Introduction to NOVEL

Appreciation of English Literature

The germ of the Novel lay in the medieval
romance a fantastic tale of novel and adventure,
itself derived from the ballads and fragments of
epic poems sung by wandering minstrel.

In 1350, Boccaccio wrote a world- famous

collection of love stories are called in Italian
“novelle.” The term originally meant fresh story
but gradually came to signify a story in prose as
distinguished from a story in verse, which
continued to be called a romance.
When prose became almost the universal medium the term
“romance” implied a story or series of stories of the
legendary past (for eg: Thomas Malory - More d’Arthur)

F. Marion Crawford, a popular American novelist, once

described the Novel as a “pocket theatre,” containing as it
does all the accessories of drama without requiring to be
staged before an audience.

It is formally defined as “a long narrative in prose detailing

the actions of fictitious people.”

George Meredith called it a “summary of actual life,”

including both “the within and the without of us.”
Novel is the loosest form of the literary art, but its
very freedom from all limitations allows it to give
a fuller representation of real life and character
than anything else can provide.

It is nonetheless a very effective medium of the

portrayal of human thought and action.
Structure

A novel has a plot and to a great extent its characters reveal

themselves and their intentions in dialogue.

(a novelist can tell us what is happening, explain it, and if he

so wishes, give us his own comments on it.)

Story need not be symmetrical in exposition, crisis and

denouement.

The novel has no rigid framework, and authors have taken full
advantage of the freedom this affords them.

The modern novel has the tendency has been to subordinate

action to psychology to find the central theme in the mental and
spiritual development of the characters rather than in their
physical adventures.
The novel can have its setting or background in
any part of the world and any time, past, present
or future.

As regards the local or regional setting, certain

authors have almost marked out a territory of
their own.
 Stream of Consciousness
The term was coined in William James’ Principles of Psychology (1890).

Another term for Stream of Consciousness is Interior Monologue.

The literary sense of the term was introduced in 1918 by May Sinclair
in a review of early volumes in Dorothy Richardson’s novel sequence
Pilgrimage (Pilgrimage (1915-38))

The stream of consciousness style represents the flow of impressions,

memories and sense impressions throughout the mind.

It may abandon the accepted forms of syntax, punctuation and

logical connection.

“What horrible weather they have her,” he thought.

It was a minor French novelist Edouard Dujardin,
who first used the technique in Les Lauriers son
coupés.

James Joyce who is believe to have know this work

exploited the possibilities in his novels

The pioneers of Stream of Consciousness was

Dorothy Richardson, Virginia Woolf and James
Joyce.
 Features
Use of informal, colloquial language.

Focus on inner thoughts and feelings

The flow of thoughts is represented by means of long-winding,

interconnected sentences.

The breaking of Grammatical rules.

Punctuation is neglected

No constraints of time
 Dorothy Richardson
The first British user of the technique was Dorothy Richardson
whose long novel, Pilgrimage is a semi-autobiographical work .

Pointed Roofs (1915) was the first of a sequence of thirteen highly

autobiographical novels entitled Pilgrimage.

Pilgrimage is a semi autobiographical work which represents the life

of the heroine Miriam Henderson.

May Sinclair imported the term from psychology to de describe

Richardson’s work- narrating the action through the mind of her
heroine Miriam.

Pilgrimage was also innovative in the open-handedness of its

narrative.
 James Joyce
Born in Dublin and educated at Jesuit schools.

He was influenced by Norwegian playwright Henrik

Ibsen, Dante, George Moore and W B Yeats.

He went to Paris and got acquaint with the novel Les

Lauriers son coupés by Edouard Dujardin.

He is the greatest of the stream of consciousness novelist.

His first novel A Portrait of Artist as a Young Man (1916) is a

autobiographical novel.
In 1922 he published pathbreaking novel Ulysses is a
most complex and amazing feat.

The novel deals with the events of one day in

Dublin.

The principal characters are Stephan Dedalus,

Leopold Bloom and his wife Molly.

The plot follow the wanderings of Stephen and

Bloom through Dublin, and their eventual meeting.

The last chapter is an extended monologue by

Molly Bloom.
 Virginia Woolf
Her novels are poetry novels.

She excels in suggesting delicately the subtle nuances of feeling experienced by her
female characters..

Virginia Woolf, one of the finest practitioners of the stream of consciousness mode
in 20th century,

Woolf ’s narratives are rarely sequential.

Fragmented, moving between reality and dreams,, mixing past, present and future,
her fiction is highly experimental and is the prose equivalent of modernist poetry.

Mrs. Dalloway (1925),is like Joyce’s Ulysses one day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway,
who is preparing to host a party later in the day
To the Lighthouse is an exploration of human
consciousness and creativity.

The novel centres on the Ramsay family and their

visit to the Isle of Skye in Scotland between
1910-1920.

Woolf ’s later novel Orlando (1928) is set in

Elizabethan England. It is the story of Orlando,
who wishes to live forever as a young man.