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7/27/2019 Introduction to English Novel
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The NovelA Short Course for English 1302
Students
Central Texas CollegeDr. Brenda Cornell
7/27/2019 Introduction to English Novel
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Definition
A novel is loosely defined as a long work offictional prose (Roberts and Jacobs 1622).Kennedy and Gioia add the desire of the novelistto create a sense of reality (298).
In other words, a novel encompassesplot,theme, character, setting, point of viewall of
the fictional elements of a short story.
The major difference is its length.
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Beginnings
The novels beginning dates from 16th and 17thcentury Spain, Italy, and France.
These romances were largely concerned with
adventure (Roman is the French word meaningnovel.)
In England, writers borrowed the term novelfrom the French and Italian writers, in order to
describe these works and to distinguish themfrom the medieval and classical works;something that was new (novel), in otherwords.
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Beginnings (continued)
In America, Nathaniel Hawthorne, in his
preface to The House of the Seven Gables
(1851), limited the scope of the novel not
merely to the possible, but to the probable
and ordinary course of [mans]
experience. Yet Hawthorne named his
own early novels as romances for theirother-wordly qualities (an example is The
Scarlet Letter).
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Verisimilitude
Many novelists have been concerned with the aura ofpossibility they have tried to createto the extent ofinvention of various devices designed to persuade thereader that the work is based on truth. References to
real people and real events are used.
Max Apples 1987 novel, The Propheteers, includes asmajor characters Walt Disney, Howard Johnson, C. W.Post, and Clarence Birdseye. Apple mixes historical factwith creative invention; the result is strange enough toseem actually true.
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Epistolary Novels
Many early novels were written in the form of letters. An
early English novel, Pamela (1740), was written by
Samuel Richardson, who wanted to portray a story that
emerged from real documents.
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A modern epistolary novel
The Color Purple (1982), by Alice Walker,
narrates the struggles of Celie through
letters to her sister and letters to God.
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=356E7DFVGO&sourceid=00390002887944719741&bfdate=09%2D22%2D2003+10%3A32%3A22&isbn=0671727796&itm=17/27/2019 Introduction to English Novel
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Nonfiction Novel
Popular in the 1960s
Author presents actual people and events
in story form
Examples:
Truman Capote, In Cold Blood Norman Mailer, The Executioners Song
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Historical Novel
A detailed retelling of life in another time
period and perhaps another place
History is often an exciting background for
stories of love and heroic adventure
Reflects a striving for historical truth
f
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Examples of Historical Novels
(American)
Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter
Melville, Moby Dick
Crane, The Red Badge of CourageMitchell, Gone With the Wind
Hemingway,A Farewell to Arms and For
Whom the Bell Tolls Faulkner,A Fable
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Apprenticeship Novel
(Bildungsroman)
Novel of growth and
development; portrays
the adventures of a
young person struggling
toward maturity
Example: James Joyce,
A Portrait of the Artist as
a Young Man
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Picaresque Novel
A loose, rambling
succession of adventures
that happen to a likeable
scoundrel, who lives by
his wits and loves to foolthe ordinary people.
Example: Mark Twains
The Adventures ofHuckleberry Finn
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Roman a clef
From the French, meaning novel with a key,this type of story presents real people andevents thinly disguised. Hemingway scholarscontend that all of Hemingways novels have thistrait, to some extent.
Examples include:
Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises
Fitzgerald, Tender is the NIght
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Conclusion
As the newest genre of written literature,
the novel has an excellent future. Each
year, new novels continue to appear by
the thousandsindeed, something forevery readers taste. In turn, many are
adapted into film, to reach a still more
numerous and varied audience.
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Works Cited
Kennedy, X. J. and Dana Gioia. Literature: anIntroduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. 8thedition. NY: Longman, 2002.
Roberts, Edgar V. and Henry E. Jacobs.Literature: an Introduction to Reading andWriting. 6th edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ:Prentice-Hall, 2001.
Watt, Ian. The Rise of the Novel. Berkeley:Univ. of California Press, 1974.