Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Bildungsroman" in English language version.
The two early English Bildungsromane already mentioned, Tom Jones and The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, are examples of coming-of-age narratives that predate the generic expectations of the German tradition.
In her introduction to the 1986 Virago edition, Holly Eley calls it "primarily a love story" and also "an account of a strong, intelligent (though uneducated) woman's steps towards self-fulfilment" (Hurston vii). In generic terms, this latter definition would make Hurston's novel a Bildungsroman, a story of (self-)education by life.