BILDUNGSROMAN

The Bildungsroman is often called the novel of formation, the novel of education (in the broad sense of the word), or the apprenticeship novel. It shows the development of the protagonist’s mind and character through a number of stages and a variety of experiences, often from childhood to early adulthood. He or she encounters conflicts and challenges, often including a spiritual crisis, which enables the protagonist to achieve a mature identity and eventually play his or her proper role in the world.

Bildungsroman Examples (Examples)

Precursors

Hayy ibn Yaqdhan, by Ibn Tufail (12th century), a precursor of the genre

Parzival, by Wolfram von Eschenbach, early 13th century

Lazarillo de Tormes (1554)

17th century

The Adventures of Telemachus, by François Fénelon (1699)

18th century

The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, by Henry Fielding (1749)

Candide, by Voltaire (1759)

The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, by Laurence Sterne (1759)

Emile, or On Education, by JeanJacques Rousseau (1763)

Geschichte des Agathon, by Christoph Martin Wieland (1767)—often considered the first "true" Bildungsroman.

Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship by Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1795–96)

19th century

The Red and The Black, by Stendhal (1830)

The Captain's Daughter, by Alexander Pushkin (1836)

Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë (1847)

Pendennis, by William Makepeace Thackeray (1848–1850)

David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens (1850)

Green Henry, by Gottfried Keller (1855)

Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens (1861)

Sentimental Education, by Gustave Flaubert (1869)

The Story of an African Farm, by Olive Schreiner (1883)

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain (1884)

Pharaoh, by Bolesław Prus (1895)

What Maisie Knew, by Henry James (1897)

20th century

The Confusions of Young Törless, by Robert Musil (1906)

Martin Eden, by Jack London (1909)

The Book of Khalid, by Ameen Rihani (1911)

Le Grand Meaulnes, by AlainFournier (1913)

Sons and Lovers, by D. H. Lawrence (1913)

Of Human Bondage, by W. Somerset Maugham (1915)

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, by James Joyce (1916)

Demian: The Story of Emil Sinclair's Youth by Hermann Hesse (1919, prologue added in 1960)

This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1920)

The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann (1924).

Pather Panchali, by Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay (1929)

Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell (1936)

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston (1936)

Native Son by Richard Wright (1940)

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith (1943)

The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger (1951)

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (for plot character Eustace Scrubb) by C. S. Lewis (1952)

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (1952)

In the Castle of My Skin, by George Lamming (1953)

Goodbye, Columbus, by Philip Roth (1959)

A Separate Peace, by John Knowles (1959)

To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee (1960)

Dune, by Frank Herbert (1965)

The Outsiders, by S. E. Hinton (1967)

A Wizard of Earthsea, by Ursula K. Le Guin (1968)

Bless Me, Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya (1972)

The Discovery of Slowness, by Sten Nadolny (1983)

Bright Lights, Big City, by Jay McInerney (1984)

Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card (1985)

Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, by Jeanette Winterson (1985)

Norwegian Wood, by Haruki Murakami (1987)

Number the Stars, by Lois Lowry (1989)

Sophie's World, by Jostein Gaarder (1991)

English Music, by Peter Ackroyd (1992)

About a Boy, by Nick Hornby (1998)

Harry Potter, by J. K. Rowling (1997 2007)

The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky (1999)

Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi (2000)

21st century

The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd (2002)

The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini (2003)

The Fortress of Solitude, by Jonathan Lethem (2003)

Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro (2005)

Indecision, by Benjamin Kunkel (2005)

Black Swan Green, by David Mitchell (2006)

The Absolutely True Diary of a PartTime

Indian, by Sherman Alexie (2007)

Indignation, by Philip Roth (2008).

Submarine, by Joe Dunthorne (2008)

Breath, by Tim Winton (2008)

The Solitude of Prime Numbers (2008)

The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt (2013)

James the Third, by Daryl Largent (2016)

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