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Coming-of-age novel

Coming-of-age novel is a term used about novels that focus on a young character's development. Sometimes the term is used interchangeably with the German term Bildungsroman.

A coming-of-age novel tells about the growing up or coming of age of a sensitive person who is looking for answers and experience. The genre evolved from folklore tales of a dunce or youngest son going out in the world to seek his fortune. Usually in the beginning of the story there is an emotional loss which makes the protagonist leave on his journey. In a Coming-of-age novel, the goal is maturity, and the protagonist achieves it gradually and with difficulty. The genre often features a main conflict between the main character and society. Typically, the values of society are gradually accepted by the protagonist and he is ultimately accepted into society – the protagonist's mistakes and disappointments are over. In some works, the protagonist is able to reach out and help others after having achieved maturity.

Features
The plot of a coming-of-age novel tends to follow a certain course. At an early stage, a loss or some sort of discontent pushes him or her away from home or the family setting, providing an impetus to embark on a journey. The main character often develops through "self actualization". The process of maturation is long, strenuous and gradual, involving repeated clashes between the protagonist's needs and desires and the views and judgments enforced by an unbending social order.

There are many other similar genres that focus on the growth of an individual. An Entwicklungsroman ("development novel") is a story of general growth rather than self-cultivation. An Erziehungsroman ("education novel") focuses on training and formal schooling, while a Künstlerroman ("artist novel") is about the development of an artist and shows a growth of the self.

Selected examples
This is an incomplete chronological list of novels that are concidered coming-of-age novels by at least some people.


 * Hayy ibn Yaqdhan, by Ibn Tufail (1100s), a precursor of the genre
 * The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, by Henry Fielding (1749)
 * Candide, by Voltaire (1759)
 * Émile: or, On Education, by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1762)
 * Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship, by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the paragon of the genre (1795–96)
 * The Sorrows of Young Werther, by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
 * The Coral Island, by R.M. Ballantyne
 * The Swiss Family Robinson (German: Der Schweizerische Robinson), by Johann David Wyss, and edited by his son Johann Rudolf Wyss
 * David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens (1850)
 * Green Henry, by Gottfried Keller (1855)
 * Der Nachsommer, by Adalbert Stifter (1857)
 * Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens (1860–61)
 * Sentimental Education, by Gustave Flaubert (1869)
 * Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson (1881–82)
 * Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain (1884)
 * Captains Courageous, by Rudyard Kipling (1897)
 * The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde (1890)
 * A Room with a View, by E. M. Forster (1908)
 * Anne of Green Gables, by Lucy Maud Montgomery (1908)
 * Martin Eden, by Jack London (1909)
 * The Book of Khalid, by Ameen Rihani (1911)
 * Sons and Lovers, by D. H. Lawrence (1913)
 * A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, by James Joyce (1914–15)
 * Of Human Bondage, by W. Somerset Maugham (1915)
 * The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather (1915)
 * Demian, by Hermann Hesse (1919)
 * This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1920)
 * Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse (1922)
 * King Matt the First, by Janusz Korczak (1923)
 * The Magic Mountain, by Thomas Mann (1924)
 * All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque (1928)
 * The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (1951)
 * Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (1952)
 * Go Tell It on the Mountain, by James Baldwin (1953)
 * Starman Jones by Robert A. Heinlein (1953)
 * The Chrysalids, by John Wyndham (1955)
 * The Tin Drum, by Günter Grass (1959)
 * A Separate Peace, by John Knowles (1959)
 * Goodbye, Columbus, by Philip Roth (1959)
 * To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (1960)
 * A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (1962)
 * Davy by Edgar Pangborn (1964)
 * The Emperor of Ice-Cream by Brian Moore (1965) is an Irish coming of age novel
 * The Chosen by Chaim Potok (1967)
 * "The Four-Gated City" by Doris Lessing (1969)
 * Fifth Business by Robertson Davies (1970)
 * Out of the Shelter by David Lodge (1970)
 * Bless Me, Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya (1972)
 * My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok (1972)
 * This Earth of Mankind (Bumi Manusia), by Pramoedya Ananta Toer (1980)
 * Midnight's Children, by Salman Rushdie (1981)
 * Lanark: A Life in Four Books, by Alasdair Gray (1981)
 * Blood Meridian, by Cormac McCarthy (1985)
 * Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, by Jeanette Winterson (1985)
 * The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay (1989)
 * The Buddha of Suburbia, by Hanif Kureishi (1990)
 * The Diamond Age, by Neal Stephenson (1995)
 * The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky (1999)
 * The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd (2002)
 * Black Swan Green, by David Mitchell (2006)

Literature

 * Engel, Manfred (2008): "Variants of the Romantic 'Bildungsroman' (with a Short Note on the 'Artist Novel')". In: Gerald Gillespie, Manfred Engel and Bernard Dieterle (eds.), Romantic Prose Fiction (= A Comparative History of Literatures in European Languages, vol. XXIII; ed. by the International Comparative Literature Association). Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins, pp. 263–295. ISBN 978-9027234568.
 * Minden, Michael (1997): The German Bildungsroman: Incest and Inheritance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
 * Minden, Michael (1997): The German Bildungsroman: Incest and Inheritance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
 * Minden, Michael (1997): The German Bildungsroman: Incest and Inheritance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.