What novels have had a substantial real-world effect?

[MsAmerica]

What novels have had such a powerful impact that they triggered an actual change in socio-political policies or overall public opinion on an important subject?

I can only think of two, offhand:
Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe
The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair Any others?

As far as I know, books like Grapes of Wrath may have had enthusiasts, but by the time it came out, it was too late for any relevant policy. And I know that Dickens may have influenced public policy, but I don’t think it was due to a particular novel.

Ireland has undergone huge social changes in the last 25 years. We've also been blessed with absolutely amazing writers like Colm Toibin, Emma Donoghue and John Boyne. There's no doubt in my mind that they made us look at ourselves in a new way that nudged us towards marriage equality.

Things Fall Apart was the direct catalyst for the launch of Heineman African Writers Series in 1962 which was incredibly important for democratising access to books in Africa (most Nigerians couldn't initially afford TFA) as well as providing a publication route for African writers and broadening recognition outside Africa as TFA and all HAWS books were in English. TFA created 'African literature'. All happening at the same time as decolonisation was happening in Africa

Gwendolyn Mikell, professor of anthropology at Georgetown University also says 'the novel got anthropologists thinking on how best to capture the data that described African societies. Interviewing techniques were added and information-gathering became more creative, resulting in more qualitative and holistic data.'

Walter Scott's Waverley is credited with creating the myth of clan tartans - linking tartans with clans or surnames is now widely accepted as fact.

How was Jane Austen the furst to break the fourth wall? Writers had been doing it for generations before her. Sterne and Fielding are constantly addressing the reader.

I came on to say The Jungle but I see OP has mentioned it so i'll throw in North and South (Gaskell not Swayze) and Disraeli's Sibyl.

I thought that was odd too. I think addressing the reader is a feature of 17 & 18th century writing. Aphra Behn did it all the time, admittedly through prefaces rather than maybe within the main narrative. I can't remember, I would have to look. I am sure Chaucer does it too.

Rudyard Kipling's Kim influenced the scouting movement and youth culture

That was my point really. I wish The Handmaid’s Tale had made a difference but I don’t think it has. I remember Atwood saying she hadn’t written anything that wasn’t happening to women, somewhere in the world. That is utterly chilling.

Certainly the TV show has brought The Handmaid’s Tale to a much wider audience but I read it years ago and so did many of my peers.

I think Oranges are not the only fruit contributed to recognising discrimination against lesbians, the fight against s28 and lesbian rights in general.

Yes, exactly.!

Silent Spring - Rachel Carson , about pesticides, so not a novel as such, but very influential, and a book I was advised to read whilst studying geography twenty years after it was written.

Definitely Chaucer - he did EVERYTHING! Broke the fourth wall, was meta, had his own cameos - hugely experimental. In fact if I had all the money and all the time I would do a PhD in Chaucer as 'the firste fyndere of queynte experimentes' . Sigh... lottery win where are you? I have the title and everything! I want to be Dr Arlanymor!

Also Nicholas Nickelby which highlighted the awfulness of schools.which anyone could set up whenever they liked.because there was no regulation of them.

More Dickens! Nicholas Nickleby led to the closure of a notorious school in Yorkshire and the prosecution of its head 'teacher'. Along with Jane Eyre it revealed the terrible abuse of the step/illegitimate children who were literally sent there to starve and/or die of disease. Even by Victorian standards these schools were horrific.

I hope you get to do it one day!

Henry Fielding's Tom Jones. Martin Amis said you can feel a new voice/consciousness breaking through in that book. It is possibly the first time a truly modern, democratic spirit appears in literature. For example, there is a scene in which Tom, the son of a landowner, learns that he's made a local girl (the daughter of a poor farm labourer/poacher) pregnant. Fielding describes Tom's thought process. He has him think "it would be wrong to abandon her. Just because she's poor, that doesn't mean she's worthless or that she won't suffer or that her pain doesn't count. She will suffer just as much as any woman, and I have a duty to protect her." People just didn't think used to like that. Tom has the mind and morality of a square-jawed Hollywood hero from the 1950s.

Aww thanks! Fingers crossed!

Yes, but I specified novels.

Nice about Nickleby!

Okay, but that doesn't seem to translate into specific, direct real-world results.

Aren’t “new styles of writing” real world results?

Surely you know that wasn't what I meant.

I included two examples to illustrate - one of which led to a change in laws, one of which is considered to have contributed to a war.

Most threads of this nature turn into a discussion.

Your style throughout has been rather peremptory - “bring me examples that suit my exacting standards, or I will jump on them” - which is quite odd.

I’ll leave you to it.

Yes discussion has certainly been frowned on in this thread! I thought your post was interesting - I always wonder in this sort of example though that the book must have reflected societal change to some extent rather than creating it. I don't believe Fielding was the first person to 'think like that'. Probably more an issue of what was and wasn't considered 'literature'

Yes discussion has certainly been frowned on in this thread! I thought your post was interesting - I always wonder in this sort of example though that the book must have reflected societal change to some extent rather than creating it even if books do go on to shape changes as well. I don't believe Fielding was the first person to 'think like that'. Probably more an issue of what was and wasn't considered 'literature'