Notes on Novel and its Kinds

1. Novel
Lt. Dr. B. Ajantha Parthasarathi
Assistant Professor of English
Sri SRNM College, Sattur.

2. Novel
 A long work of prose fiction
containing characters, incidents
and a plot
 ‘novel’ – Italian ‘novella’ – ‘a piece
of news’/ ‘tale’
 First applied to tales – Boccaccio’s
Decameron (14th century)

3. Origin & Growth
 Ancient Greece and Rome
 Greeks – stories ‘romances’ – tales of adventure and
love
 Romance form examples – Latin works
 Gaius Petronius’ Satyricon (1st century CE)
 Lucius Apuleius’ Metamorphoses/ The Golden Ass
(1st century CE)
 Thomas Malory’s Morte d’ Arthur (1485)
 Philip Sidney’s Arcadia (pastoral romance)
 Thomas Nashe’s The Unfortunate Traveller (1594)
– picaresque narrative
 Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote (Spanish
masterpiece)

4. Origin & Growth
Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe
(1719) – 1st English novel – just
a series of episodes (criticism)
Daniel Defoe’s Moll Flanders
(1722)
Samuel Richardson’s Pamela
(1740) – well-developed plot

5. Origin & Growth
 18th century – Henry Fielding, Tobias Smollett and
Laurence Sterne
 19th century – Walter Scott, Jane Austen, the Bronte
sisters, George Eliot, William Makepeace Thackeray,
Charles Dickens, Antony Trollope, Thomas Hardy,
Henry James
 20th century (highly sophisticated art form)– Joseph
Conrad, Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, John Fowles,
Graham Greene, William Golding
 21st century – being written in almost every corner
of the globe
Novelists continue to experiment with various
styles, plots and techniques

6. Features
 Narrative – narrated by one of the characters /
an omniscient narrator (the author)
 Written in prose rather than in verse –
distinguishes it as a long narrative poems
(exception – Vikram Seth’s The Golden Gate)
 A work of fiction – differentiates it from other
forms of prose such as biographies,
autobiographies and histories
 An extended prose narrative – unlike short
stories (smaller in scope and length) – runs into
several hundred pages – covers a larger period
of time, with more action and characters than
a short story

7. Historical Novel
The author attempts to reconstruct history imaginatively
and sometimes romantically
 Past historical period – describes the events and
manners of that period – imaginative recreation of a
bygone age – add colour to the events of the past &
bring them to life
 Characters – real & imaginary (historical personalities –
a major/ a minor part in the action)
 Extensively research the period – they intend to depict
– pay minute details (dress, manner of speaking, food
habits, customs, social aspects)
 Close attention is paid to the historical events of that
time, which are usually incorporated into the plot
 Avoid anachronisms

8. Historical Novel
Examples
 Walter Scott’s Waverley (1814), Rob Roy (1817),
Ivanhoe (1820)
 Alexandre Dumas’ The Three Musketeers (1844)
 Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities (1859)
 Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace (1869)
 Robert Graves’ I, Claudius (1934)
 George MacDonald Fraser’s Flashman (1969)
 Philippa Gregory’s The Other Boleyn Girl (2001)
 Alex Rutherford’s Empire of the Moghul (2009-13)

9. Picaresque Novel
‘picaresque’ – Spanish word
‘picaro’ – ‘rogue’/ ‘rascal’
Origin – 16th century & popular
– 17th & 18th centuries

10. Picaresque Novel
 A travelling hero – different kinds of
situations, meets a variety of characters
& several extraordinary experiences
 Little/no plot – a simple, loose, episodic
structure
 Protagonist – clever, likeable & from the
middle/lower class
 Narration – satirical & humorous manner
– 1st person mode

11. Picaresque Novel
Examples
 Tobias Smollett’s The Adventures of
Roderick Random (1748)
 Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones (1749)
 Voltaire’s Candide (1759)
 Saul Bellow’s The Adventures of Augie
March (1953)

12. Stream of Consciousness Novel
 A narrative technique attempts to capture
all the emotions and thoughts which flow
through a character’s mind in a random
manner
 Coined by the American psychologist –
William James (B/o Henry James) – The
Principles of Psychology (1890)
 ‘interior monologue’
 Modern novelists – present before the
reader the unfiltered thought processes of
a character

13. Stream of Consciousness Novel
 No traditional concepts of plot & characterization
 Standard techniques of description, narrative and
dialogue – interior monologues
 Emphasises memory, intuition, sense perceptions
and feelings, along with a character’s thoughts
 Focus
 capturing the fluidity of the inner life
 depicting the myriad feelings and thoughts passing
through a character’s mind
 Anti-romantic (an unsure/ indifferent protagonist
who fails in her/his quest/journey)
 Artistic aloofness & impersonality on the part of
the author

14. Stream of Consciousness Novel
 Dorothy Richardson – first modernist
writers to employ this technique
Examples:
 James Joyce’s Ulysses (1922) & Finnegans
Wake (1939)
 Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway (1925)
and To the Lighthouse (1927)
 William Faulkner’s The Sound and the
Fury (1929)

15. Psychological Novel
 Analysis of the spiritual,
emotional and mental lives of the
characters rather than with the
plot
 Came into the vogue after the
discoveries of Sigmund Freud &
Carl Jung

16. Psychological Novel
 Novelist’s interest in human nature leads
her/him into making an in-depth of human
relationships – psychological slant to the
story
 Analysing the characters’ motives which
drive the action forward
 Devices – interior monologues & flashbacks
– explain the inner workings of the minds
of the characters
 Henry James – display an ultrasensitive
flair for analysing complex personalities
Example:
Henry James’ The Portrait of a Lady (1881)

17. Science Fiction Novel
Elements of science and
technology – an integral part
Shortened to ‘SF’
Blend fantasy with science –
create sense of an alternate
reality which seems quite
impossible

18. Science Fiction Novel
 Basing the plot and other story elements
on actual scientific facts, principles and
technology – creates an illusion of reality
 Set in the future, in space, on a different
planet, in a different universe, in an
alternate dimension, in an alternate
history
 Elements – dystopia, advanced technology, time
travel, space travel, extraterrestrial life
 Depict the effect of new scientific discoveries and
advances in technology upon human beings
 Comment on social and cultural issues – class
inequality, greed, war, political authoritarianism,
the misuse of technology, the dangers of
environmental exploitation, the ill effects of
acquiring knowledge irrespective of consequences

19. Bildungsroman
 Philologist Karl Morgenstern (1819)
– German term – ‘Bildungsroman’ –
‘formation novel’
 The plot revolves around the
psychological and moral growth of
the protagonist from youth to
adulthood
 Novel of education / novel of
formation – coming-of-age story

20. Bildungsroman
 Narrates the story of the development of
a sensitive person – in search of the
meaning of life & her/his place in
society (self-realize, self-analyse)
 Begins with an emotional loss – compels
protagonist to set off on her/his journey
 Protagonist faces several hurdles and
failures along the way – conflict with the
values of the society
 Protagonist transforms from an
inexperienced person to an emotionally
mature individual
 In the end, Protagonist accepts the
values of society and is accepted into
society

21. Bildungsroman
 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s
Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship
(1795-96)
Examples:
 Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones (1749)
 Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre (1847)
 Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations
(1861)
 J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the
Rye (1951)
 Khaled Hosseini The Kite Runner
(2003)

22. Bildungsroman
 Subgenre – Kunstlerroman – traces
the development of an artist or a
writer
Example:
 Charles Dicken’s David Copperfield
(1850)
 James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist
as a Young Man (1916)

23. Crime Fiction
 Fictionalises crimes, their detection,
criminals and their motives
 English – Poe’s “The Murders in the
Rue Morgue” (1841)
 Sub-genres – detective fiction, legal
thriller, courtroom drama
Seemingly unsolvable
An interested Sleuth
Unsavory character
Danger and tension

24. Crime Fiction
Examples
Wilkie Collin’s “The
Moonstone” (1868)
Arthur Conan Doyle’s “A Study
in Scarlet” (1887) – Sherlock
Holmes
Agatha Christie’s “Murder on
the Orient Express” (1934)