The modern novel appeared during the period of secularization and intellectual change that took place between 1660 and 1740. This book examines John Bunyan's Grace Abounding and The Pilgrim's Progress, Johann Grimmelshausen's Simplicissimus, Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, and J. G. Schnabel's Insel Felsenburg as prose works that reflect the stages in this transition. The protagonists in these works try to learn to use language in a pure, uncorrupted way. Their attitudes towards language are founded on their understanding of the Bible, and when they tell their life stories, they follow the...