Bildungsroman

A Bildungsroman is a ‘coming of age’ novel, dealing with the formative years of a protagonist, his psychological and moral development.
Bildungsroman is from the German words ‘Bildung’ meaning education, and ‘roman’ meaning novel, and is a development in the History of the Novel.

After an initial loss, the protagonist sets off to achieve a goal or dream, and experiences maturity through conflict, mistakes and disappointment. The Protagonist is frequently egotistical, selfish yet idealistic. Often, there is a conflict between Society and the character trying to be accepted by Society.
In the Bildungsroman, the Protagonist does not achieve his goal or dream.

Wilhelm Meister’s Apprentice by Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1795). The first Bildungsroman novel.
Emma by Jane Austen (1815)
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (1818)
Vanity Fair by William Thackeray (1844)
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. (1847)
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (1847)
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. (1850)
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (1861)
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain (1876)
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stephenson (1882)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (1884)
Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stephenson (1886)
The Invisible man by HG Wells (1897)
Captains Courageous by Rudyard Kipling (1897)

Kunslerroman means ‘artist’s novel’ and is a subgenre of the Bildungsroman, but in this genre the Protagonist’s journey leads him to become an artist, musician or painter.
However, unlike the Bildungsroman, where the Protagonist only dreams of achieving his dream, but ultimately accepts to live his mundane life, the protagonist in a Kunstlerroman does achieve his dream, leaving behind his previously mundane life.