Five reasons for the popularity of novels in 18th century in Europe:
(i) Once the print culture emerged, novels were widely read and became very popular. Novels produced a number of common interests among the scattered and varied readers.
(ii) As the readers were drawn into the story and identified with the lives of fictitious characters they could think about issues such as relationship between love and marriage, the proper conduct of men and women and so on.
(iii) While reading a novel, the reader was transported to another person’s world and began to looking at life as it was experienced by the characters of the novel.
(iv) Besides novels allowed the pleasure of reading in private as well as the joy of publicly discussing or reading stories with friends and relatives.
(v) Novels written in vernacular or spoken languages of the people were particularly popular because these were closer to the heart of the reader.