lecture 1

novel #

is a picture of real life and manners, and of the time in which it is written

.The Romance, in lofty and elevated language, describes what never happened nor is likely to happen


Verisimilitude #

Refers to the illusion that the novel is a representation of real life

Picaresque Novels#

The name comes from the Spanish word picaro: a rogue

Epistolary Novels#

Novels in which the narrative is told in letters by one or more of the characters

The Novel of Manners#
Novels dominated by the customs, manners, conventional behavior and habits of a particular
social class

Gothic Novels#

Novels characterized by magic, mystery and horror


Novels of Sentiment#
Novels in which the characters, and thus the readers, have a heightened emotional response to
events

The Novel : A Definition#
According to M.H. Abrams:
―The term novel is now applied to a great variety of writings that have in common only the attribute
of being extended works of fiction written in prose. […] Its magnitude permits a greater variety of
characters, greater complication of plot (or plots), ampler development of milieu, and more
sustained exploration of character and motives than do the shorter, more concentrated modes.