Novel - Forms of Literature

Novel

(1) What is Novel?

Earlier novel meant a short story written and collected by Boccaccio (1313- 1375) in his “Decameron”. The shorter Oxford Dictionary (1700) explains that it is

“A factious prose narrative of considerable length, in which characters and actions represents real life and are portrayed in a plot of more or less complexity”.

Today it is a story longer, more realistic and more complicated. At present, novel is the most widely read of all kinds of literature.

 (2) Plato’s objections to art/novel

Is reading a novel waste of time?

       Many people seriously think that novel reading is a waste of time. There are some reasons behind it.

(a) Influence of Plato:-

        Plato (427-348 B.C) believed that almost all literature is imaginative and therefore harmful. Literature leads people to believe in lies. Shows both men and gods in a bad light and is useless. In literature the truth is twice removed from reality, because reality presented in it is not itself real but it is copy of something.

(b) Newness of novel:-

        Novel is not as old form as traditional epics or poetry. Novelist does not ennoble the world but presents it as it is, with all meanness, dirt, and sexuality. To some people this is their feelings. They think the novel is intelligent and attractive but has no history, no tradition and is too ‘young’, too ‘modern’. There are people who think that some novelists like Richardson and Dickenson were men of poor education, and they knew not enough Greek or Latin and were not ‘gentlemen’. So their works were considered as the kind of second.

(c) Few-examples of good Novels:

      Today a growing number of novels are unfortunately simply sadistic or pornographic; few serious novels are to be found. Publishers are interested in money as some writers are. In doing so, many people are misled like the novel ‘Lady Chatterley`s Lover’ by D. H. Lawrence.

 (3) What novelists do?

           The telling of a story remains the important things in a novel. Novelists do it in different way.

1] The novelist is interested in characters and motives as well as in events.

2] The novelist is often interested in stating some moral or social problem                                   and expressing own opinions about it.

3] The novelist is sometimes more interested in creating an atmosphere of expressing some kind of poetic feeling than in telling a story.

4] The novelist wishes to take a much wider view of man and the world than the simple storyteller does.

(4) Background of the novel:-

(a) Long Narrative Poems-

        The history of English novel may be said to start in 1740 with the publication of Richardson`s  ‘Pamela’. It is considered the first novel of English Literature. But before that many attempts were made. Chaucer`s  ‘Troilus and Criseyde’ is a long story poem misleading to call its description as of a novel. Thomas Malory`s ‘Morte d` Arthur ’ has broad vision but not a single stretch of novel is seen.

(b)Romance:

    In ‘Romance’, the adventures were very far away from real life. It was written in a highly artificial kind of prose set against a classical or pastoral background and people with heroes and heroin bearing Greek or Latin names. Such books were intended for educated people. Sir Philip Sidney`s ‘Arcadia’ (1590), John Lily`s ‘Euphues’ (1578) and Robert Greene`s ‘Menaphon’ (1589) are such examples.

(c) Picaresque tradition:-

   ‘Picaro’ is a Spanish word meaning ‘a thief’ or ‘a rogue’. It was applied to any long story in which a number of separate events, sometimes comic and sometimes violent were joined together only by the fact that they happened to the chief character. In this tradition, the hero generally is a ‘rough’, ‘a Picaro’. Now far that ‘anti-hero’ that kind of phrase is used. The most famous among them is Cervantes’s ‘Don Quixote’. Other examples are Fielding`s ‘Tom Jones’, Smollett`s ‘Roderick Random’.

(5) Different methods for novels:-

         The novelist can allow himself almost unlimited time in which to build up his characters set his scene and tell his story. If he wishes, he can also include long explanations of his own philosophy and opinion. Therefore, we get long novels many times. In modern period, the length is not attractive and considered. The novelists use different methods to tell his story.

(a) Omniscient view (plain narration):

   Plain narration is simple method of storytelling. He takes omniscient view. It means he will not only describe the outward behaviour and action of his characters but also their thoughts and feelings. In this respect, we have to believe that the novelist knew everything.

(b) ‘I’ method:-

     There is another method of telling a story in the first person singular by a narrator. He himself refers as ‘I’. Using this method a writer may make his story more realistic and more credible but he will not be able to look very deeply into the minds and the motives of the other characters. ‘David Copperfield’ by Dickens is fine example of this method.

(c) Narration by letters:-

        Sometimes a novelist will choose to tell his story through a series of letters. This method has advantages and disadvantages both. Richardson`s ‘Pamela’ and ‘Clarissa Harlowe’ belong to it.

(d) Conversation:-

         To advance the story, the novelist may choose conversation between two characters. But for realistic conversation the novelist should take too much care in hearing the poken language because different characters speak different dialects.

(e) Stream of consciousness:-

         Some modern novelist like James Joyce and Virginia Woolf used this method. It is ‘interior monologue’. Psychology of character is revealed. There may not be chronological order in events. Readers may be puzzled ‘Ulysses’ by Joyce and ‘Light House’ by Virginia Woolf are best examples.

(6) The novels in modern times:-

        Modern novels are no better and no worse than novels written in the past. Of course, we can say that one finds numbers of novels and variety of subjects. In this sense, there are novels of different kind and subject.

(a) War novels:-

       In the history of our century, war and violence have been tragically important. First and Second world wars gave new formula to the novels. In England, Richard Aldington`s ‘Death of the Hero’ shows physical and mental horror of the wars. During the second war Evelyn Waugh (1903-66) gave ‘The Sword of Honour’ Outside England some novels were very famous e.g. E.M. Remarque`s ‘All Quite on the Western Front’, Henri Barbusse`s ‘Under Fire’, Norman Mailer`s ‘The Naked and the Dead’. Herman Wouk`s ‘The Caine Muting ’.

(b) River Novels

      This kind of novel flows on and on through a number of books tracing the history of a single character or a group of characters. Usually each part can be enjoyed as a separate book ‘The Forsyte Saga’ a single novel consists of three novels : ‘The Man of Property’,  ‘In Chancery’ and ‘To let’.

       Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832)  made famous the historical novels. It can offer an escape from reality. The value of a historical novel does not depend on its factual truth. Robert Graves is as much a historian as a novelist. His work include ‘I’, ‘Claudius’, Claudius the ‘Good’, ‘Count Belisarius’. Henry Trace wrote number of the historical novels. Evelyn Waugh`s ‘Helena’ and Golding`s ‘The Spire’ belong to this category.

 (d) Allegorical Novels:

    They are called as ‘visionary’, ‘apocalyptic ’or ‘Fanciful novels’. It does not intend of reflect life as it actually is, but as it might be. Science fiction, moral tables, is included in it. Anti-Utopia world becomes the setting of a novel. H.G. Wells ‘Mr. Polly’ and ‘Kipps’, Huxley`s ‘Brave New World’, Oewell`s ‘Nineteen Eighty Four’, Golding`s ‘Lord of the flies’ are such examples are many great novelists. We shall remember them because in a line or paragraph is not justifiable to novelists like D.H. Lawrence, Maugham, H.E. Bates, C. Irewood, Iris Murdoch etc. There are also Dickens, Thackeray and the four wheels of novels - Richardson, Fielding Sterne and Smallet. Graham Greene and American novelists like Steinbeck, Faulkner and lots of others can not be forgotten. They made novel ‘glorified’ and ‘attractive’.