Novel of circulation

The novel of circulation, otherwise known as the it-narrative, or object narrative,^[1] is a genre of novel common at one time in British literature, and follows the fortunes of an object, for example a coin, that is passed around between different owners. Sometimes, instead, it involves a pet or other domestic animal, as for example in Francis Coventry's The History of Pompey the Little (1751).^[2] This and other such works blended satire with the interest for contemporary readers of a roman à clef.^[3] They also use objects such as hackney-carriages and bank-notes to interrogate what it meant to live in an increasingly mobile society, and to consider the effect of circulation on human relations.^[4]

Illustration to Pompey the Little, by John June

Examples

• 1709 Charles Gildon, The Golden Spy has been regarded by modern scholars as "the first, fully-fledged it-narrative in English".^[5] But for his contemporaries, it tends to be read as "a Menippean satire, a re-adaptation of Apuleius's The Golden Ass and a sequel to The New Metamorphosis [i.e. Gildon's adaptation of The Golden Ass in 1708]".^[6] Later, an episodic structure in which objects "spied" on people became established.^[7] Other generic terms used are "object tales" or "spy novels".^[8]
• 1710. Joseph Addison Adventures of a Shilling^[9]
• 1734 Anonymous, The Secret History of an Old Shoe^[10]
• 1742 Claude Crébillon, The Sopha, a Moral Tale^[11]
• 1751 Francis Coventry The History of Pompey the Little^[2]
• 1753 Susan Smythies, The Stage-coach: containing the character of Mr. Manly, and the history of his fellow-travellers^[11]
• 1754 Anonymous, History and Adventures of a Lady's Slippers and Shoes^[12]
• 1760 Edward Phillips, The Adventures of a Black Coat^[13]
• 1760–5 Charles Johnstone, Chrysal; or, The Adventures of a Golden Guinea^[2]
• 1767 Charles Perronet, Dialogue between the Pulpit and Reading-Desk^[11]
• 1769 Tobias Smollett, The History and Adventures of an Atom^[11]
• 1771 Thomas Bridges, The Adventures of a Bank-Note^[14]
• 1783 Theophilus Johnson, Phantoms: or, The Adventures of a Gold-Headed Cane^[15]
• 1790 Helenus Scott, The Adventures of a Rupee^[16]
• 1799 Edward Augustus Kendall, The Crested Wren^[11]
• 1813 Mary Pilkington, The Sorrows of Caesar, or, The Adventures of a Foundling Dog^[11]
• 1816 Mary Mister, The Adventures of a Doll^[11]
• 1873 Annie Carey, The History of a Book^[17]
• 1880 Nellie Hellis, The Story He was told; or, The Adventures of a Teacup^[18]
• 1897, John William Fortescue, The Story of a Red Deer^[19]

Twentieth-century examples include Ilya Ehrenburg's The Life of the Automobile (1929),^[20] Holling C. Holling's Paddle-to-the-sea (1941),^[21] and E. Annie Proulx's Accordion Crimes (1996), ^[22] and Flat Stanley.^[23]

Relationship to other genres

With works of Mary Ann Kilner of the 1780s, Adventures of a Pincushion and Memoirs of a Peg-Top, it-novels became part of children's literature.^[24] One offshoot was a style of satirical children's verse made popular by Catherine Ann Dorset, based on a poem by William Roscoe, The Butterfly's Ball and The Grasshopper's Feast.^[25] Quite generally, it-narrative in the 19th century is typified by an animal narrator.^[26]

It has been remarked that the slave narrative genre of the 18th century avoided being confused with the it-narrative, being thought of as a type of biography.^[27]

The plot of Middlemarch has been seen to be structured, initially, by a circulation; but to end in a contrasting "subject narrative".^[28]

Alberto Toscano and Jeff Kinkle have argued that one popular form of hyperlink cinema, a genre of film characterized by intersecting and multilinear plots, constitutes a contemporary form of it-narrative.^[29] In these films, they argue, "the narrative link is the characters' relation to the film's product of choice, whether it be guns, cocaine, oil, or Nile perch."^[29]