section_path: 18th-century novels
section_name: 18th-century novels
paragraph_text: 18th-century novels
  
  The idea of the "rise of the novel" in the 18th century is especially associated with Ian Watt 's influential study The Rise of the Novel (1957). In Watt's conception, a rise in fictional realism during the 18th century came to distinguish the novel from earlier prose narratives.