
A novel is an extended work of written, narrative, prose fiction, usually in story form; the writer of a novel is a novelist. The English word "novel" derives from the Italian language word ''novella'', meaning "a tale, a piece of news." The novel is longer (at least 40,000 words) and more complex than either the short story or the novella, and is not bound by the structural and metrical restrictions of plays or poetry. In most cases a novel is about characters and their actions in everyday life, with emphasis on the "novelty" of the narrative. ==Qualities of the novel== Most novels have the following qualities: *The intent is entertainment, at least partly. *The subject is presented as fiction, though it may be partly factual. *The subject is familiar, credible and plausible, i.e. readers believe in the places and characters. *The subject is people, although the characters themselves may or may not be humans. *The story chiefly concerns the actions and relationships of the different characters. *There are a small number of central Fictional character. *A single plot, however fragmented or tangential, eventually unites the events and characters *The protagonist(s) evolve(s) and grow(s) in the course of the novel; characters are more "rounded" — fleshed-out — than are the "flat," one-dimensional characters of earlier literary genres. *The story occurs in an identifiable time and place (setting). There are exceptions to each of these traits, and a text need not meet all criteria to be a novel. For example, ''Animal Farm'' (1945), by George Orwell (1903–1950), tells its story using farm animals representing human archetypes and human concerns. Another example is the science fiction, or fantasy, novel, which follows its own set of rules. They are believable only when internally consistent, meaning the rules of the fictional universe presented make sense within the novel itself and are not subject to our reality. Examples include Douglas Adams's ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' series and Dennis McKiernan’s ''Mithgar'' series. The novel genre sometimes is contrasted with the Romance genre—the original concept is similar, hence, the French language and German language word for "novel" is "roman". The first "romance (genre)" usually was fantastic—set in a mythical, ancient time, and had shallow, two-dimensional characters. ''Don Quixote'' (1605, 1615) by Cervantes (1547–1616), for example, may be read as parody of popular chivalric romance. Contemporarily, the word "romance novel" refers to popular fiction with a sentimental love story at center stage, often at the expense of characterization and plot. ==History of, and general influences on, the novel== ===Classical period=== Most scholars agree that the novel emerged during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in Europe; a few argue that the novel dates from antiquity. These scholars argue that “personality"—evolution of the protagonist's character is the center of the novel; rather the work requires only a set of characters to be considered a novel. Moreover, they heavily emphasise the role of “eros” in defining the novel—in this theory, most often novels are about “sentiment and erotic passion”. From Western antiquity—Greece and Rome—these are the earliest, extant novels: *Xenophon, ''The Education of Cyrus'' (Greek language, 4th century BC). A largely fictional account of the education of King Cyrus the Great of Persia. This is considered a precursor to the novel. *Petronius Arbiter, ''Satyricon'' (Latin, 1st century). *Apuleius, ''The Golden Ass'' (Latin, 2nd century). *Chariton, ''The Loves of Chaereas and Callirhoe'' (Greek language, 1st century–2nd century). *Achilles Tatius, ''Leucippe and Clitophon'' (Greek language, 2nd century). *Longus, ''Daphnis and Chloe'' (Greek language, 2nd century). *Xenophon of Ephesus, ''Ephesian Tale'' (Greek language, 2nd century–3rd century). *Heliodorus of Emesa, ''Ethiopian Tale'' (Greek language, 3rd century–4th century). *Anon, ''Joseph and Aseneth'' (Greek language, 1st century–5th century). *Anon, ''The Story of Apollonius, King of Tyre'' (Latin adaptation of lost Greek language original, 5th century–6th century). ===Asian works=== Early important Asian novels include: *Dandin, ''The Adventures of the Ten Princes'' (Sanskrit, 6th century–7th century). *Banabhatta, ''Kadambari'' (Sanskrit, 7th century). *Anon, ''The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter'' (Japanese language, 10th century). *Anon, ''The Tale of Ochikubo'' (Japanese language, 10th century). *Murasaki Shikibu, ''The Tale of Genji'' (Japanese language, 11th century). *Luo Guanzhong, ''Romance of the Three Kingdoms'' (Chinese language, 14th century). ===Medieval and Renaissance=== Early Middle Ages novels include: *Ramon Llull, ''Blanquerna'' (1283) *Antoine de la Sale, ''Petit Jehan de Saintré'' (1456) These were successors to the Byzantine novel of the twelfth century, itself an imitation and modification of the ancient Greek form. In the Renaissance, the important European trend was towards fantastic fiction : *Thomas Malory, ''Le Morte d'Arthur'', (English language, 1485). *Joanot Martorell, ''Tirant lo Blanc'' (Catalan language, 1490), chivalric romance. *Jacopo Sannazaro, ''La Arcadia'', (Italian language, 1504), pastoral novel. *Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo, ''Amadis of Gaul'' (Spanish language adaptation of lost 13th century original, 1508). *Thomas More, ''Utopia (Novel)'' (Latin, circa 1516). *François Rabelais, ''Pantagruel'', (French language, 1532). *Jorge de Montemayor, ''La Diana'' (Spanish language, 1559), pastoral novel. The picaresque novel and ''Don Quixote de la Mancha'' (1605) generally are considered the originators of the modern European novel, characterized by realism. For example: *Anon, ''Lazarillo de Tormes'' (Spanish language, 1554). *Mateo Aleman, ''Guzmán de Alfarache'' (Spanish language, 1599). *Francisco de Quevedo, ''El buscón'' (Spanish language, 1626), masterpiece of the picaresque subgenre. *Grimmelshausen, ''Simplicissimus'' (German language, 1669), the most important of the non-Spanish picaresque novels. See also: Romance (genre) ===18th century=== [[Image:Defoe-daniel.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Daniel Defoe, one of the best-known early British novelists]] The 18th century is considered, by most scholars of the English novel, to have been the century of the novel's invention or rise, a phrase popularised in Ian Watt's pioneer study in literary sociology, ''The Rise of the Novel'' (1957). It is generally agreed that, at the end of the seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth centuries, the novel arose from a host of genres in France and England. Novelists drew upon the new "journalistic" tradition (less reliable than contemporary journalism)—criminal biographies and autobiographies (sensational stories of high-profile criminal exploits, often ending with the criminal's contrived repentance), spiritual autobiographies, conduct books (contemporaneous etiquette books ranging from proper titles for the nobility to appropriate topics of conversation for women), travel narratives (often fantastic and rarely accurate accounts of distant places written by explorers, and others, retelling tales told them), religious allegories, and histories—to construct their novels. For example, in ''Robinson Crusoe'' (1719), Daniel Defoe fuses news (reports of the castaway Alexander Selkirk), the Puritan spiritual autobiography, the religious allegory, and the travelogue into a tale now considered a representative early novel. There is much debate about the role of the French romance in the development of the English novel. On the one hand, Ros Ballaster argues that the French romance and ''scandal chronique'' (popular in France and England), laid the groundwork for the early English novels, especially the novels written by women such as Eliza Haywood. Her ''Love in Excess'' (1719), has the markings of a scandal novel, rich with intrigue and sex. Oftentimes these novels were thinly veiled political attacks on ruling parties; these works now are labeled "amatory fiction." On the other hand, Lennard Davis, argues that the French romance is not the root of the novel, but that the novel is more closely tied to the English “news” traditions outlined above; the novel has multiple “beginnings”. Ballaster’s argument works well with one set of texts, and Davis’s argument with another, therefore, one could conclude that the novel had not yet solidified into the form recognized today, and most important; women writers were drawing upon different literary traditions, in fashioning the new genre, than were men writers. Around 1740, England's taste for scandal decreased, and the desire to reform morals and manners took hold. Samuel Richardson's ''Pamela'' (1740) often is seen as the first novel embodying this new social trend. In it, he claimed he would "instruct" and "entertain"; it became one of the first "bestsellers". It is the story of maid, who, through chastity, wins the heart of her master and becomes his wife. Richardson's contemporary readers were treated to what they identified as a new level of literary "realism" in ''Pamela''; Ian Watt argues that this novel inaugurated the psychological novel genre, because it focused on the psyche of one character, though many argue that this distinction should be awarded to William Godwin’s ''Caleb Williams'' (1795). Richardson achieved this feat through “epistolarity,” i.e. the novel is a series of Pamela's letters to her parents. This style became popular after ''Pamela'', and writers such as Frances Burney adopted it. In 1749, Henry Fielding published ''The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling''—his major, novelistic response to ''Pamela'', decrying what he saw as "vulgar" or "low" language in ''Pamela'', and its leveling theme. The hero of ''Tom Jones'', a seeming orphan, begins as a rake, reforms, and discovers he is an aristocrat, thus gaining his fortune. Fielding saw himself as reinstating the proper social hierarchy that Richardson challenged. He also was trying to lay the foundations for the new genre, denouncing Richardson’s popular style, and describing his own novel as a “comic epic in prose,” hearkening to the Classical tradition. Fielding tried to legitimize his novel with classical allusions, but he still appealed to the popular audience with raucous and bawdy jokes. During that time, the genre of the novel became "fixed", i.e. readers knew what to expect. Typically, the novel was the story of the education, in the broadest sense, of a protagonist. The more experimental, "messy", novels, those whose plots were convoluted or non-existent, from earlier in the century, such as the scandal novels of Eliza Haywood, fell by the wayside. At mid-century, these two novels, and others, spawned the ''novel of sensibility''. In it, the protagonist, most often a young woman, naively encounters the world and learns to refine her natural goodness. ''Sensibility'' was a character trait important in the mid- to late-eighteenth century. A person with sensibility was attuned with nature and was easily, and rightly, affected by the feelings of others; the "sensible" person noticed the hurt of others and was a barometer of social morality. An excellent example of this type of novel is Frances Burney's ''Evelina'' (1778), wherein the heroine, while naturally good, in part for being country-raised, hones her politeness when visiting London—she is educated into propriety. This novel also is the beginning of "romantic comedy". At the end of the eighteenth century, sensibility's value was questioned, as it made its bearers, particularly women, too overwrought and too prone to imagining worlds beyond their appointed ones. These anxieties are in the rise of the Gothic novel, at century's end. The Gothic novel's story occurs in a distant time and place, often Renaissance Italy, and involved the fantastic exploits of an imperiled heroine. The classic Gothic novel is Ann Radcliffe’s ''The Mysteries of Udolpho'' (1794). As in other Gothic novels, the notion of the ''sublime (philosophy)'' is central. Eighteenth-century aesthetic theory held that the sublime and the beautiful were juxtaposed. The sublime was awful (awe-inspiring) and terrifying while the beautiful was calm and reassuring. The characters and landscapes of the Gothic rest almost entirely within the sublime, with the heroine the great exception. The “beautiful” heroine’s susceptibility to supernatural elements, integral to these novels, both celebrates and problematizes what came to be seen as hyper-sensibility. Finally, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the overwrought emotions of sensibility, as expressed through the Gothic sublime, had run their course. Jane Austen wrote a Gothic novel parody titled ''Northanger Abbey'' (1803), reflecting the death of the Gothic novel. Moreover, while sensibility did not disappear, it was less valued. Austen introduced a different style of writing—the ''comedy of manners'', but her novels often are not funny, bur are scathing critiques of the restrictive, rural culture of the early nineteenth century. Her best known novel, ''Pride and Prejudice'' (1811), is her happiest, and has been a blueprint for much subsequent romantic fiction; her other novels feature heroines for whom the modern reader has little sympathy, and may dislike. *Aphra Behn, ''Oroonoko'', (United Kingdom, 1688) *Eliza Haywood, ''Love in Excess'', (United Kingdom, 1719) *Daniel Defoe, ''Robinson Crusoe'', (United Kingdom, 1719) *Samuel Richardson, ''Pamela'', (United Kingdom, 1740) *Henry Fielding, ''The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling'', (United Kingdom, 1749) *Laurence Sterne, ''Tristram Shandy'', (United Kingdom, 1759-1767) *Tobias Smollett, ''The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker'', (Scotland, 1771) *Ignacy Krasicki, ''The Adventures of Nicholas Experience'' (the first Poland novel, 1776) *Frances Burney, ''Evelina'', (United Kingdom, 1778) *Ann Radcliffe, ''The Mysteries of Udolpho'', (United Kingdom, 1794) *Mary Hays, ''Memoirs of Emma Courtney'', (United Kingdom, 1796) ===19th century=== The 19th century was the great century of the novel; its major practitioners included French, English, Russian, American, Polish and German authors: *Jane Austen, ''Pride and Prejudice'' (United Kingdom, 1811). *Stendhal, ''The Red and the Black'' (French language, 1830). *Alessandro Manzoni, ''The Betrothed'' (Italian language, 1840). *Emily Brontë, ''Wuthering Heights'' (United Kingdom, 1847). *Honoré de Balzac, ''Le père Goriot'' (French language). *Charlotte Brontë, ''Jane Eyre'' (United Kingdom, 1847). *Herman Melville, ''Moby-Dick'' (American language, 1851). *Anthony Trollope, ''Barchester Towers'' (United Kingdom, 1857). *Gustave Flaubert, ''Madame Bovary'' (French language,1857). *Charles Dickens, ''Great Expectations'' (United Kingdom, 1860-1861). *Victor Hugo, ''Les Misérables'' (French language, 1862). *Leo Tolstoy, ''War and Peace'' (Russian language, 1865). *Fyodor Dostoyevsky, ''Crime and Punishment'' (Russian language, 1866). *George Eliot, ''Middlemarch'' (United Kingdom, 1871) *Józef Ignacy Kraszewski, ''An Ancient Tale'' (Polish language, 1876). *Mark Twain, ''The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'' (American language, 1885). *Gabriela Zapolska, ''Cathy the Caryatid'' (Polish language, 1885 – 1886). *Benito Pérez Galdós, ''Fortunata y Jacinta'' (Spanish language, 1886-1887). *Wilhelm Raabe, ''Stopfkuchen'', 1891 *Henryk Sienkiewicz, ''Quo Vadis (novel)'' (Polish language, 1895). *Boleslaw Prus, ''Faraon'' (Polish language, 1895). *Joseph Conrad, ''The Nigger of the 'Narcissus''' (Polish, 1897). *Theodor Fontane, ''Der Stechlin'', 1899 ===20th century=== The first decades of the 20th Century saw the emergence of modernism: *Stefan Zeromski: ''Ashes'' (Polish language, 1902 – 1903) *Wladyslaw Reymont: ''The Peasants'' (Polish language, 1902 – 1909). *Gabriela Zapolska, ''Seasonal Love'' (Polish language, 1904). *Marcel Proust ''In Search of Lost Time'' (French language, 1913-1927). *James Joyce ''Ulysses (novel)'' (Irish, 1922 in literature). *Thomas Mann ''The Magic Mountain'' (German language, 1924). *Franz Kafka ''The Trial'' (German language, 1925). *Virginia Woolf ''To the Lighthouse'' (British, 1927). *William Faulkner ''As I Lay Dying'' (English language, 1930). *Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz, ''Insatiability'' (Polish language, 1930). *Tadeusz Dolega-Mostowicz, ''The Career of Nicodemus Dyzma'' (Polish language, 1932). *Witold Gombrowicz, ''Ferdydurke'' (Polish language, 1937). The 20th century also saw the emergence of many notable novelists of non-European and non-U.S. backgrounds. The years 1960 – 1967, in particular, witnessed the Latin America novel boom: *Mario Vargas Llosa, ''La ciudad y los perros'' (Spanish language, 1963). *Gabriel García Márquez, ''Cien años de soledad'' (Spanish language). *Isabel Allende, ''The House of the Spirits'' (1982) The most notable African American novelists have included: *Zora Neale Hurston, ''Their Eyes Were Watching God'' (1937) *Ralph Ellison, ''Invisible Man'' (1952) *James Baldwin (writer), ''Another Country'' (1962) *Toni Morrison, ''Beloved (novel)'' (1987) Modernism continued into the late 20th century, sometimes becoming postmodernism; Toni Morrison (above) is part of that tradition: * Vladimir Nabokov, ''Lolita'' (1955) * Thomas Pynchon, ''Gravity's Rainbow'' (1973) * Salman Rushdie, ''Midnight's Children'' (1980) * Milan Kundera, ''The Unbearable Lightness of Being'' (1984) Other novelists ignored or reacted against modernism: * John Updike, the ''Rabbit'' tetralogy (1959–1990) ===Genre novels=== From the late Victorian period to the present, several types of "genre" novels and romances have been popular. While often slighted by critics and academics, these have been as popular as the more critically and academically acclaimed novels; in recent times, the best of them have been recognized as serious literature. Some categories of genre fiction are: *science fiction *fantasy *crime fiction *American Old West *Romance novel *spy novel ==References== *Armstrong, Nancy. ''Desire and Domestic Fiction: A Political History of the Novel''. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987. *Ballaster, Ros. ''Seductive Forms: Women's Amatory Fiction from 1684–1740''. Oxford: Clarendson Press, 1992. *Davis, Lennard. ''Factual Fictions: the Origins of the English Novel''. New York: Columbia University Press, 1983. *Doody, Margaret Anne. ''The True Story of the Novel''. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1996. *Hunter, J.P. ''Before Novels: The Cultural Contexts of Eighteenth-Century English Fiction''. New York: Norton and Co., 1990. *McKeon, Michael. ''The Origins of the English Novel: 1600–1740''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002. *Watt, Ian. ''The Rise of the Novel: Studies in Defoe, Richardson and Fielding''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1957. ==See also== *Literature *Fiction **Story **Short story **Novella **Novelette **Romance (genre) *First novel in English *List of novels whose action takes place within 24 hours *Theater / Drama *Poetry ---- Novel is also the name of a commune of the Haute-Savoie ''département'' in France. ==External links== *Modern Library lists of [http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlibrary/100bestnovels.html 100 Best Novels] Novels ISBN needed ga:Úrscéal th:วรรณกรรม
Argh! I can't take it any longer - I'm going to rewrite this article from scatch. User:Cgs 23:04 12 Jul 2003 (UTC). ==Decameron and Novella== User:Chinasaur cut ''The Decameron'' from the list, with the comment :Decameron is a collection of folktales flimsily linked together; I don't think it qualifies. I restored it. One of the points of this page is that there is disagreement about what constitutes a novel. Maybe I should make the controversy a bit clearer, as in the First novel in English article. User:Gdr 07:56, 2004 Apr 19 (UTC) :That's fine if you really think it belongs here, but even if you're stretching the definitions I'd still say this is way on the margin of what could qualify. I don't know if this was part of your point, but I'll note that nothing written on the First novel in English would seem to qualify ''Decameron''. The picaresque style mentioned there is a series of disconnected stories about one character, quite different from the ''Decameron'', a series of unrelated folk tales drawn from prexisting sources and strung together within a loose story framework that is more historical/mystical than narrative. --User:Chinasaur 17:16, Apr 19, 2004 (UTC) ::''The Decameron'' has a "frame story" which links the tales together. I agree that it stretches the definition of "novel", but I don't think it exceeds it. No literary form has precise boundaries: at the margins there are works which are ambiguous (novel or collection? short novel or short story? poetic novel or epic poem?). ::And if you exclude ''The Decameron'' you would also have to exclude ''If on a winter's night a traveller'' by Italo Calvino. But everyone calls that a novel. User:Gdr 15:36, 2004 May 13 (UTC) :::Interesting point, this does seem to be a fine line because I think I would count the Calvino book. In IOAWNAT there are for one thing alternating chapters, so roughly half the book is devoted to what seems to be a single narrative (in second person singular). Most of all though, IOAWNAT is, in some sense, a cohesive book with a single guiding voice, though it's narrative may be postmodernly disjointed. Decameron has no comparable sense of cohesion; it is essentially what I have already described: a collection of folk-tales linked with short excursions into the frame tale. :::The salient feature of the frame tale of the Decameron is that ''nothing happens''; no central problem arises (other than escaping the plague, which is resolved by the end of the introduction), no characters develop or have meaningful relationships, etc.. That's why most consider the frame tale more of historical interest than of narrative value. If I had to summarize the "story" of the frame tale, I could probably give you two sentences worth reading (for narrative interest). If I tried to stretch it into anything more than that, you would find it incredibly boring ("Fiammetta passed the crown to Dioneo, and Emilia sang a song, and Dioneo picked a new topic, and they all danced and ate dinner, and they woke up and walked around the villa, and they each told a story according to Dioneo's prescription, and then they laughed and Dioneo passed the crown to etc. etc. etc.). :::Oh well, that's my input, so do with it what you will. I reiterate that if Decameron is going to stay, then I think Arabian Nights should be added, despite the difficulties of determining an author/date of writing. --User:Chinasaur 17:36, May 13, 2004 (UTC) ::::I'll remove it. User:Gdr 13:45, 2004 May 16 (UTC) :Have you readed Quevedo's ''El buscón''? It's not a serie of disconnected stories about one character. ::Nope, haven't read that one, but my understanding of it is that it covers the life of Don Pablo, so unless I'm missing something it does sound like a series of stories about one character. If your point is that they're not disconnected stories, then that is only supporting my original point even more... At any rate, hopefully we can all agree that Decameron is not a picaresque; it's a frame tale in which the frame is mostly of historical/sociological interest and has little narrative value. Here's some questions for you: ::#If the Brothers Grimm had placed a frame tale around their stories, for example an old German grandmother telling the stories, would that make the collectino a novel? ::#Why isn't the Arabian Nights on this list? If Decameron can even marginally qualify, then seems to me Arabian Nights should definitely be in there (admittedly I haven't read Arabian Nights...). :::Yes, I'm supporting your original point. Decameron is not a novel, is a colection of novellas. Also, Lazarillo is too short to be considered a novel. It's a precedent of picaresque novel. ::Also, I'm not too happy about the "and novella" allowance. If you mean, "and short novels", then you should say that; "novella" has a somewhat different connotation in its original Italian context. If you mean "and novella" in the original Italian sense, then you're pretty explicitly stretching the definition of novel. --User:Chinasaur 17:45, May 9, 2004 (UTC) == List of Novels == I moved my earlier comment into this heading: :Also, what is the idea behind the list of modern novels? Obviously this could spin completely out of control. I can see that right now we're restricting to some really representative/famous examples, but other people are likely to come along and decide they need to add to the list. --User:Chinasaur 17:37, May 9, 2004 (UTC) In answer to Elf's question, yeah the list of novels seems like kind of a bad idea to me. So far I think we're doing okay though at keeping it to really decidedly well known examples. I think the guiding principle for any additions to the list in the 19th or 20th century categories should be overriding popular cultural awareness of the work. That's why I added C&P, Great Expectations, Les Mis, etc.: acknowledged "classics". I think to be on the list, a book should at least have an article too, so I motion to expell ''Fortunata y Jacinta''. --User:Chinasaur 04:48, 9 Jun 2004 (UTC) I removed ''Gulliver's Travels'' from the list of 18c novels because it is not generally considered a novel by scholars and the list seemed the place for novels that are generally accepted as such. --User:Awadewit == Americans == Someone keeps changing the article to make Melville and Twain "English", as in they wrote in English. Seems better to me to specify that they're American as everyone can still infer that they wrote in English and that way no one will be mislead into thinking they are European. --User:Chinasaur 04:48, 9 Jun 2004 (UTC) :But for other novels the entry gives the language in which the novel was written. For example, Thomas More was English but wrote in Latin. Maybe it's not a good idea to give the language of the work or the nationality of the author. User:Gdr 15:36, 2004 Jul 20 (UTC) ::Actually, some of the links for this are very messed up. For example, we have ''William Faulkner ... English language '', but ''
Mario Vargas Llosa, Spanish language ''. May I suggest we give ''both'' nationality and language, and that we also don't link the same nationality and language over and over? -- User:Jmabel | User talk:Jmabel 17:47, Dec 7, 2004 (UTC)
:::Why don't we give just the nationality, as the language will (generally) be self-evident. And perhaps we should use "British" instead of "English" to make everything clearer. --User:Awadewit
Popping in here. The article confusingly labels James Joyce as "English". He was Irish, of course. The English tag, no doubt, refers to the language used to write Ulysses. But the context is not clear, and the unitiated may think that Joyce was an Englishman.
:I am going to have to disagree with most of what has been written here. Firstly, as an article about novels, surely the language that is of primary importance is the language that the novel is composed in, rather than the provenance of the author. If a reader is interested in the origins of the author, they can follow the link to the article about that author. As we are concerned with the ''form'' of the novel, rather than the literary traditions of different countries (which are dealt with in their respective articles), it seems to me that the writer's nationality is of inferior importance. I certainly don't think the language will be self-evident by any means, Nabokov's novels in English, for example, or Le Morte D'Arthur- the title suggests it is in French. In the interests of clarity and relevance to this article, I believe it should be made clear that the languages given are those that the novels were written in, and if the reader wants authorial information, they can click the link to said author. Secondly, I believe it would be grossly erroneous to suggest that all authors originating from the British Isles should be labelled "British"- No such language exists, and no such country existed prior to 1707, or 1800 depending on how you interpret "Britain" (another reason not to use this label). This is also derogatory to Welsh, Scottish, English and possibly also to Irish literary traditions; they all have varied, multi-lingual histories and it is an extremely unfair generalization to plaster the billboard of "British" over them all. User:SilhouetteSaloon 20:42, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)
== Very comprehensive definition of novel ==
I was really struck by how much the author(s) of this page have included under the definition and description of novel. I must say that I disagree. As an 18c scholar, I clearly have a bias, but most of the scholarship on the novel does not push it back further than ''Don Quixote'', and rightly so, I feel. The already amorphous notion of the novel becomes even harder to circumscribe once you go beyond that text. Also, if you read some of the more literary historical works on the novel (such as J.P. Hunter's ''Before Novels'' and Lennard Davis' ''Factual Fictions'') it becomes clear that the form could not have existed before journalism.
I wonder if there is some way to reflect this debate a little bit more evenly on the page? I wanted to post this comment and receive feedback before I made any dramatic changes or statements. --User:Awadewit
:Try writing something and see how it goes. Wikipedia:Be bold in editing. There is certainly a need for an explanation of the historical origin of the word "novel" in the 17th century and of critical conceptions of the novel.
:But a concept like "novel" doesn't belong to the people who coined it, nor even to academics who study it. It's true that ''as originally used'', "novel" meant something more specific than "long work of fiction in prose" (and this article needs a section on that original use). But ''now'' the term "novel" is used very widely, encompassing long works of romance, science fiction, detective fiction, fictionalized history and autobiography, and experimental fiction of all sorts. With this loose modern concept in mind, we can look past the historical origin of the term "novel" and see many earlier examples that fall into the category.
:You might like to take a look at the article on the first novel in English which considers some of these points. User:Gdr 16:36, 2004 Jul 20 (UTC)
==Opening definition and list==
I have altered some parts of the definition/characteristics of the novel in an effort to make it/them more precise. I also moved the exceptions to another paragraph to make the list easier to read. We can add more exceptions, but I thought that the list should stand alone. What does everyone else think? --User:Awadewit
== Point of View ==
I think that this section should be moved to the "point of view (literature)" page because it is not a literary device unique to the novel. Maybe there could be a couple of lines in the definition section about how novels usually use either 1st or 3rd person narration.
== Paul Eldridge ==
Is Paul Eldridge really a major enough figure to belong in our short list of African American novelists? I've never read him, myself, but I've also never really had anyone tell me he should be high on the list of authors I should seek out. -- User:Jmabel | User talk:Jmabel 18:31, Jan 6, 2005 (UTC)
:I agree. Once we work on the 20c section more, the list will increase dramatically, so we should try to hold back now. -- User:Awadewit 7 January 2005
===Similarly===
Someone just added "Nelson Kortsha, ''Oakland U'' (1969)". I've never heard of this person or book. Zero Google hits, other than ourselves. I am deleting. -- User:Jmabel | User talk:Jmabel 21:27, Jan 9, 2005 (UTC)
== nationality ==
We really need to have a policy on how we handle nationality and language in the article. I think, for example, that it is fine that we are clarifying that certain writers are "Irish" or "Scottish" – in literary matters, these are nations – but then those from England should be "English" not merely "British". -- User:Jmabel | User talk:Jmabel 06:06, Jan 8, 2005 (UTC)
:The problem with "English" is that readers seemingly get confused between the nationality and the language (see above in other comments). That's why I chose British. -- User:Awadewit 11 January 2005
::Yes, but we end up with a situation where (to paraphrase Musil on "Austro-Hungarian") British is English, plus Scottish and Welsh, minus Scottish and Welsh. -- User:Jmabel | User talk:Jmabel 18:22, Jan 12, 2005 (UTC)
:::I agree. Just use English-language as a designation to avoid the confusion, as in 'James Joyce is an English-language Irish novelist.' User:Filiocht 12:50, Jan 13, 2005 (UTC)
== Novel v. Romance==
User:Corvun hasn't yet explained the removal of a sentence, so I will revert that edit. In defining "novel" a contrast with the "romances" that preceded it is useful. User:Zeimusu — User:Zeimusu | User talk:Zeimusu 08:35, 17 Mar 2005 (UTC)
: EXCUSE ME! The server went down exactly as I was explaining the removal of the false statement. In the future, I suggest you be more mindful and courteous to your fellow Wikipedeans than to assume laziness on their part because of a problem with the 'pedia's servers.
:Any way, I removed ''"and is not usually composed of the traditional plots of myth and legend (contrast with Romance (genre))"'' Because it is in direct opposition to reality. Fantasy novels make extensive use of traditional plots of myth and legend, as do science fiction novels, horror novels, and romance novels. --User:Corvun 11:55, Mar 17, 2005 (UTC)
:: Calling an edit where there is substantive, sincere disagreement "vandalism", as you did in your edit summary, is a good way to make enemies, and not only of the person you are accusing of vandalism. So is failing to presume good faith (this user, depending on when he/she was logged in, may not even have been ''aware'' the server was down for the better part of a day). You have a lot of nerve lecturing discourteously on courtesy. -- User:Jmabel | User talk:Jmabel 18:18, Mar 17, 2005 (UTC)
:::Substantive, sincere disagreement? Where? From whom? Can you name one single person who feels that novels usually aren't composed of the traditional plots of myth and legend? Who would argue that point? Perhaps someone who isn't aware of the existence of the enormous volume of novels (such as science fiction and fantasy) that ''do'' make use of traditional plots from myth and legend. Honestly, where is there ''any'' disagreement about this? Maybe "vandalism" was too harsh a word -- perhaps I should have said "intentional misinformation". --User:Corvun 22:53, Mar 17, 2005 (UTC)
::I'm not going to be drawn into a farting match. My previous comments stand. -- User:Jmabel | User talk:Jmabel 00:58, Mar 18, 2005 (UTC)
:::Not unless you can support them.
:::There's plenty of disagreement over whether "literary" novels should be separated from "genre" novels, but the key word in both is ''novel''. I don't know of anyone who would claim that a "genre novel" isn't a novel. The claim that novels are ''"not usually composed of the traditional plots of myth and legend (contrast with Romance (genre))"'' is thus not only untrue, but completely nonsensical -- contradicting itslef by asking the reader to contrast what it says about the novel with romance, a genre in which many, many novels have been published. The statement obviously violates NPOV, but is so completely and wholly illucid that even its POV is difficult to understand. The sentence might as well have read "Blooga bugga gloop munga". So, yes, I consider its re-insertion to be an act of vandalism. --User:Corvun 02:23, Mar 18, 2005 (UTC)
==Collective nouns==
"There ''are''/''is'' a small number of central characters.": Either verb may be used with a collective noun such as "number." "Are" sounds better to me in this case. User:Logologist 22:16, 17 Apr 2005 (UTC)
I agree. Go ahead and change it if you want. By the way, what does "UTC" mean? I see it at the bottom of everyone's talk page time stamps. --User:Simpsnut14 16:51, 17 Apr. 2005
*Coordinated Universal Time. The order in the acronym reflects the French-language name. It used to be known as GMT ("Greenwich Mean Time"). -- User:Jmabel | User talk:Jmabel 03:54, Apr 18, 2005 (UTC)
==Lists of genre novels==
At the risk of barging in here and offending people, the lists of genre novels seem bogus to me. There is no preface to the lists to explain why they're in the article and how they were chosen. The list of fantasy and science fiction novels seems like a random list of idiosyncratic personal favorites. Why two Philip K. Dick novels, for example, and none by Heinlein? Why Terry Pratchett and not Piers Anthony? It seems to me that the place for this sort of thing is one of Amazon.com's personal lists, or one of the wikipedia variants that encourages personal opinions in addition to NPOV encyclopedic writing. It also omits some important categories, like romance novels and westerns. I'm going to go ahead and replace it with a simple bullet list of links to the individual articles on the genres. If anyone feels that lists like these do serve some need, I'd suggest they reintroduce some lists, but make an effort to explain within the article why the lists are there and how they were selected.--User:Bcrowell 19:16, 7 Jun 2005 (UTC)
== Translation of the German article (which should offer a European history for the period before the National Literatures) ==
If there are people around who can read German you might take a look at the article on the history of the novel I produced over there ("Roman") - in German I am afraid, but with a good deal of information on the international history of the novel including illustrations of original title pages. The thing over there is designed to lead into the 19th century where articles on the different national traditions should take over (and it is still somewhat weak on the Greek tradition and the middle ages), yet may be a thing to give a history rather than lists of novels with a few words on Defoe and the alleged rise of the novel he is said to have generated. (The word "novel" is older, and Defoe's titles were not novels when they first appeared, they were rather romances answering the wave of novels which had followed those of Aphra Behn and her generation - which again had followed the novel Cervantes and Scarron revived...). The traditions of novels of other literatures - such as China, Japan, should also, so I think, rather be added with individual articles on these literatures (as these literatures themselves have been mostly created since the 19th century to produce what is now the tradition of literatures of the world). --User:Olaf Simons 9 Jun 2005
* That's at , if anyone is interested, and it looks like there is a lot of material worthy of translation. -- User:Jmabel | User talk:Jmabel 05:54, Jun 14, 2005 (UTC)
One would have to give it a different start paying tribute to the fact that the English and the Spanish opted for the other word - "novel" - at the end of 17th century as the new word for what used to be a "romance" before. Yet the challenge would remain to write a European history for the whole romance/novel ensemble. I somewhat hesitate to jump into this. I'd rather do it with a partner editing my text wherever it might sound German before it finds the larger audience. -- User:Olaf Simons 15:53, 21 Jun 2005 (UTC)
See other meanings of words starting from letter:
Words begining with Novel:
Novel
Novel
Novel-Technology
Novela
Novelda
Novelette
Novelette
Novelisation
Novelist
Novelists
Novelists
Novelists
Novelists
Novelists_by_nationality
Novelization
Novell
Novell
Novell,_Inc.
Novella
Novella
Novellas
Novella_Calligaris
Novellist
Novello,_Antonia
Novell_Directory_Services
Novell_Directory_Services
Novell_Evolution
Novell_evolution
Novell_exteNd
Novell_exteNd
Novell_Groupwise
Novell_Inc.
Novell_Linux_Desktop
Novell_NetWare
Novell_Netware
Novell_S-Net
Novell_Storage_Services
Novels
Novels
Novels_based_on_video_games
Novels_by_Anne_Rice
Novels_by_author
Novels_by_country
Novels_by_genre
Novels_by_Jeffrey_Archer
Novels_by_Richard_Bachman
Novels_by_Robert_A._Heinlein
Novels_by_Stephen_King
Novels_by_year
Novels_of_D.H._Lawrence
Novels_of_Fyodor_Dostoevsky
Novels_of_Jack_Kerouac
Novels_of_Russell_Banks
Novels_of_Walter_Tevis
Novelties
Noveltoon
Noveltoons
Novelty
Novelty,_Missouri
Novelty,_MO
Novelty_(disambiguation)
Novelty_(patent)
Novelty_(show)
Novelty_and_fad_dances
Novelty_and_fad_dances
Novelty_dance
Novelty_pet
Novelty_record
Novelty_show
Novelty_song
Novelty_songs
Novelty_Theory
Novelty_Theory
Novel_antidepressant
Novel_antidepressant
Novel_approaches
Novel_food
Novel_food
Novel_sequence
Novel_sequences
Novel_sequences
Novel
A novel is an extended work of written, narrative, prose fiction, usually in story form; the writer of a novel is a novelist. The English word "novel" derives from the Italian language word ''novella'', meaning "a tale, a piece of news." The novel is longer (at least 40,000 words) and more complex than either the short story or the novella, and is not bound by the structural and metrical restrictions of plays or poetry. In most cases a novel is about characters and their actions in everyday life, with emphasis on the "novelty" of the narrative. ==Qualities of the novel== Most novels have the following qualities: *The intent is entertainment, at least partly. *The subject is presented as fiction, though it may be partly factual. *The subject is familiar, credible and plausible, i.e. readers believe in the places and characters. *The subject is people, although the characters themselves may or may not be humans. *The story chiefly concerns the actions and relationships of the different characters. *There are a small number of central Fictional character. *A single plot, however fragmented or tangential, eventually unites the events and characters *The protagonist(s) evolve(s) and grow(s) in the course of the novel; characters are more "rounded" — fleshed-out — than are the "flat," one-dimensional characters of earlier literary genres. *The story occurs in an identifiable time and place (setting). There are exceptions to each of these traits, and a text need not meet all criteria to be a novel. For example, ''Animal Farm'' (1945), by George Orwell (1903–1950), tells its story using farm animals representing human archetypes and human concerns. Another example is the science fiction, or fantasy, novel, which follows its own set of rules. They are believable only when internally consistent, meaning the rules of the fictional universe presented make sense within the novel itself and are not subject to our reality. Examples include Douglas Adams's ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' series and Dennis McKiernan’s ''Mithgar'' series. The novel genre sometimes is contrasted with the Romance genre—the original concept is similar, hence, the French language and German language word for "novel" is "roman". The first "romance (genre)" usually was fantastic—set in a mythical, ancient time, and had shallow, two-dimensional characters. ''Don Quixote'' (1605, 1615) by Cervantes (1547–1616), for example, may be read as parody of popular chivalric romance. Contemporarily, the word "romance novel" refers to popular fiction with a sentimental love story at center stage, often at the expense of characterization and plot. ==History of, and general influences on, the novel== ===Classical period=== Most scholars agree that the novel emerged during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in Europe; a few argue that the novel dates from antiquity. These scholars argue that “personality"—evolution of the protagonist's character is the center of the novel; rather the work requires only a set of characters to be considered a novel. Moreover, they heavily emphasise the role of “eros” in defining the novel—in this theory, most often novels are about “sentiment and erotic passion”. From Western antiquity—Greece and Rome—these are the earliest, extant novels: *Xenophon, ''The Education of Cyrus'' (Greek language, 4th century BC). A largely fictional account of the education of King Cyrus the Great of Persia. This is considered a precursor to the novel. *Petronius Arbiter, ''Satyricon'' (Latin, 1st century). *Apuleius, ''The Golden Ass'' (Latin, 2nd century). *Chariton, ''The Loves of Chaereas and Callirhoe'' (Greek language, 1st century–2nd century). *Achilles Tatius, ''Leucippe and Clitophon'' (Greek language, 2nd century). *Longus, ''Daphnis and Chloe'' (Greek language, 2nd century). *Xenophon of Ephesus, ''Ephesian Tale'' (Greek language, 2nd century–3rd century). *Heliodorus of Emesa, ''Ethiopian Tale'' (Greek language, 3rd century–4th century). *Anon, ''Joseph and Aseneth'' (Greek language, 1st century–5th century). *Anon, ''The Story of Apollonius, King of Tyre'' (Latin adaptation of lost Greek language original, 5th century–6th century). ===Asian works=== Early important Asian novels include: *Dandin, ''The Adventures of the Ten Princes'' (Sanskrit, 6th century–7th century). *Banabhatta, ''Kadambari'' (Sanskrit, 7th century). *Anon, ''The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter'' (Japanese language, 10th century). *Anon, ''The Tale of Ochikubo'' (Japanese language, 10th century). *Murasaki Shikibu, ''The Tale of Genji'' (Japanese language, 11th century). *Luo Guanzhong, ''Romance of the Three Kingdoms'' (Chinese language, 14th century). ===Medieval and Renaissance=== Early Middle Ages novels include: *Ramon Llull, ''Blanquerna'' (1283) *Antoine de la Sale, ''Petit Jehan de Saintré'' (1456) These were successors to the Byzantine novel of the twelfth century, itself an imitation and modification of the ancient Greek form. In the Renaissance, the important European trend was towards fantastic fiction : *Thomas Malory, ''Le Morte d'Arthur'', (English language, 1485). *Joanot Martorell, ''Tirant lo Blanc'' (Catalan language, 1490), chivalric romance. *Jacopo Sannazaro, ''La Arcadia'', (Italian language, 1504), pastoral novel. *Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo, ''Amadis of Gaul'' (Spanish language adaptation of lost 13th century original, 1508). *Thomas More, ''Utopia (Novel)'' (Latin, circa 1516). *François Rabelais, ''Pantagruel'', (French language, 1532). *Jorge de Montemayor, ''La Diana'' (Spanish language, 1559), pastoral novel. The picaresque novel and ''Don Quixote de la Mancha'' (1605) generally are considered the originators of the modern European novel, characterized by realism. For example: *Anon, ''Lazarillo de Tormes'' (Spanish language, 1554). *Mateo Aleman, ''Guzmán de Alfarache'' (Spanish language, 1599). *Francisco de Quevedo, ''El buscón'' (Spanish language, 1626), masterpiece of the picaresque subgenre. *Grimmelshausen, ''Simplicissimus'' (German language, 1669), the most important of the non-Spanish picaresque novels. See also: Romance (genre) ===18th century=== [[Image:Defoe-daniel.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Daniel Defoe, one of the best-known early British novelists]] The 18th century is considered, by most scholars of the English novel, to have been the century of the novel's invention or rise, a phrase popularised in Ian Watt's pioneer study in literary sociology, ''The Rise of the Novel'' (1957). It is generally agreed that, at the end of the seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth centuries, the novel arose from a host of genres in France and England. Novelists drew upon the new "journalistic" tradition (less reliable than contemporary journalism)—criminal biographies and autobiographies (sensational stories of high-profile criminal exploits, often ending with the criminal's contrived repentance), spiritual autobiographies, conduct books (contemporaneous etiquette books ranging from proper titles for the nobility to appropriate topics of conversation for women), travel narratives (often fantastic and rarely accurate accounts of distant places written by explorers, and others, retelling tales told them), religious allegories, and histories—to construct their novels. For example, in ''Robinson Crusoe'' (1719), Daniel Defoe fuses news (reports of the castaway Alexander Selkirk), the Puritan spiritual autobiography, the religious allegory, and the travelogue into a tale now considered a representative early novel. There is much debate about the role of the French romance in the development of the English novel. On the one hand, Ros Ballaster argues that the French romance and ''scandal chronique'' (popular in France and England), laid the groundwork for the early English novels, especially the novels written by women such as Eliza Haywood. Her ''Love in Excess'' (1719), has the markings of a scandal novel, rich with intrigue and sex. Oftentimes these novels were thinly veiled political attacks on ruling parties; these works now are labeled "amatory fiction." On the other hand, Lennard Davis, argues that the French romance is not the root of the novel, but that the novel is more closely tied to the English “news” traditions outlined above; the novel has multiple “beginnings”. Ballaster’s argument works well with one set of texts, and Davis’s argument with another, therefore, one could conclude that the novel had not yet solidified into the form recognized today, and most important; women writers were drawing upon different literary traditions, in fashioning the new genre, than were men writers. Around 1740, England's taste for scandal decreased, and the desire to reform morals and manners took hold. Samuel Richardson's ''Pamela'' (1740) often is seen as the first novel embodying this new social trend. In it, he claimed he would "instruct" and "entertain"; it became one of the first "bestsellers". It is the story of maid, who, through chastity, wins the heart of her master and becomes his wife. Richardson's contemporary readers were treated to what they identified as a new level of literary "realism" in ''Pamela''; Ian Watt argues that this novel inaugurated the psychological novel genre, because it focused on the psyche of one character, though many argue that this distinction should be awarded to William Godwin’s ''Caleb Williams'' (1795). Richardson achieved this feat through “epistolarity,” i.e. the novel is a series of Pamela's letters to her parents. This style became popular after ''Pamela'', and writers such as Frances Burney adopted it. In 1749, Henry Fielding published ''The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling''—his major, novelistic response to ''Pamela'', decrying what he saw as "vulgar" or "low" language in ''Pamela'', and its leveling theme. The hero of ''Tom Jones'', a seeming orphan, begins as a rake, reforms, and discovers he is an aristocrat, thus gaining his fortune. Fielding saw himself as reinstating the proper social hierarchy that Richardson challenged. He also was trying to lay the foundations for the new genre, denouncing Richardson’s popular style, and describing his own novel as a “comic epic in prose,” hearkening to the Classical tradition. Fielding tried to legitimize his novel with classical allusions, but he still appealed to the popular audience with raucous and bawdy jokes. During that time, the genre of the novel became "fixed", i.e. readers knew what to expect. Typically, the novel was the story of the education, in the broadest sense, of a protagonist. The more experimental, "messy", novels, those whose plots were convoluted or non-existent, from earlier in the century, such as the scandal novels of Eliza Haywood, fell by the wayside. At mid-century, these two novels, and others, spawned the ''novel of sensibility''. In it, the protagonist, most often a young woman, naively encounters the world and learns to refine her natural goodness. ''Sensibility'' was a character trait important in the mid- to late-eighteenth century. A person with sensibility was attuned with nature and was easily, and rightly, affected by the feelings of others; the "sensible" person noticed the hurt of others and was a barometer of social morality. An excellent example of this type of novel is Frances Burney's ''Evelina'' (1778), wherein the heroine, while naturally good, in part for being country-raised, hones her politeness when visiting London—she is educated into propriety. This novel also is the beginning of "romantic comedy". At the end of the eighteenth century, sensibility's value was questioned, as it made its bearers, particularly women, too overwrought and too prone to imagining worlds beyond their appointed ones. These anxieties are in the rise of the Gothic novel, at century's end. The Gothic novel's story occurs in a distant time and place, often Renaissance Italy, and involved the fantastic exploits of an imperiled heroine. The classic Gothic novel is Ann Radcliffe’s ''The Mysteries of Udolpho'' (1794). As in other Gothic novels, the notion of the ''sublime (philosophy)'' is central. Eighteenth-century aesthetic theory held that the sublime and the beautiful were juxtaposed. The sublime was awful (awe-inspiring) and terrifying while the beautiful was calm and reassuring. The characters and landscapes of the Gothic rest almost entirely within the sublime, with the heroine the great exception. The “beautiful” heroine’s susceptibility to supernatural elements, integral to these novels, both celebrates and problematizes what came to be seen as hyper-sensibility. Finally, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the overwrought emotions of sensibility, as expressed through the Gothic sublime, had run their course. Jane Austen wrote a Gothic novel parody titled ''Northanger Abbey'' (1803), reflecting the death of the Gothic novel. Moreover, while sensibility did not disappear, it was less valued. Austen introduced a different style of writing—the ''comedy of manners'', but her novels often are not funny, bur are scathing critiques of the restrictive, rural culture of the early nineteenth century. Her best known novel, ''Pride and Prejudice'' (1811), is her happiest, and has been a blueprint for much subsequent romantic fiction; her other novels feature heroines for whom the modern reader has little sympathy, and may dislike. *Aphra Behn, ''Oroonoko'', (United Kingdom, 1688) *Eliza Haywood, ''Love in Excess'', (United Kingdom, 1719) *Daniel Defoe, ''Robinson Crusoe'', (United Kingdom, 1719) *Samuel Richardson, ''Pamela'', (United Kingdom, 1740) *Henry Fielding, ''The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling'', (United Kingdom, 1749) *Laurence Sterne, ''Tristram Shandy'', (United Kingdom, 1759-1767) *Tobias Smollett, ''The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker'', (Scotland, 1771) *Ignacy Krasicki, ''The Adventures of Nicholas Experience'' (the first Poland novel, 1776) *Frances Burney, ''Evelina'', (United Kingdom, 1778) *Ann Radcliffe, ''The Mysteries of Udolpho'', (United Kingdom, 1794) *Mary Hays, ''Memoirs of Emma Courtney'', (United Kingdom, 1796) ===19th century=== The 19th century was the great century of the novel; its major practitioners included French, English, Russian, American, Polish and German authors: *Jane Austen, ''Pride and Prejudice'' (United Kingdom, 1811). *Stendhal, ''The Red and the Black'' (French language, 1830). *Alessandro Manzoni, ''The Betrothed'' (Italian language, 1840). *Emily Brontë, ''Wuthering Heights'' (United Kingdom, 1847). *Honoré de Balzac, ''Le père Goriot'' (French language). *Charlotte Brontë, ''Jane Eyre'' (United Kingdom, 1847). *Herman Melville, ''Moby-Dick'' (American language, 1851). *Anthony Trollope, ''Barchester Towers'' (United Kingdom, 1857). *Gustave Flaubert, ''Madame Bovary'' (French language,1857). *Charles Dickens, ''Great Expectations'' (United Kingdom, 1860-1861). *Victor Hugo, ''Les Misérables'' (French language, 1862). *Leo Tolstoy, ''War and Peace'' (Russian language, 1865). *Fyodor Dostoyevsky, ''Crime and Punishment'' (Russian language, 1866). *George Eliot, ''Middlemarch'' (United Kingdom, 1871) *Józef Ignacy Kraszewski, ''An Ancient Tale'' (Polish language, 1876). *Mark Twain, ''The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'' (American language, 1885). *Gabriela Zapolska, ''Cathy the Caryatid'' (Polish language, 1885 – 1886). *Benito Pérez Galdós, ''Fortunata y Jacinta'' (Spanish language, 1886-1887). *Wilhelm Raabe, ''Stopfkuchen'', 1891 *Henryk Sienkiewicz, ''Quo Vadis (novel)'' (Polish language, 1895). *Boleslaw Prus, ''Faraon'' (Polish language, 1895). *Joseph Conrad, ''The Nigger of the 'Narcissus''' (Polish, 1897). *Theodor Fontane, ''Der Stechlin'', 1899 ===20th century=== The first decades of the 20th Century saw the emergence of modernism: *Stefan Zeromski: ''Ashes'' (Polish language, 1902 – 1903) *Wladyslaw Reymont: ''The Peasants'' (Polish language, 1902 – 1909). *Gabriela Zapolska, ''Seasonal Love'' (Polish language, 1904). *Marcel Proust ''In Search of Lost Time'' (French language, 1913-1927). *James Joyce ''Ulysses (novel)'' (Irish, 1922 in literature). *Thomas Mann ''The Magic Mountain'' (German language, 1924). *Franz Kafka ''The Trial'' (German language, 1925). *Virginia Woolf ''To the Lighthouse'' (British, 1927). *William Faulkner ''As I Lay Dying'' (English language, 1930). *Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz, ''Insatiability'' (Polish language, 1930). *Tadeusz Dolega-Mostowicz, ''The Career of Nicodemus Dyzma'' (Polish language, 1932). *Witold Gombrowicz, ''Ferdydurke'' (Polish language, 1937). The 20th century also saw the emergence of many notable novelists of non-European and non-U.S. backgrounds. The years 1960 – 1967, in particular, witnessed the Latin America novel boom: *Mario Vargas Llosa, ''La ciudad y los perros'' (Spanish language, 1963). *Gabriel García Márquez, ''Cien años de soledad'' (Spanish language). *Isabel Allende, ''The House of the Spirits'' (1982) The most notable African American novelists have included: *Zora Neale Hurston, ''Their Eyes Were Watching God'' (1937) *Ralph Ellison, ''Invisible Man'' (1952) *James Baldwin (writer), ''Another Country'' (1962) *Toni Morrison, ''Beloved (novel)'' (1987) Modernism continued into the late 20th century, sometimes becoming postmodernism; Toni Morrison (above) is part of that tradition: * Vladimir Nabokov, ''Lolita'' (1955) * Thomas Pynchon, ''Gravity's Rainbow'' (1973) * Salman Rushdie, ''Midnight's Children'' (1980) * Milan Kundera, ''The Unbearable Lightness of Being'' (1984) Other novelists ignored or reacted against modernism: * John Updike, the ''Rabbit'' tetralogy (1959–1990) ===Genre novels=== From the late Victorian period to the present, several types of "genre" novels and romances have been popular. While often slighted by critics and academics, these have been as popular as the more critically and academically acclaimed novels; in recent times, the best of them have been recognized as serious literature. Some categories of genre fiction are: *science fiction *fantasy *crime fiction *American Old West *Romance novel *spy novel ==References== *Armstrong, Nancy. ''Desire and Domestic Fiction: A Political History of the Novel''. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987. *Ballaster, Ros. ''Seductive Forms: Women's Amatory Fiction from 1684–1740''. Oxford: Clarendson Press, 1992. *Davis, Lennard. ''Factual Fictions: the Origins of the English Novel''. New York: Columbia University Press, 1983. *Doody, Margaret Anne. ''The True Story of the Novel''. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1996. *Hunter, J.P. ''Before Novels: The Cultural Contexts of Eighteenth-Century English Fiction''. New York: Norton and Co., 1990. *McKeon, Michael. ''The Origins of the English Novel: 1600–1740''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002. *Watt, Ian. ''The Rise of the Novel: Studies in Defoe, Richardson and Fielding''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1957. ==See also== *Literature *Fiction **Story **Short story **Novella **Novelette **Romance (genre) *First novel in English *List of novels whose action takes place within 24 hours *Theater / Drama *Poetry ---- Novel is also the name of a commune of the Haute-Savoie ''département'' in France. ==External links== *Modern Library lists of [http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlibrary/100bestnovels.html 100 Best Novels] Novels ISBN needed ga:Úrscéal th:วรรณกรรม
Novel
Argh! I can't take it any longer - I'm going to rewrite this article from scatch. User:Cgs 23:04 12 Jul 2003 (UTC). ==Decameron and Novella== User:Chinasaur cut ''The Decameron'' from the list, with the comment :Decameron is a collection of folktales flimsily linked together; I don't think it qualifies. I restored it. One of the points of this page is that there is disagreement about what constitutes a novel. Maybe I should make the controversy a bit clearer, as in the First novel in English article. User:Gdr 07:56, 2004 Apr 19 (UTC) :That's fine if you really think it belongs here, but even if you're stretching the definitions I'd still say this is way on the margin of what could qualify. I don't know if this was part of your point, but I'll note that nothing written on the First novel in English would seem to qualify ''Decameron''. The picaresque style mentioned there is a series of disconnected stories about one character, quite different from the ''Decameron'', a series of unrelated folk tales drawn from prexisting sources and strung together within a loose story framework that is more historical/mystical than narrative. --User:Chinasaur 17:16, Apr 19, 2004 (UTC) ::''The Decameron'' has a "frame story" which links the tales together. I agree that it stretches the definition of "novel", but I don't think it exceeds it. No literary form has precise boundaries: at the margins there are works which are ambiguous (novel or collection? short novel or short story? poetic novel or epic poem?). ::And if you exclude ''The Decameron'' you would also have to exclude ''If on a winter's night a traveller'' by Italo Calvino. But everyone calls that a novel. User:Gdr 15:36, 2004 May 13 (UTC) :::Interesting point, this does seem to be a fine line because I think I would count the Calvino book. In IOAWNAT there are for one thing alternating chapters, so roughly half the book is devoted to what seems to be a single narrative (in second person singular). Most of all though, IOAWNAT is, in some sense, a cohesive book with a single guiding voice, though it's narrative may be postmodernly disjointed. Decameron has no comparable sense of cohesion; it is essentially what I have already described: a collection of folk-tales linked with short excursions into the frame tale. :::The salient feature of the frame tale of the Decameron is that ''nothing happens''; no central problem arises (other than escaping the plague, which is resolved by the end of the introduction), no characters develop or have meaningful relationships, etc.. That's why most consider the frame tale more of historical interest than of narrative value. If I had to summarize the "story" of the frame tale, I could probably give you two sentences worth reading (for narrative interest). If I tried to stretch it into anything more than that, you would find it incredibly boring ("Fiammetta passed the crown to Dioneo, and Emilia sang a song, and Dioneo picked a new topic, and they all danced and ate dinner, and they woke up and walked around the villa, and they each told a story according to Dioneo's prescription, and then they laughed and Dioneo passed the crown to etc. etc. etc.). :::Oh well, that's my input, so do with it what you will. I reiterate that if Decameron is going to stay, then I think Arabian Nights should be added, despite the difficulties of determining an author/date of writing. --User:Chinasaur 17:36, May 13, 2004 (UTC) ::::I'll remove it. User:Gdr 13:45, 2004 May 16 (UTC) :Have you readed Quevedo's ''El buscón''? It's not a serie of disconnected stories about one character. ::Nope, haven't read that one, but my understanding of it is that it covers the life of Don Pablo, so unless I'm missing something it does sound like a series of stories about one character. If your point is that they're not disconnected stories, then that is only supporting my original point even more... At any rate, hopefully we can all agree that Decameron is not a picaresque; it's a frame tale in which the frame is mostly of historical/sociological interest and has little narrative value. Here's some questions for you: ::#If the Brothers Grimm had placed a frame tale around their stories, for example an old German grandmother telling the stories, would that make the collectino a novel? ::#Why isn't the Arabian Nights on this list? If Decameron can even marginally qualify, then seems to me Arabian Nights should definitely be in there (admittedly I haven't read Arabian Nights...). :::Yes, I'm supporting your original point. Decameron is not a novel, is a colection of novellas. Also, Lazarillo is too short to be considered a novel. It's a precedent of picaresque novel. ::Also, I'm not too happy about the "and novella" allowance. If you mean, "and short novels", then you should say that; "novella" has a somewhat different connotation in its original Italian context. If you mean "and novella" in the original Italian sense, then you're pretty explicitly stretching the definition of novel. --User:Chinasaur 17:45, May 9, 2004 (UTC) == List of Novels == I moved my earlier comment into this heading: :Also, what is the idea behind the list of modern novels? Obviously this could spin completely out of control. I can see that right now we're restricting to some really representative/famous examples, but other people are likely to come along and decide they need to add to the list. --User:Chinasaur 17:37, May 9, 2004 (UTC) In answer to Elf's question, yeah the list of novels seems like kind of a bad idea to me. So far I think we're doing okay though at keeping it to really decidedly well known examples. I think the guiding principle for any additions to the list in the 19th or 20th century categories should be overriding popular cultural awareness of the work. That's why I added C&P, Great Expectations, Les Mis, etc.: acknowledged "classics". I think to be on the list, a book should at least have an article too, so I motion to expell ''Fortunata y Jacinta''. --User:Chinasaur 04:48, 9 Jun 2004 (UTC) I removed ''Gulliver's Travels'' from the list of 18c novels because it is not generally considered a novel by scholars and the list seemed the place for novels that are generally accepted as such. --User:Awadewit == Americans == Someone keeps changing the article to make Melville and Twain "English", as in they wrote in English. Seems better to me to specify that they're American as everyone can still infer that they wrote in English and that way no one will be mislead into thinking they are European. --User:Chinasaur 04:48, 9 Jun 2004 (UTC) :But for other novels the entry gives the language in which the novel was written. For example, Thomas More was English but wrote in Latin. Maybe it's not a good idea to give the language of the work or the nationality of the author. User:Gdr 15:36, 2004 Jul 20 (UTC) ::Actually, some of the links for this are very messed up. For example, we have ''
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Novel
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Novelists
Novelists_by_nationality
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Novell
Novell
Novell,_Inc.
Novella
Novella
Novellas
Novella_Calligaris
Novellist
Novello,_Antonia
Novell_Directory_Services
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Novell_Evolution
Novell_evolution
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Novell_Groupwise
Novell_Inc.
Novell_Linux_Desktop
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Novels
Novels
Novels_based_on_video_games
Novels_by_Anne_Rice
Novels_by_author
Novels_by_country
Novels_by_genre
Novels_by_Jeffrey_Archer
Novels_by_Richard_Bachman
Novels_by_Robert_A._Heinlein
Novels_by_Stephen_King
Novels_by_year
Novels_of_D.H._Lawrence
Novels_of_Fyodor_Dostoevsky
Novels_of_Jack_Kerouac
Novels_of_Russell_Banks
Novels_of_Walter_Tevis
Novelties
Noveltoon
Noveltoons
Novelty
Novelty,_Missouri
Novelty,_MO
Novelty_(disambiguation)
Novelty_(patent)
Novelty_(show)
Novelty_and_fad_dances
Novelty_and_fad_dances
Novelty_dance
Novelty_pet
Novelty_record
Novelty_show
Novelty_song
Novelty_songs
Novelty_Theory
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Novel_antidepressant
Novel_antidepressant
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