Portal:Novels
The Novels Portal
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A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The English word to describe such a work derives from the Italian: novella for "new", "news", or "short story (of something new)", itself from the Latin: novella, a singular noun use of the neuter plural of novellus, diminutive of novus, meaning "new". According to Margaret Doody, the novel has "a continuous and comprehensive history of about two thousand years", with its origins in the Ancient Greek and Roman novel, Medieval Chivalric romance, and in the tradition of the Italian Renaissance novella. The ancient romance form was revived by Romanticism, in the historical romances of Walter Scott and the Gothic novel. Some novelists, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Ann Radcliffe, and John Cowper Powys, preferred the term "romance". M. H. Abrams and Walter Scott have argued that a novel is a fiction narrative that displays a realistic depiction of the state of a society, while the romance encompasses any fictitious narrative that emphasizes marvellous or uncommon incidents. Works of fiction that include marvellous or uncommon incidents are also novels, including Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, and Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. Such "romances" should not be confused with the genre fiction romance novel, which focuses on romantic love.
Murasaki Shikibu's Tale of Genji, an early 11th-century Japanese text, has sometimes been described as the world's first novel, because of its early use of the experience of intimacy in a narrative form. There is considerable debate over this, however, as there were certainly long fictional prose works that preceded it. The spread of printed books in China led to the appearance of classical Chinese novels during the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), and Qing dynasty (1616–1911). An early example from Europe was Hayy ibn Yaqdhan by the Sufi writer Ibn Tufayl in Muslim Spain. Later developments occurred after the invention of the printing press. Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote (the first part of which was published in 1605), is frequently cited as the first significant European novelist of the modern era. Literary historian Ian Watt, in The Rise of the Novel (1957), argued that the modern novel was born in the early 18th century.
Recent technological developments have led to many novels also being published in non-print media: this includes audio books, web novels, and ebooks. Another non-traditional fiction format can be found in graphic novels. While these comic book versions of works of fiction have their origins in the 19th century, they have only become popular recently. (Full article...)
The General in His Labyrinth is a novel by the Colombian writer and Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez. It is a fictionalized account of the last days of Simón Bolívar, liberator and leader of Gran Colombia. First published in 1989, the book traces Bolívar's final journey from Bogotá to the Caribbean coastline of Colombia in his attempt to leave South America for exile in Europe. In this dictator novel about a continental hero, "despair, sickness, and death inevitably win out over love, health, and life". Breaking with the traditional heroic portrayal of Bolívar El Libertador, García Márquez depicts a pathetic protagonist, a prematurely aged man who is physically ill and mentally exhausted. The story explores the labyrinth of Bolívar's life through the narrative of his memories. Its mixture of genres makes The General in His Labyrinth difficult to classify, and commentators disagree over where it lies on the scale between novel and historical account. García Márquez's insertion of interpretive and fictionalized elements—some dealing with Bolívar's most intimate moments—caused outrage in parts of Latin America when the book was released. Many prominent Latin American figures believed that the novel damaged the reputation of one of the region's most important historic figures and portrayed a negative image to the outside world.
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Did you know...
- ...that The Vampyre (pictured) was a short novel first published on April 1, 1819 in parts in the New Monthly Magazine with the false attribution "A Tale by Lord Byron"?
- ...that Prathapa Mudaliar Charithram was the first novel in Tamil?
- ...that Sara Gruen’s historical novel Water for Elephants recounts that circus workers were sometimes thrown off the circus train in the middle of the night, a practice known as "redlighting"?
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Featured articles
Ace Books
All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes
A Beautiful Crime
Big Two-Hearted River
Boenga Roos dari Tjikembang (novel)
The Bread-Winners
Brother Jonathan (novel)
Burger's Daughter
Candide
Casino Royale (novel)
A Christmas Carol
The Coral Island
Cousin Bette
The Day Before the Revolution
Len Deighton
Diamonds Are Forever (novel)
The Diary of a Nobody
Doc Savage (magazine)
Dr. No (novel)
Drama dari Krakatau
Dreamsnake
Farseer trilogy
The Fountainhead
The Fox and the Hound (novel)
From Russia, with Love (novel)
The General in His Labyrinth
Gods' Man
Goldfinger (novel)
The Good Terrorist
The Great Gatsby
The Green Child
Halo: Contact Harvest
A Handful of Dust
The Hardy Boys
The Historian
Hogwarts Express (Universal Orlando Resort)
The Hunger Games (novel)
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
In Our Time (short story collection)
Indian Camp
Irish Thoroughbred
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Lad, A Dog
The Left Hand of Darkness
Live and Let Die (novel)
Logan (novel)
Louis Lambert (novel)
The Man in the Moone
Mom & Me & Mom
The Monster (novella)
Moonraker (novel)
Naruto
Night (memoir)
On Her Majesty's Secret Service (novel)
The Open Boat
The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold
Paradises Lost
Pattern Recognition (novel)
La Peau de chagrin
The Penelopiad
Père Goriot
The Phantom Tollbooth
The Portage to San Cristobal of A.H.
Rachel Dyer
Raptor Red
Reception history of Jane Austen
The Red Badge of Courage
J. K. Rowling
El Señor Presidente
Seventy-Six (novel)
A Song Flung Up to Heaven
Southern Cross (wordless novel)
The Spy Who Loved Me (novel)
Starship Troopers
The Sun Also Rises
Tom Swift
The Temple at Thatch
The Time Traveler's Wife
To Kill a Mockingbird
True at First Light
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Vision in White
Emma Watson
A Wizard of Earthsea
Wordless novel
Z. Marcas
Featured lists
Aurealis Award for Best Horror Novel
Aurealis Award for Best Science Fiction Novel
Aurealis Award for Best Fantasy Novel
Aurealis Award for Best Young Adult Novel
List of works by John Buchan
List of Charmed novels and short stories
List of works by Leslie Charteris
Winston Churchill as writer
Roald Dahl bibliography
Len Deighton bibliography
Arthur Conan Doyle bibliography
The Flashman Papers
List of works by H. Rider Haggard
List of Harry Potter cast members
List of works by Georgette Heyer
List of works by E. W. Hornung
Hugo Award for Best Novel
Hugo Award for Best Novelette
Hugo Award for Best Novella
Hugo Award for Best Short Story
List of James Bond novels and short stories
John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel
List of works by W. E. Johns
List of works by Kwee Tek Hoay
Lambda Literary Award for Speculative Fiction
List of awards and nominations received by J. K. Rowling
List of works by W. Somerset Maugham
List of works by H. C. McNeile
Nebula Award for Best Novella
Nebula Award for Best Novel
Newbery Medal
List of Nobel laureates in Literature
List of Women's Prize for Fiction winners
George Orwell bibliography
List of works by Sax Rohmer
List of works by Dorothy L. Sayers
Theodore Sturgeon Award
P. G. Wodehouse bibliography
World Fantasy Award—Anthology
World Fantasy Award—Collection
World Fantasy Award—Novella
World Fantasy Award—Novel
World Fantasy Award—Short Fiction
World Fantasy Special Award—Non-professional
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