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Originally Posted by HarryT
Dickens changed the whole concept of the novel - the novel "post-Dickens" was not the same as the novel "pre-Dickens". Dickens invented the idea of a novel with a large number of characters and multiple, interconnecting stories.
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Not trying to be fussy here, but I don't think Dickens introduced any of the innovations you mention. There are writers like Balzac or even Cervantes who used those devices before Dickens. Dickens is great, I agree, but I don't think of him as an innovator. (Maybe you are saying that he was an innovator in the context of the English novel?)
Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
Dickens CHANGED society; I don't think anyone would claim that, say, J.K.Rowling has done so. That's why Dickens is "great literature" and Harry Potter is not.
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I would claim that.
I think Rowling has had more impact in our society that Dickens had in his. I find it fascinating that in this era of videogames and the Internet there are millions of kids eagerly waiting for the continuation of her stories... in different countries on all the continents! And you know what? I am pretty sure that Harry Potter will be considered "classic literature" in the future. Why? Because the kids who are enjoying it now are the ones who are going to write the history of literature in the future.
Sure, Harry Potter is just children's books, nothing serious... Well, Don Quixote, Pride and Prejudice, Wuthering Heights, or War and Peace were not considered "great literature" when they were first published, they were just entertaining.