The document provides an overview of different types of novels, including their origins, key features, and examples. It discusses the origin and growth of the novel from ancient Greek and Roman stories to its sophisticated development in the 20th century. Some novel types summarized are historical novels, picaresque novels, stream of consciousness novels, psychological novels, science fiction novels, Bildungsroman novels, and crime fiction novels. Each type is defined and notable examples are listed.

1. Novel
Lt. Dr. B. Ajantha Parthasarathi
Assistant Professor of English
Sri SRNM College, Sattur.

2. Novel
 A long work of prose fiction
containing characters, incidents
and a plot
 ‘novel’ – Italian ‘novella’ – ‘a piece
of news’/ ‘tale’
 First applied to tales – Boccaccio’s
Decameron (14th century)

3. Origin & Growth
 Ancient Greece and Rome
 Greeks – stories ‘romances’ – tales of adventure and
love
 Romance form examples – Latin works
 Gaius Petronius’ Satyricon (1st century CE)
 Lucius Apuleius’ Metamorphoses/ The Golden Ass
(1st century CE)
 Thomas Malory’s Morte d’ Arthur (1485)
 Philip Sidney’s Arcadia (pastoral romance)
 Thomas Nashe’s The Unfortunate Traveller (1594)
– picaresque narrative
 Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote (Spanish
masterpiece)

4. Origin & Growth
Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe
(1719) – 1st English novel – just
a series of episodes (criticism)
Daniel Defoe’s Moll Flanders
(1722)
Samuel Richardson’s Pamela
(1740) – well-developed plot

5. Origin & Growth
 18th century – Henry Fielding, Tobias Smollett and
Laurence Sterne
 19th century – Walter Scott, Jane Austen, the Bronte
sisters, George Eliot, William Makepeace Thackeray,
Charles Dickens, Antony Trollope, Thomas Hardy,
Henry James
 20th century (highly sophisticated art form)– Joseph
Conrad, Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, John Fowles,
Graham Greene, William Golding
 21st century – being written in almost every corner
of the globe
Novelists continue to experiment with various
styles, plots and techniques

6. Features
 Narrative – narrated by one of the characters /
an omniscient narrator (the author)
 Written in prose rather than in verse –
distinguishes it as a long narrative poems
(exception – Vikram Seth’s The Golden Gate)
 A work of fiction – differentiates it from other
forms of prose such as biographies,
autobiographies and histories
 An extended prose narrative – unlike short
stories (smaller in scope and length) – runs into
several hundred pages – covers a larger period
of time, with more action and characters than
a short story

7. Historical Novel
The author attempts to reconstruct history imaginatively
and sometimes romantically
 Past historical period – describes the events and
manners of that period – imaginative recreation of a
bygone age – add colour to the events of the past &
bring them to life
 Characters – real & imaginary (historical personalities –
a major/ a minor part in the action)
 Extensively research the period – they intend to depict
– pay minute details (dress, manner of speaking, food
habits, customs, social aspects)
 Close attention is paid to the historical events of that
time, which are usually incorporated into the plot
 Avoid anachronisms

8. Historical Novel
Examples
 Walter Scott’s Waverley (1814), Rob Roy (1817),
Ivanhoe (1820)
 Alexandre Dumas’ The Three Musketeers (1844)
 Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities (1859)
 Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace (1869)
 Robert Graves’ I, Claudius (1934)
 George MacDonald Fraser’s Flashman (1969)
 Philippa Gregory’s The Other Boleyn Girl (2001)
 Alex Rutherford’s Empire of the Moghul (2009-13)

9. Picaresque Novel
‘picaresque’ – Spanish word
‘picaro’ – ‘rogue’/ ‘rascal’
Origin – 16th century & popular
– 17th & 18th centuries

10. Picaresque Novel
 A travelling hero – different kinds of
situations, meets a variety of characters
& several extraordinary experiences
 Little/no plot – a simple, loose, episodic
structure
 Protagonist – clever, likeable & from the
middle/lower class
 Narration – satirical & humorous manner
– 1st person mode

11. Picaresque Novel
Examples
 Tobias Smollett’s The Adventures of
Roderick Random (1748)
 Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones (1749)
 Voltaire’s Candide (1759)
 Saul Bellow’s The Adventures of Augie
March (1953)

12. Stream of Consciousness Novel
 A narrative technique attempts to capture
all the emotions and thoughts which flow
through a character’s mind in a random
manner
 Coined by the American psychologist –
William James (B/o Henry James) – The
Principles of Psychology (1890)
 ‘interior monologue’
 Modern novelists – present before the
reader the unfiltered thought processes of
a character

13. Stream of Consciousness Novel
 No traditional concepts of plot & characterization
 Standard techniques of description, narrative and
dialogue – interior monologues
 Emphasises memory, intuition, sense perceptions
and feelings, along with a character’s thoughts
 Focus
 capturing the fluidity of the inner life
 depicting the myriad feelings and thoughts passing
through a character’s mind
 Anti-romantic (an unsure/ indifferent protagonist
who fails in her/his quest/journey)
 Artistic aloofness & impersonality on the part of
the author

14. Stream of Consciousness Novel
 Dorothy Richardson – first modernist
writers to employ this technique
Examples:
 James Joyce’s Ulysses (1922) & Finnegans
Wake (1939)
 Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway (1925)
and To the Lighthouse (1927)
 William Faulkner’s The Sound and the
Fury (1929)

15. Psychological Novel
 Analysis of the spiritual,
emotional and mental lives of the
characters rather than with the
plot
 Came into the vogue after the
discoveries of Sigmund Freud &
Carl Jung

16. Psychological Novel
 Novelist’s interest in human nature leads
her/him into making an in-depth of human
relationships – psychological slant to the
story
 Analysing the characters’ motives which
drive the action forward
 Devices – interior monologues & flashbacks
– explain the inner workings of the minds
of the characters
 Henry James – display an ultrasensitive
flair for analysing complex personalities
Example:
Henry James’ The Portrait of a Lady (1881)

17. Science Fiction Novel
Elements of science and
technology – an integral part
Shortened to ‘SF’
Blend fantasy with science –
create sense of an alternate
reality which seems quite
impossible

18. Science Fiction Novel
 Basing the plot and other story elements
on actual scientific facts, principles and
technology – creates an illusion of reality
 Set in the future, in space, on a different
planet, in a different universe, in an
alternate dimension, in an alternate
history
 Elements – dystopia, advanced technology, time
travel, space travel, extraterrestrial life
 Depict the effect of new scientific discoveries and
advances in technology upon human beings
 Comment on social and cultural issues – class
inequality, greed, war, political authoritarianism,
the misuse of technology, the dangers of
environmental exploitation, the ill effects of
acquiring knowledge irrespective of consequences

19. Bildungsroman
 Philologist Karl Morgenstern (1819)
– German term – ‘Bildungsroman’ –
‘formation novel’
 The plot revolves around the
psychological and moral growth of
the protagonist from youth to
adulthood
 Novel of education / novel of
formation – coming-of-age story

20. Bildungsroman
 Narrates the story of the development of
a sensitive person – in search of the
meaning of life & her/his place in
society (self-realize, self-analyse)
 Begins with an emotional loss – compels
protagonist to set off on her/his journey
 Protagonist faces several hurdles and
failures along the way – conflict with the
values of the society
 Protagonist transforms from an
inexperienced person to an emotionally
mature individual
 In the end, Protagonist accepts the
values of society and is accepted into
society

21. Bildungsroman
 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s
Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship
(1795-96)
Examples:
 Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones (1749)
 Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre (1847)
 Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations
(1861)
 J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the
Rye (1951)
 Khaled Hosseini The Kite Runner
(2003)

22. Bildungsroman
 Subgenre – Kunstlerroman – traces
the development of an artist or a
writer
Example:
 Charles Dicken’s David Copperfield
(1850)
 James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist
as a Young Man (1916)

23. Crime Fiction
 Fictionalises crimes, their detection,
criminals and their motives
 English – Poe’s “The Murders in the
Rue Morgue” (1841)
 Sub-genres – detective fiction, legal
thriller, courtroom drama
Seemingly unsolvable
An interested Sleuth
Unsavory character
Danger and tension

24. Crime Fiction
Examples
Wilkie Collin’s “The
Moonstone” (1868)
Arthur Conan Doyle’s “A Study
in Scarlet” (1887) – Sherlock
Holmes
Agatha Christie’s “Murder on
the Orient Express” (1934)