byron's The Corsair and The Giaour. Many of the tales (such as those of Hawkesworth, J. Ridley, and F. Sheridan) relate the flamboyant adventures of well-defined heroes and villains, often with the intervention of the supernatural; others (such as Southey's poem The Curse of Kehema or Moore's Lalla Rookh) are more complex. These tales enjoyed great popularity in the second half of the 18th and the early part of the 19th cents. Public interest in the Orient was no doubt greatly stimulated by the translation into English in 1705–8 of the Arabian Nights; by Knolles's history of the Turks (admired by Dr Johnson and Byron); and by the translations of Sir W. Jones. See also novel, rise of the.

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MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Oriental novel." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 29 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Oriental novel." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (May 29, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-Orientalnovel.html

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Oriental novel." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Retrieved May 29, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-Orientalnovel.html

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