English fiction and the ancient novel

This chapter considers the influence of the fiction of classical antiquity on the emergence and form of novelistic texts from the fourteenth to the eighteenth centuries. Four distinct forms of ancient prose are identified: Greek epic romance, exemplified by Heliodorus; pseudo-history; Menippean satire, as in Petronius’ Satyricon; and Milesian short, generally lurid tales, such as those of Apuleius’ The Golden Ass. The direct influence of these forms can be traced in the Italian novelle tradition and in French and Italian romance, while François Rabelais was particularly indebted to the Greek satirist Lucian, and Spanish picaresque shared deep affinities with the Roman novel. Greek works began to have a more direct influence on English fiction following their translation in the Elizabethan period, as seen in Sidney and Greene, and classical fiction continued to influence English novels into the eighteenth century, though often indirectly through early modern texts.