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Girl reading a book by a stream

Bildungsroman

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A bildungsroman is a novel which chronicles the struggles and development of a young person as they enter the wider world and are forced to mature. This term was coined by a German academic in 1819, after the first novels of this type were published in the late 18th century in Germany, with the best known of those being Goethe’s 1795 novel Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship. The genre later spread to other countries and languages, with Charlotte Brontë’s 1847 novel Jane Eyre being an early example in English.

A bildungsroman is sometimes called a novel of education or a novel of formation because the main character faces various obstacles and challenges which shape their character and move them to maturity. This can be seen as a more specific genre of literature within the wider genre of the coming of age novel.