Professional Writing Service http://HelpWriting.net/Aspects-Of-The-Novel-Review-And-Summary 👈

1. University of Sargodha
Department of English
Name: Tooba Maryam
Roll NO: ENGL51F20R021
Class: BS3Reg
Subject: Fiction 2
Topic: Aspects of the novel Review
Submitted to: Sir Qamar
Date: 9 May 2022

3. Aspects of the novel by E.M. Forster is a collection of lectures that he delivered in the 1920s at
King’s College in Cambridge. The main purpose of this book is to define and explain the
characteristics of a good fiction novel work. It is considered a classic and I was enlightened by
reading this book. According to Forster novel has six fundamental aspects: Story, People, Plot,
Fantasy, Prophecy, and pattern/ Rhythm.
E. M. Forster (1879-1970) was a noted English author and critic and a member of the
Bloomsbury group. His first novel, Where Angels Fear To Tread appeared in 1905. The Longest
Journey appeared in 1907, followed by A Room With A View (1908), based partly on the
material from extended holidays in Italy with his mother. Howards End (1910) was a story that
centered on an English country house and dealt with the clash between two families, one
interested in art and literature, the other only in business. Maurice was revised several times
during his life, and finally published posthumously in 1971.
He discusses all these aspects and explains the characteristics that a good novel must have. He
begins by giving an introduction of novel. According to him novel is any fictious prose work
which has over 50,000 words. Story is the first aspect of novel that he discusses. Story is
narrative of events arranged in their time sequence. It is a lowest and simplest literary
organism. A good story has just one merit: it makes the audience want to know what happens
next. And a bad story has just one fault: it does not make the audience want to know what
happens next. Although it is simplest literary organism yet it is foundation of a novel. Story
narrates life in time but novel includes life by values as well
The second main aspect of a novel according to him is People. People are basically the
characters of a novel created by a novelist. A character has two important parts: History and
Fiction. History refers to the action of the character and fiction refers to the romantic side of
the character fantasized by the novelist. The basic difference between a historian and a novelist
is that a historian records but a novelist creates.
The main facts in human life are five: Birth, Food, Sleep, Love, and Death. We move between
two darknesses: Birth and Death. Because both birth and death are ambiguous. Only a baby and
a corpse can tell us about birth and death and both of them do not have proper tools to explain
these ambiguous phenomena. A novelist explain, exaggerate or ignore these facts. Death and
Love help a novelist end a novel neatly. But love has done harm to novels and made them
monotonous. Many novelist mainly focus on love and ignore other facts. Here I Personally
agree with Forster. The central theme of most of the novels these days is love and there is
unnecessary abundance of sex in today’s novel that has made novels monotonous. Forster calls
the people of novel Homo-Fictus. They are more elusive than Homo-sapiens.

4. The third aspect that he explains is Plot. Plot is also a narrative Of events, arranged in time
sequence the emphasis falling on casuality.” The king died and then the queen died” it is a story
but “ The king died and then the queen died because of grief” is plot. In story we become
curious about what happens next while in plot there is mystery and we use intelligence to
figure out why a particular event took place. Mystery is essential to a plot and cannot be
appreciated without intelligence. In short, plot is novel in its logical intellectual aspect.
In the sections on Fantasy and Prophecy, Forster explains that fantasy is introduced into a novel
to create a magical effect; however, fantasy is not always mystical. Instead it can also be found
in the magic of everyday things and people. He also discusses parody and adaptation, which
allow a story to be layered upon by many author's imaginations. Prophecy, Forster says, is an
ancient author's voice with a universal theme--that is, the characters are more than just
characters. He uses Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky, whose characters always represent
something more than themselves, as an example. Unlike symbolism, which has concrete
meanings, the meanings of prophecy are more imprecise, yet unfailingly universal.
Lastly, Forster discusses Pattern and Rhythm. Pattern is the shape of a novel. Sometimes it is a
geometric shape, such as an hourglass (where one character's social climb intersects with
another's social fall) or a circle (where a character ends up back where they started). Pattern
allows a reader to see the book as a whole. Forster warns, however, that pattern must grow
organically. When characters are forced into a pattern, the story loses authenticity and
richness. Rhythm is represented by a motif that appears in slight variations throughout the
story and serves to help unify it.