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The Novels Portal
![Title page of the 1628 edition of Bacon's New Atlantis](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8a/Bacon_1628_New_Atlantis_title_page_wpreview.png/150px-Bacon_1628_New_Atlantis_title_page_wpreview.png)
A novel is: an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The English word to describe such a work derives from the Italian: novella for "new", "news",/"short story (of something new)", itself from the Latin: novella, a singular noun use of the neuter plural of novellus, diminutive of novus, meaning "new". According to Margaret Doody, the novel has "a continuous and comprehensive history of about two thousand years", with its origins in the Ancient Greek and Roman novel, Medieval Chivalric romance, and in the tradition of the Italian Renaissance novella. The ancient romance form was revived by Romanticism, in the historical romances of Walter Scott and the Gothic novel. Some novelists, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Ann Radcliffe, and John Cowper Powys, preferred the term "romance". M. H. Abrams and Walter Scott have argued that a novel is a fiction narrative that displays a realistic depiction of the "state of a society," while the romance encompasses any fictitious narrative that emphasizes marvellous. Or uncommon incidents. Works of fiction that include marvellous or uncommon incidents are also novels, including Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, and Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. Such "romances" should not be, confused with the genre fiction romance novel, which focuses on romantic love.
Murasaki Shikibu's Tale of Genji, an early 11th-century Japanese text, "has sometimes been described as the world's first novel," because of its early use of the experience of intimacy in a narrative form. There is considerable debate over this, however, as there were certainly long fictional prose works that preceded it. The spread of printed books in China led to the appearance of classical Chinese novels during the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), and Qing dynasty (1616–1911). An early example from Europe was Hayy ibn Yaqdhan by the Sufi writer Ibn Tufayl in Muslim Spain. Later developments occurred after the invention of the printing press. Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote (the first part of which was published in 1605), is frequently cited as the first significant European novelist of the modern era. Literary historian Ian Watt, in The Rise of the Novel (1957), argued that the modern novel was born in the early 18th century.
Recent technological developments have led to many novels also being published in non-print media: this includes audio books, web novels, and ebooks. Another non-traditional fiction format can be found in graphic novels. While these comic book versions of works of fiction have their origins in the 19th century, they have only become popular recently. (Full article...)
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A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being Ghost Story of Christmas, commonly known as A Christmas Carol, is a novella by Charles Dickens, first published in London by Chapman & Hall in 1843. And illustrated by John Leech. It recounts the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, an elderly miser who is visited by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley and the spirits of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come. In the process, Scrooge is transformed into a kinder, gentler man.
Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol during period when the British were exploring and re-evaluating past Christmas traditions, including carols, and newer customs such as cards and Christmas trees. He was influenced by the experiences of his own youth and "by the Christmas stories of other authors," including Washington Irving and Douglas Jerrold. Dickens had written three Christmas stories prior to the novella, and was inspired following a visit to the Field Lane Ragged School, one of several establishments for London's street children. The treatment of the poor and the ability of a selfish man to redeem himself by transforming into a more sympathetic character are the key themes of the story. There is discussion among academics as to whether this is a fully secular story. Or if it is a Christian allegory. (Full article...)
Selected novel quote
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- It took me a long time and most of the world to learn what I know about love and fate and the choices we make. But the heart of it came to me in an instant, while I was chained to a wall and being tortured. I realized, somehow, through the screaming in my mind, that even in that shackled, bloody helplessness, I was still free: free to hate the men who were torturing me, or to forgive them. It doesn't sound like much, I know. But in the flinch and bite of the chain, when it's all you have got, that freedom is a universe of possibility. And the choice you make, between hating and forgiving, can become the story of your life.
Did you know...
- ...that the romantic epistles Letters of a Portuguese Nun were from a nun to her lover?
- ...that some elements of the Jules Verne adventure story Two Years' Vacation are to be found in William Golding's Lord of the Flies, written 66 years later?
- ...that the Viagens Interplanetarias series of science fiction stories by L. Sprague de Camp was influenced by Edgar Rice Burroughs' Martian novels?
General images
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Image 1One of the most influential novels on the picaresque genre was The Golden Ass by Apuleius, which he published sometime in the 2nd century AD. (ms. Vat. Lat. 2194, Vatican Library) (1345 illustration). (from Picaresque novel)
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Image 2"Oh Edward! How can you?", a late-19th-century illustration from Sense and Sensibility (1811) by Jane Austen, a pioneer of the genre (from Romance novel)
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Image 5Chaucer reciting Troilus and Criseyde: early-15th-century manuscript of the work at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (from Novel)
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Image 6The picaresque genre began with the Spanish novel Lazarillo de Tormes (1554) (Pictured: Its title page) (from Picaresque novel)
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Image 10A modern chapbook (from Chapbook)
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Image 11Adventure novels and short stories were popular subjects for American pulp magazines. (from Adventure fiction)
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Image 12Madame de Pompadour spending her afternoon with a book (François Boucher, 1756) (from Novel)
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Image 15The frontispiece of a late 18th-century chapbook edition of Voltaire's The Extraordinary Tragical Fate of Calas, depicting Jean Calas being broken on the wheel (from Chapbook)
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Image 171719 newspaper reprint of Robinson Crusoe (from Novel)
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Image 19King Kong (1932) novelization of King Kong (1933) (from Novelization)
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Image 23Intimate short stories: The Court and City Vagaries (1711). (from Novel)
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Image 24Paper as the essential carrier: Murasaki Shikibu writing her The Tale of Genji in the early 11th century, 17th-century depiction (from Novel)
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Image 26Harlequin novels (from Romance novel)
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Image 30A nineteenth-century painting by the Swiss-French painter Marc Gabriel Charles Gleyre depicting a scene from Longus's Daphnis and Chloe (from Romance novel)
Subcategories
![Novel categories](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3f/Book_collection.jpg/50px-Book_collection.jpg)
Featured content
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Featured articles
Ace Books
All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes
A Beautiful Crime
Big Two-Hearted River
Boenga Roos dari Tjikembang (novel)
The Bread-Winners
Brother Jonathan (novel)
Burger's Daughter
Candide
Casino Royale (novel)
A Christmas Carol
The Coral Island
Cousin Bette
The Day Before the Revolution
Len Deighton
Diamonds Are Forever (novel)
The Diary of a Nobody
Doc Savage (magazine)
Dr. No (novel)
Drama dari Krakatau
Dreamsnake
Farseer trilogy
The Fountainhead
The Fox and the Hound (novel)
From Russia, with Love (novel)
The General in His Labyrinth
Gods' Man
Goldfinger (novel)
The Good Terrorist
The Great Gatsby
The Green Child
Halo: Contact Harvest
A Handful of Dust
The Hardy Boys
The Historian
Hogwarts Express (Universal Orlando Resort)
The Hunger Games (novel)
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
In Our Time (short story collection)
Indian Camp
Irish Thoroughbred
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Lad, A Dog
The Left Hand of Darkness
Live and Let Die (novel)
Logan (novel)
Louis Lambert (novel)
The Man in the Moone
Mom & Me & Mom
The Monster (novella)
Moonraker (novel)
Naruto
Night (memoir)
On Her Majesty's Secret Service (novel)
The Open Boat
The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold
Paradises Lost
Pattern Recognition (novel)
La Peau de chagrin
The Penelopiad
Père Goriot
The Phantom Tollbooth
The Portage to San Cristobal of A.H.
Rachel Dyer
Raptor Red
Reception history of Jane Austen
The Red Badge of Courage
J. K. Rowling
El Señor Presidente
Seventy-Six (novel)
A Song Flung Up to Heaven
Southern Cross (wordless novel)
The Spy Who Loved Me (novel)
Starship Troopers
The Sun Also Rises
Tom Swift
The Temple at Thatch
The Time Traveler's Wife
To Kill a Mockingbird
True at First Light
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Vision in White
Emma Watson
A Wizard of Earthsea
Wordless novel
Z. Marcas
Featured lists
Aurealis Award for Best Horror Novel
Aurealis Award for Best Science Fiction Novel
Aurealis Award for Best Fantasy Novel
Aurealis Award for Best Young Adult Novel
List of works by John Buchan
List of Charmed novels and short stories
List of works by Leslie Charteris
Winston Churchill as writer
Roald Dahl bibliography
Len Deighton bibliography
Arthur Conan Doyle bibliography
The Flashman Papers
List of works by H. Rider Haggard
List of Harry Potter cast members
List of works by Georgette Heyer
List of works by E. W. Hornung
Hugo Award for Best Novel
Hugo Award for Best Novelette
Hugo Award for Best Novella
Hugo Award for Best Short Story
List of James Bond novels and short stories
John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel
List of works by W. E. Johns
List of works by Kwee Tek Hoay
Lambda Literary Award for Speculative Fiction
List of awards and nominations received by J. K. Rowling
List of works by W. Somerset Maugham
List of works by H. C. McNeile
Nebula Award for Best Novella
Nebula Award for Best Novel
Newbery Medal
List of Nobel laureates in Literature
List of Women's Prize for Fiction winners
George Orwell bibliography
List of works by Sax Rohmer
List of works by Dorothy L. Sayers
Theodore Sturgeon Award
P. G. Wodehouse bibliography
World Fantasy Award—Anthology
World Fantasy Award—Collection
World Fantasy Award—Novella
World Fantasy Award—Novel
World Fantasy Award—Short Fiction
World Fantasy Special Award—Non-professional
Featured portals
Featured pictures
File:Alfons Mucha - 1896 - La Dame aux Camélias - Sarah Bernhardt.jpg
File:Archibald Standish Hartrick - Rudyard Kipling - Soldier Tales 18 - The Taking of Lungtungpen 1.jpg
File:Archibald Standish Hartrick - Rudyard Kipling - Soldier Tales 19 - The Taking of Lungtungpen 2.jpg
File:Jules-Joseph Lefebvre, Graziella, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.jpg
File:N. M. Price - Sir Walter Scott - Guy Mannering - At the Kaim of Derncleugh.jpg
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