Novels

1. What are novels?

A novel is a long story, often with many characters in an involved plot. Novels can be serious, like Charles Dickens’s Tale of two cities, romantic like Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre or comic, like Mark Twain’s novel The adventure of Tom Sawyer. Some books have great social influence for example Ngugì Wa Thiong’s novel A grain of wheat.

Thus a novel is longer than a short story. A short story may run from 500 words to 20,000 words, a novel on the other hand, usually has somewhere between 20,000 and 40,000 words. A novel may be about 100 or 4000 pages long. We’ve selected three novels from different centuries:

1. Daniel Defoe (18th century) wrote Robinson Crusoe which is 298 pages
2. Charlotte Brontë (19th century) novel Jane Eyre is 447 pages
3. D.H. Lawrence (2oth century) Sons and Lovers is 420 pages

Thus on average the novels are of 388 pages each. Thus implying that novels do not have set requirements about length, subject matter, or the way the author presents his or her story. The novelist writes as he pleases. He may write a long book or a short book. The novelist then has a great deal of freedom when writing his novel. But almost all novels have characters, a setting, a plot and a theme.

Novels are about individual human beings, living in a particular time and place, caught up together in a series of event. They may be unusual people – spies, murders, adventurers, etc. Novelists try to make their plots true to life. In a novel, the plot makes the first event cause the second event, the second event cause the third event and so on. It goes through complications, rises to a climax, and is resolved. The theme of a novel is what the novel is about – love, money, social class, marriages, etc.

1.1. Beginning of novels

Novels are the youngest of all great types of literature. Poetry and drama are older, even than ancient Greek. Novels did not appear until the 17th century. Throughout history, many works of literature have resembled novels.

1.2. Fiction and non-fiction

Novels can be divided into 2 classes:

• Fiction
• Non-fiction

In fiction writing, the novelist uses his imagination to write stories, which are not real. This is usually written in the form of prose but also can take other forms such as the play of Shakespeare’s Hamlet or as a poem, like Robert Browning’s Pied Piper of Hamelin.

In non-fiction, the writer writes without using his imagination. He sticks to facts, as he knows them. He does not invent the story. Examples are biographies, autobiographies, diaries, histories and essays.

2. Evolution of novels

2.2. Pre 18th century novels

The 1st kind of novels was written during Queen Elizabeth reign (1558-1603). In this pre 18th century period, novels were exclusively based on two kinds of prose:

• Courtly romance with an aristocratic hero (which was written in an artificial way and concerned with nobility for e.g. Sir Philip Sydney’s Arcadia
• Adventure story of a rogue wandering from place to place and living by his wits for e.g. Thomas Nas’ Unfortunate Travelers.

2.3. 18th century novels

Gradually there was a change in ideas of story novels. The English novels of the 18th century led to the birth of popular writers such as Daniel Defoe (1660 – 1731) who wrote Moll Flanders and Robinson Crusoe. Defoe used a plain style to describe very ordinary, probable things. Defoe was interested in practical, probable questions of how people get along in the world. Following Daniel Defoe were Samuel Richardson (1689 – 1761) who wrote novels in form of letters, such as Pamela. He was more interested in feelings and personal relationships. Then came Henry Fielding (1707 – 1754) who thought that Richardson exaggerated emotion. Fielding’s best novel, Tom Jones is a humorous account of the adventures of the hero.

2.4. The early 19th century

In the early 19th century, Sir Walter Scott (1771 – 1832) and Jane Austen (1775 – 1817) are the 2 most important novelists. Scott wrote historical novels about the middle age. Jane Austen’s novel is about well-to-do people living quietly in English villages. She tells stories about courtship and marriage. She is most admired for her witty dialogue, well draws characters and cleverly worked out plots.

There were also the Brontë sisters, Charlotte (1816 – 1855) and Emily (1818 – 1848) who were remarkable English novelists.

2.5. 19th century novels

The 19th century consisted of most famous writers:

• William Makepeace Thackeray (1811 – 1863)
• Charles Dickens (1812 – 1870)
• Georges Eliot (1819 -1880)
• Thomas Hardy (1840 – 1928)

William Makepeace Thackeray was a satirist who criticized the crude ambitions and manner of his time. Charles Dickens was a very popular novelist with a fiery intense of imagination. He was full of humor, adventure and sentiment. Georges Eliot on the other hand is the pen name of Mary Ann Evans. Her greatest virtues are her intelligence and knowledge. She knows a great deal about history, society and human behaviour and she puts her knowledge to use in her novels. Thomas Hardy shows his characters against the great background of the natural world.

These English novelists wrote largely to entertain their readers and to instruct them. Neither the readers nor the novelists were much concerned with the novels as a work of Art.

Henry James (1843 – 1916) created a theory of the novel. He thought novel should be as carefully constructed and beautiful as a fine poem. After his time novelists became more aware of the craft of writing.

2.6. 20th century novels

Many consider Joseph Conrad (1857 – 1924), D. H. Lawrence (1885 – 1930) and James Joyce (1882 – 1941) as the three most important 20th century novelists. All three used language with great power. All three tried to search out the meaning of modern life. They cared less about what people did than about what felt and thought. Conrad’s books such as Lord Jim and Victory may have a surface story of adventure in exotic lands. But underneath they are about the moral choices that shape men’s lives. D. H. Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers and Women in love are about marriage and family. He studies the way men and women develop emotionally in their relations with one another.

Conclusion

English novelists were at first interested mostly in action and adventure. Then they were primarily interested in man and society. In this century, they have been interested in what goes on in men’s minds.