Novel - Epic, Bildungsroman, Satire

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But historical themes, to which may be added prehistoric or mythical ones, have inspired the greatest novelists, as Tolstoy’s War and Peace and Stendhal’s Charterhouse of Parma reveal. 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A novel on Alexander the Great or Joan of Arc can be as flimsy and superficial as any schoolgirl romance. But historical themes, to which may be added prehistoric or mythical ones, have inspired the greatest novelists, as Tolstoy’s War and Peace and Stendhal’s Charterhouse of Parma reveal. In the 20th century, distinguished historical novels such as Arthur Koestler’s The Gladiators (1939), Robert Graves’s I, Claudius (1934), Zoé Oldenbourg’s Destiny of Fire (1960), and Mary Renault’s The King"/> <meta property="og:type" content="ARTICLE"/> <meta property="og:title" content="Novel - Epic, Bildungsroman, Satire | Britannica"/> <meta property="og:description" content="Novel - Epic, Bildungsroman, Satire: For the hack novelist, to whom speedy output is more important than art, thought, and originality, history provides ready-made plots and characters. A novel on Alexander the Great or Joan of Arc can be as flimsy and superficial as any schoolgirl romance. But historical themes, to which may be added prehistoric or mythical ones, have inspired the greatest novelists, as Tolstoy’s War and Peace and Stendhal’s Charterhouse of Parma reveal. In the 20th century, distinguished historical novels such as Arthur Koestler’s The Gladiators (1939), Robert Graves’s I, Claudius (1934), Zoé Oldenbourg’s Destiny of Fire (1960), and Mary Renault’s The King"/> <meta property="og:site_name" content="Encyclopedia Britannica" /> <meta property="og:url" content="https://www.britannica.com/art/novel"/> <meta property="og:image" content="https://cdn.britannica.com/20/99420-050-A8C679CA/Dust-jacket-edition-Vanessa-Bell-Virginia-Woolf-1927.jpg" /> <meta property="og:image:type" content="image/jpeg" /> <script type="text/javascript" data-type="init opengraph"> Mendel.openGraph = {"type":"ARTICLE","title":"Novel - Epic, Bildungsroman, Satire","description":"Novel - Epic, Bildungsroman, Satire: For the hack novelist, to whom speedy output is more important than art, thought, and originality, history provides ready-made plots and characters. A novel on Alexander the Great or Joan of Arc can be as flimsy and superficial as any schoolgirl romance. But historical themes, to which may be added prehistoric or mythical ones, have inspired the greatest novelists, as Tolstoy’s War and Peace and Stendhal’s Charterhouse of Parma reveal. 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class="col-auto"> <div class="topic-left-rail md-article-drawer position-relative d-flex border-right-sm border-left-sm open"> <div class="drawer d-flex flex-column open"> <div class="left-rail-section-content"> <div class="topic-left-rail-header text-truncate bg-gray-50 position-relative text-right d-flex align-items-center"> <div class="tlr-title px-20 py-15 text-left"> <em class="material-icons text-gray-400 d-lg-none" data-icon="toc"></em> <a class="font-serif font-weight-bold text-black link-blue" href="https://www.britannica.com/art/novel">novel</a> </div> <button aria-label="Close" class="js-sections-close-button btn-link btn-sm btn d-lg-none position-absolute top-0 p-10 right-0" > <em class="material-icons font-26" data-icon="close"></em> </button> </div> <div class="section-content pl-10 pr-20 pl-sm-50 pr-sm-60 pl-lg-5 pr-lg-10 pt-10 pt-lg-0 bg-gray-50 clear-catfish-ad"> <div class="toc mb-20"> <div class="font-serif font-14 font-weight-bold mx-15 mb-15 mt-20"> Table of Contents </div> <ul class="list-unstyled my-0" data-level="h1"><li data-target="#ref1"><div class="pl-25"><a class="link-gray-900 w-100" href="/art/novel">Introduction & Top Questions</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"></div></li><li data-target="#ref50973"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><button class="h1-link-drawer-button btn btn-xs btn-circle d-flex rounded" type="button" aria-label="Toggle Heading"><em class="material-icons font-18" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></em></button><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/novel#ref50973">Elements</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref50974"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/novel#ref50974">Plot</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref50975"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/novel/Character">Character</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref50976"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/novel/Character#ref50976">Scene, or setting</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref50977"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/novel/Narrative-method-and-point-of-view">Narrative method and point of view</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref50978"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/novel/Narrative-method-and-point-of-view#ref50978">Scope, or dimension</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref50979"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/novel/Narrative-method-and-point-of-view#ref50979">Myth, symbolism, significance</a></li></ul></div></li><li data-target="#ref50980"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><button class="h1-link-drawer-button btn btn-xs btn-circle d-flex rounded" type="button" aria-label="Toggle Heading"><em class="material-icons font-18" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></em></button><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/novel/Uses">Uses</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref50981"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/novel/Uses#ref50981">Interpretation of life</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref50982"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/novel/Uses#ref50982">Entertainment or escape</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref50983"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/novel/Propaganda">Propaganda</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref50984"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/novel/Propaganda#ref50984">Reportage</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref50985"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/novel/Propaganda#ref50985">Agent of change in language and thought</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref50986"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/novel/Expression-of-the-spirit-of-its-age">Expression of the spirit of its age</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref50987"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/novel/Expression-of-the-spirit-of-its-age#ref50987">Creator of life-style and arbiter of taste</a></li></ul></div></li><li data-target="#ref50988"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><button class="h1-link-drawer-button btn btn-xs btn-circle d-flex rounded" type="button" aria-label="Toggle Heading"><em class="material-icons font-18" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></em></button><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/novel/Style">Style</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref50989"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/novel/Style#ref50989">Romanticism</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref50990"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/novel/Style#ref50990">Realism</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref50991"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/novel/Naturalism">Naturalism</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref50992"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/novel/Naturalism#ref50992">Impressionism</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref50993"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/novel/Naturalism#ref50993">Expressionism</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref50994"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/novel/Naturalism#ref50994">Avant-gardism</a></li></ul></div></li><li data-target="#ref50995"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><button class="h1-link-drawer-button btn btn-xs btn-circle d-flex rounded" type="button" aria-label="Toggle Heading"><em class="material-icons font-18" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></em></button><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/novel/Types-of-novel">Types of novel</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref50996"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/novel/Types-of-novel#ref50996">Historical</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref50997"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/novel/Types-of-novel#ref50997">Picaresque</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref50998"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/novel/Types-of-novel#ref50998">Sentimental</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref50999"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/novel/Types-of-novel#ref50999">Gothic</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref51000"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/novel/Types-of-novel#ref51000">Psychological</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref51001"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/novel/The-novel-of-manners">The novel of manners</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref51002"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/novel/The-novel-of-manners#ref51002">Epistolary</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref51003"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/novel/The-novel-of-manners#ref51003">Pastoral</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref51004"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/novel/The-novel-of-manners#ref51004">Apprenticeship</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref51005"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/novel/Roman-a-clef">Roman à clef</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref51006"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/novel/Roman-a-clef#ref51006">Antinovel</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref51007"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/novel/Roman-a-clef#ref51007">Cult, or coterie, novels</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref51008"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/novel/Roman-a-clef#ref51008">Detective, mystery, thriller</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref51009"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/novel/Roman-a-clef#ref51009">Western</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref51010"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/novel/The-best-seller">The best seller</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref51011"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/novel/The-best-seller#ref51011">Fantasy and prophecy</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref51012"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/novel/The-best-seller#ref51012">Proletarian</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref51013"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/novel/The-best-seller#ref51013">Other types</a></li></ul></div></li><li data-target="#ref51036"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><div class="ml-25"></div><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/novel/Social-and-economic-aspects">Social and economic aspects</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"></div></li><li data-target="#ref51037"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><div class="ml-25"></div><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/novel/Evaluation-and-study">Evaluation and study</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"></div></li><li data-target="#ref51038"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><div class="ml-25"></div><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/novel/Evaluation-and-study#ref51038">The future of the novel</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"></div></li></ul> <a class="toc-extra-link link-gray-900" href="https://www.britannica.com/art/novel/additional-info">References & Edit History</a> <a class="toc-extra-link link-gray-900" href="/facts/novel">Related Topics</a> </div> <div class="tlr-media-slider pb-10 mb-30"> <a class="section-header link-gray-900 font-serif font-14 font-weight-bold mb-10 mx-10" href="https://www.britannica.com/art/novel/images-videos">Images, Videos & Interactives</a> <div class="slider js-slider position-relative d-inline-flex align-items-center mw-100 "> <div class="slider-container js-slider-container overflow-hidden d-flex overflow-hidden text-nowrap ml-15"> <a href="https://cdn.britannica.com/20/99420-050-A8C679CA/Dust-jacket-edition-Vanessa-Bell-Virginia-Woolf-1927.jpg" data-href="/media/1/421071/95604" class="media-overlay-link d-inline-block mr-5"> <img loading="lazy" 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Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. </div> <div class="label mt-20 mb-10">Select Citation Style</div> <select class="js-citation-format-select form-select"> <option selected value="mla">MLA</option> <option value="apa">APA</option> <option value="chicago">Chicago Manual of Style</option> </select> <div class="citation font-serif border rounded p-15 mt-20" data-authors="Burgess, Anthony" data-authors-initial="Burgess, A." data-title="novel" data-published-date="6 Feb. 2025" data-url="https://www.britannica.com/art/novel" > <div class="citation-text"></div> </div> <button class="js-copy-citation-button mt-20 btn btn-xs btn-outline-blue border shadow-sm pr-10" > <em class="material-icons md-icon ml-n10 my-n5 mr-5" data-icon="file_copy"></em> <span class="js-citation-status-text">Copy Citation</span> </button> </div> </div> </div> <div> <button class="js-share-modal-button js-modal btn btn-sm btn-link gtm-topic-tool font-weight-bold btn-link" data-modal="[data-topic-id=421071] .md-share-modal"> <em class="material-icons mr-5 ml-n10 my-n5 md-icon" data-icon="share"></em> Share </button> <div class="md-share-modal size-lg d-none qa-share-modal"> <div class="md-modal-body"> <div class="h2 font-serif d-flex align-items-center pb-15 border-bottom"> <em class="material-icons text-blue mr-10" data-icon="share"></em> Share </div> <div class="label my-20">Share to social media</div> <div class="md-social-toolbar-circle d-flex align-items-start inverted" data-value="share" title="novel" data-url="https://www.britannica.com/art/novel" > <a class="social-icon facebook justify-content-center d-flex align-items-center align-self-center" data-provider="facebook" href="https://www.facebook.com/BRITANNICA/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span>Facebook</span></a> <a class="social-icon x justify-content-center d-flex align-items-center align-self-center" data-provider="x" href="https://x.com/britannica" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span>X</span></a> </div> <div class="label pt-20 mt-20 mb-5 border-top">URL</div> <a class="font-serif text-truncate d-inline-block" href="https://www.britannica.com/art/novel">https://www.britannica.com/art/novel</a> </div> </div> </div> <div> <button class="js-feedback-modal-button js-modal btn btn-sm btn-link gtm-topic-tool font-weight-bold btn-link" data-modal=".md-feedback-modal"> <em class="material-icons mr-5 ml-n10 my-n5 md-icon" data-icon="message"></em> Feedback </button> </div> <div> <button class="qa-external-website-modal-button js-modal btn btn-sm btn-link gtm-topic-tool font-weight-bold btn-link" data-modal="[data-topic-id=421071] .md-websites-modal"> <em class="material-icons md-icon ml-n10 mr-5" data-icon="link"></em> External Websites </button> </div> </div> <div class="md-feedback-modal size-lg d-none"> <div class="md-modal-body"> <div class="h2 font-serif pb-15 border-bottom"> Feedback </div> <form method="post" action="/submission/feedback/421071"> <div class="my-20"> Corrections? 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His <em>A Clockwork...</em></div> </a> <div data-popper-arrow></div> </div> <span class="btn btn-link editor-link p-0 qa-byline-link gtm-byline font-12 byline-contributor text-decoration-underline"> Anthony Burgess</span></div> <div class="font-serif font-12 text-gray-700"> <span class="qa-fact-checked-by">Fact-checked by</span> <div class="editor-popover popover p-0"> <a class="d-block p-20 qa-editor-popup font-12" href="/editor/The-Editors-of-Encyclopaedia-Britannica/4419" > <div class="editor-title font-16 font-weight-bold">The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica</div> <div class="editor-description font-12 font-serif mt-5 text-black">Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors.</div> </a> <div data-popper-arrow></div> </div> <span class="btn btn-link editor-link p-0 qa-byline-link font-12 "> The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica</span></div> <div class="last-updated font-12 font-serif"> <span class="text-gray-700"> Last Updated: <time datetime="2025-02-06T00:00:00CST" >Feb 6, 2025</time> •</span> <a class="byline-edit-history" href="https://www.britannica.com/art/novel/additional-info#history" rel="nofollow">Article History</a> </div></div> </div> <button class="d-flex d-lg-none btn btn-outline-blue border rounded-sm shadow-sm mobile-toc-button gtm-mobile-toc-inline-button d-none d-sm-block js-sections-inline-button module-spacing btn d-lg-none"> <em class="material-icons mr-5 ml-n10 my-n5 md-icon" data-icon="toc"></em> Table of Contents </button> <div class="d-flex d-sm-none flex-row"> <button class="d-flex d-lg-none btn btn-outline-blue border rounded-sm shadow-sm mobile-toc-button gtm-mobile-toc-inline-button js-sections-inline-button module-spacing"> <em class="material-icons mr-5 ml-n10 my-n5 md-icon" data-icon="toc"></em> Table of Contents </button> <button class="ai-ask-button btn btn-sm border-2 btn-outline-red-400 border-red-400 module-spacing js-inline-ai-ask-button p-10 ml-5"> Ask the Chatbot </button> </div> <div class="js-qf-module qf-module px-40 px-sm-20 py-15 mx-auto module-spacing font-14 bg-gray-50 rounded"> <div class="facts-list mt-10"> <div class=""> <div class="js-fact mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3"> <dl> <dt>Key People: </dt> <dd><a href="/biography/Elizabeth-Strout" topicid="2083664">Elizabeth Strout</a></dd> <dd><a href="/biography/Percival-Everett" topicid="1018248">Percival Everett</a></dd> <dd><a href="/biography/Julia-Alvarez" topicid="2030995">Julia Alvarez</a></dd> <dd><a href="/biography/Roxane-Gay" topicid="2230724">Roxane Gay</a></dd> <dd><a href="/biography/Ottessa-Moshfegh" topicid="2086945">Ottessa Moshfegh</a></dd> </dl> <button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-gray-50" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"> <em class="js-content link-blue">(Show more)</em> </button> </div> </div> <div class=""> <div class="js-fact mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3"> <dl> <dt>Related Topics: </dt> <dd><a href="/art/graphic-novel" topicid="1020959">graphic novel</a></dd> <dd><a href="/art/picaresque-novel" topicid="459267">picaresque novel</a></dd> <dd><a href="/art/Booker-Prize" topicid="73580">Booker Prize</a></dd> <dd><a href="/art/epistolary-novel" topicid="190331">epistolary novel</a></dd> <dd><a href="/art/psychological-novel" topicid="481652">psychological novel</a></dd> </dl> <button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-gray-50" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"> <em class="js-content link-blue">(Show more)</em> </button> </div> </div> <div class=""> <div class="js-fact mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3"> <dl> <dt>On the Web: </dt> <dd><a href="https://pressbooks.pub/storytelling/chapter/the-rise-of-the-novel/" target="_blank">Pressbooks - Storytelling - The Rise of the Novel</a> (Feb. 06, 2025)</dd> </dl> <button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-gray-50" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"> <em class="js-content link-blue">(Show more)</em> </button> </div> <div class="text-center"> <a class="btn btn-sm btn-link p-0" href="/facts/novel"> See all related content </a> </div> </div> </div> </div><span class="marker before-article"></span><span class="marker h5"></span><section data-level="1" id="ref50995">  <section data-level="2" id="ref50996"> <h2 class="h2"><span id="ref503973"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/historical-novel" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Historical</a></h2> <span class="marker PREMOD1 mod-inline"></span><div class="assemblies"><div class="w-100"><figure class="md-assembly m-0 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false" data-assembly-id="273524" data-asm-type="video"><div class="md-assembly-wrapper card-media" data-type="video" video-id="234838"><a data-id="234838" class="gtm-assembly-link d-flex justify-content-center" style="--aspect-ratio: 16/9" href="/video/did-you-know-history-of-the-novel/-273524"><img src="https://cdn.britannica.com/38/234838-138-99EB2618/did-you-know-history-of-the-novel.jpg?w=800&h=450&c=crop" alt="What was the first novel ever written?" loading="lazy"><script type="application/json"> { "sources": [ { "file" : "//content.jwplatform.com/manifests/9fqGhKKu.m3u8" } ], "image": "https://cdn.britannica.com/38/234838-138-99EB2618/did-you-know-history-of-the-novel.jpg" ,"tracks": [ { "file" : "//assets-jpcust.jwpsrv.com/tracks/Kf8wVCsg.vtt", "label": "English" } ] ,"adfile": "//content.jwplatform.com/manifests/W04b7AR9.m3u8" } </script><div class="btn btn-xl btn-white btn-circle position-absolute shadow" style="top: 50%; transform: translateY(-50%)"><em class="material-icons" data-icon="play_arrow"></em></div></a></div><figcaption class="card-body"><div class="md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp"><span><span class="md-assembly-title font-weight-bold mr-5 d-inline font-sans-serif md-video-caption" video-control="234838">What was the first novel ever written?</span><span>Learn about the controversy of identifying the first novel in history.</span><button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-white js-content" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"><span class="link-blue">(more)</span></button></span></div><a class="font-14 mt-10 d-inline-block" href="/art/novel/images-videos">See all videos for this article</a></figcaption></figure></div></div><p class="topic-paragraph">For the hack novelist, to whom speedy output is more important than art, thought, and originality, history provides ready-made plots and characters. A novel on <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alexander-the-Great" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Alexander the Great</a> or <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Joan-of-Arc" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Joan of Arc</a> can be as flimsy and superficial as any schoolgirl <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/romance-literature-and-performance" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">romance</a>. But historical themes, to which may be added prehistoric or mythical ones, have inspired the greatest novelists, as Tolstoy’s <em><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/War-and-Peace" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">War and Peace</a></em> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Stendhal-French-author" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Stendhal’s</a> <em><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Charterhouse-of-Parma" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Charterhouse of Parma</a></em> reveal. In the 20th century, distinguished historical novels such as <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Arthur-Koestler" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Arthur Koestler’s</a> <em>The Gladiators</em> (1939), <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Robert-Graves" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Robert Graves</a>’s <em>I, Claudius</em> (1934), Zoé Oldenbourg’s <em>Destiny of Fire</em> (1960), and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mary-Renault" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Mary Renault</a>’s <em><span id="ref1308023"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-King-Must-Die" class="md-crosslink ">The King Must Die</a></em> (1958) exemplify an important function of the fictional imagination—to interpret remote events in human and particular terms, to transform documentary fact, with the assistance of imaginative conjecture, into immediate sensuous and emotional experience.</p><span class="marker MOD1 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD2 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">There is a kind of historical novel, little more than a <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="charade" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/charade" data-type="MW">charade</a>, which frequently has a popular appeal because of a common belief that the past is richer, bloodier, and more erotic than the present. Such novels, which include such immensely popular works as those of Georgette Heyer, or Baroness Orczy’s Scarlet Pimpernel stories in England in the early 20th century, and <em>Forever Amber</em> (1944) by Kathleen Winsor in the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/United-States" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">United States</a>, may use the trappings of history but, because there is no real assimilation of the past into the imagination, the result must be a mere costume ball. On the other hand, the American novelist <span id="ref503974"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Barth" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">John Barth</a> showed in <em>The Sot-Weed Factor</em> (1960) that mock historical scholarship—preposterous events served up with parodic pomposity—could <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="constitute" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/constitute" data-type="MW">constitute</a> a viable, and not necessarily farcical, approach to the past. Barth’s history is cheerfully suspect, but his sense of historical perspective is genuine.</p><span class="marker MOD2 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD3 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">It is in the technical <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="conservatism" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/conservatism" data-type="MW">conservatism</a> of most European historical novels that the serious student of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/fiction-literature" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">fiction</a> finds cause to <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="relegate" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/relegate" data-type="MW">relegate</a> the category to a secondary place. Few practitioners of the form seem prepared to learn from any writer later than Scott, though <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Virginia-Woolf" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Virginia Woolf</a>—in <em><span id="ref503975"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Orlando-by-Woolf" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Orlando</a></em> (1928) and <em><span id="ref503976"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Between-the-Acts" class="md-crosslink ">Between the Acts</a></em> (1941)—made bold attempts to squeeze vast tracts of historical time into a small space and thus make them as fictionally manageable as the events of a single day. And <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Dos-Passos" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">John Dos Passos</a>’ <em>U.S.A.</em>, which can be taken as a historical study of a phase in America’s development, is a reminder that experiment is not incompatible with the sweep and amplitude that great historical themes can bring to the novel.</p><span class="marker MOD3 mod-inline"></span> </section> <section data-level="2" id="ref50997"> <h2 class="h2">Picaresque</h2> <span class="marker PREMOD4 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">In Spain, the novel about the rogue or <em>pícaro</em> was a recognized form, and such English novels as Defoe’s <em>The Fortunate Mistress</em> (1724) can be regarded as picaresque in the etymological sense. But the term has come to connote as much the episodic nature of the original species as the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="dynamic" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dynamic" data-type="MW">dynamic</a> of roguery. Fielding’s <em><span id="ref1308022"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tom-Jones-novel-by-Fielding" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Tom Jones</a></em>, whose <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/hero-literary-and-cultural-figure" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">hero</a> is amoral and very nearly gallows-meat, has been called picaresque, and the <em>Pickwick Papers</em> of Dickens—whose eponym is a respectable and even childishly ingenuous scholar—can be accommodated in the category.</p><span class="marker MOD4 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD5 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The requirements for a <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/picaresque-novel" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">picaresque novel</a> are apparently length, loosely linked episodes almost complete in themselves, intrigue, fights, amorous adventure, and such optional items as stories within the main narrative, songs, poems, or <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="moral" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/moral" data-type="MW">moral</a> homilies. Perhaps inevitably, with such a structure or lack of it, the driving force must come from a wild or roguish rejection of the settled bourgeois life, a desire for the open road, with adventures in inn bedrooms and meetings with questionable wanderers. In the modern period, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saul-Bellow" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Saul Bellow</a>’s <em><span id="ref1308020"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Adventures-of-Augie-March" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Adventures of Augie March</a></em> (1953) and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jack-Kerouac" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Jack Kerouac</a>’s <em><span id="ref1308021"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Dharma-Bums" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Dharma Bums</a></em> (1959) have something of the right episodic, wandering, free, questing character. But in an age that lacks the unquestioning acceptance of traditional <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="morality" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/morality" data-type="MW">morality</a> against which the old picaresque heroes played out their villainous lives, it is not easy to revive the <em>novela picaresca</em> as the anonymous <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/author" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">author</a> of <em>Lazarillo de Tormes</em> (1554) conceived it, or as such lesser Spanish writers of the beginning of the 17th century as <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mateo-Aleman" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Mateo Alemán</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Vicente-Espinel" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Vicente Espinel</a>, and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Luis-Velez-de-Guevara" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Luis Vélez de Guevara</a> developed it. The modern criminal wars with the police rather than with society, and his career is one of closed and narrow techniques, not compatible with the gay abandon of the true <em>pícaro</em>.</p><div class="module-spacing"> </div><span class="marker MOD5 mod-inline"></span> </section> <section data-level="2" id="ref50998"> <h2 class="h2"><span id="ref503977"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/sentimental-novel" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Sentimental</a></h2> <span class="marker PREMOD6 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The term <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/sentimental-novel" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true"><em>sentimental</em></a>, in its mid-18th-century usage, signified refined or elevated feeling, and it is in this sense that it must be understood in <span id="ref1308019"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Laurence-Sterne" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Laurence Sterne</a>’s <em>Sentimental Journey</em> (1768). Richardson’s <em>Pamela</em> (1740) and Rousseau’s <em>Nouvelle Héloïse</em> (1761) are sentimental in that they exhibit a passionate attachment between the sexes that rises above the merely physical. The vogue of the sentimental love novel was one of the features of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/Romanticism" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Romantic movement</a>, and the form maintained a certain moving dignity despite a tendency to excessive emotional posturing. The germs of mawkishness are clearly present in Sterne’s <em>Tristram Shandy</em> (1760–67), though offset by a diluted Rabelaisianism and a certain <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="cerebral" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cerebral" data-type="MW">cerebral</a> quality. The debasement by which the term <em>sentimental</em> came to denote a self-indulgence in superficial emotions occurred in the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Victorian-era" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Victorian era</a>, under the influence of sanctimony, religiosity, and a large commercial demand for bourgeois fiction. Sentimental novels of the 19th and 20th centuries are characterized by an invertebrate emotionalism and a deliberately lachrymal appeal. Neither Dickens nor Thackeray was immune to the temptations of sentimentality—as is instanced by their treatment of deathbed scenes. The reported death of Tiny Tim in <em>A Christmas Carol</em> (1843) is an example of Dickens’ ability to provoke two tearful responses from the one situation—one of sorrow at a young death, the other of relief at the discovery that the death never occurred. Despite such patches of emotional excess, Dickens cannot really be termed a sentimental novelist. Such a <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="designation" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/designation" data-type="MW">designation</a> must be reserved for writers like <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mrs-Henry-Wood" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Mrs. Henry Wood</a>, the author of <em>East Lynne</em> (1861). That the sentimental novel is capable of appeal even in the Atomic Age is shown by the success of <em><span id="ref1308018"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Love-Story-novel-by-Segal" class="md-crosslink ">Love Story</a></em> (1970), by Erich Segal. That this is the work of a Yale professor of classics seems to indicate either that not even <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="intellectuals" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/intellectuals" data-type="MW">intellectuals</a> <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="disdain" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/disdain" data-type="MW">disdain</a> sentimental appeal or that tearjerking is a process to be indulged in coldly and even cynically. Stock emotions are always easily aroused through stock devices, but both the aim and the technique are generally <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="eschewed" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/eschewed" data-type="MW">eschewed</a> by serious writers.</p><span class="marker MOD6 mod-inline"></span> </section> <section data-level="2" id="ref50999"> <h2 class="h2"><span id="ref503978"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/Gothic-novel" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Gothic</a></h2> <span class="marker PREMOD7 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The first <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/Gothic-novel" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Gothic</a> fiction appeared with works like <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Horace-Walpole" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Horace Walpole</a>’s <em><span id="ref503979"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Castle-of-Otranto" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Castle of Otranto</a></em> (1765) and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Matthew-Gregory-Lewis" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Matthew Gregory Lewis</a>’ <em>Monk</em> (1796), which countered 18th-century “rationalism” with scenes of mystery, horror, and wonder. Gothic (the spelling “Gothick” better conveys the contemporary flavor) was a designation derived from architecture, and it carried—in opposition to the Italianate style of neoclassical building more appropriate to the Augustan Age—connotations of rough and primitive grandeur. The atmosphere of a Gothic novel was expected to be dark, tempestuous, ghostly, full of madness, outrage, superstition, and the spirit of revenge. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mary-Wollstonecraft-Shelley" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Mary Shelley</a>’s <em><span id="ref503980"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Frankenstein-or-The-Modern-Prometheus" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Frankenstein</a></em>, which maintains its original popularity and even notoriety, has in overplus the traditional Gothic ingredients, with its weird God-defying experiments, its eldritch shrieks, and, above all, its monster. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edgar-Allan-Poe" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Edgar Allan Poe</a> developed the Gothic style brilliantly in the United States, and he has been a considerable influence. A good deal of early <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/science-fiction" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">science fiction</a>, like <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/H-G-Wells" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">H.G. Wells</a>’s <em><span id="ref503981"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Island-of-Doctor-Moreau-by-Wells" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Island of Doctor Moreau</a></em> (1896), seems to spring out of the Gothic movement, and the Gothic atmosphere has been seriously <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="cultivated" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cultivated" data-type="MW">cultivated</a> in England in the later novels of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Iris-Murdoch" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Iris Murdoch</a> and in the Gormenghast sequence beginning in 1946 of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mervyn-Peake" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Mervyn Peake</a>. It is noteworthy that Gothic fiction has always been approached in a spirit of deliberate suspension of the normal canons of taste. Like a circus trick, a piece of Gothic fiction asks to be considered as ingenious entertainment; the pity and terror are not aspects of a <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="cathartic" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cathartic" data-type="MW">cathartic</a> process but <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="transient" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/transient" data-type="MW">transient</a> emotions to be, somewhat perversely, enjoyed for their own sake.</p><span class="marker MOD7 mod-inline"></span><div class="mb-20"><div class="w-100"><figure class="md-assembly m-0 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false" data-assembly-id="291570" data-asm-type="infogram"><div class="md-assembly-wrapper card-media" data-type="infogram"><script id="infogram_0__/FDe6491wVPVC6T5KOBcn" src="https://e.infogram.com/js/dist/embed.js?Itp" type="text/javascript" title="Frankenstein: An interactive journey"></script></div></figure></div><div class="w-100"><figure class="md-assembly m-0 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false" data-assembly-id="291636" data-asm-type="infogram"><div class="md-assembly-wrapper card-media" data-type="infogram"><script id="infogram_0__/H0crfxe7ZjXCU90YOUda" src="https://e.infogram.com/js/dist/embed.js?Itp" type="text/javascript" title="The main characters of Frankenstein"></script></div></figure></div></div> </section> <section data-level="2" id="ref51000"> <h2 class="h2"><span id="ref1203934"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/psychological-novel" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Psychological</a></h2> <span class="marker PREMOD8 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/psychological-novel" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">psychological novel</a> first appeared in 17th-century France, with <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Marie-Madeleine-Pioche-de-la-Vergne-comtesse-de-La-Fayette" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Madame de La Fayette</a>’s <em>Princesse de Clèves</em> (1678), and the category was consolidated by works like the Abbé Prévost’s <em>Manon Lescaut</em> (1731) in the century following. More primitive fiction had been characterized by a proliferation of action and incidental characters; the psychological novel limited itself to a few characters whose motives for action could be examined and analyzed. In England, the psychological novel did not appear until the Victorian era, when <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/George-Eliot" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">George Eliot</a> became its first great exponent. It has been assumed since then that the serious novelist’s prime concern is the workings of the human mind, and hence much of the greatest fiction must be termed psychological. Dostoyevsky’s <em><span id="ref503982"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Crime-and-Punishment-novel" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Crime and Punishment</a></em> deals less with the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="ethical" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ethical" data-type="MW">ethical</a> significance of a murder than with the soul of the murderer; Flaubert’s interest in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Emma-Bovary" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Emma Bovary</a> has less to do with the consequences of her mode of life in terms of nemesic logic than with the patterns of her mind; in <em><span id="ref503983"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Anna-Karenina-novel" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Anna Karenina</a></em>, Tolstoy presents a large-scale obsessive study of feminine psychology that is almost excruciating in its relentless probing. The novels of <span id="ref503984"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-James-American-writer" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Henry James</a> are psychological in that the crucial events occur in the souls of the protagonists, and it was perhaps James more than any serious novelist before or since who convinced <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="frivolous" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/frivolous" data-type="MW">frivolous</a> novel-readers that the “psychological approach” guarantees a lack of action and excitement.</p><span class="marker MOD8 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD9 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The theories of <span id="ref503985"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sigmund-Freud" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Sigmund Freud</a> are credited as the source of the psychoanalytical novel. Freud was anticipated, however, by Shakespeare (in, for example, his treatment of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lady-Macbeth" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Lady Macbeth</a>’s somnambulistic guilt). Two 20th-century novelists of great psychological insight—Joyce and Nabokov—professed a disdain for Freud. To write a novel with close attention to the Freudian or Jungian techniques of analysis does not necessarily produce new prodigies of psychological revelation; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/Oedipus-complex" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Oedipus</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Electra-daughter-of-Agamemnon-and-Clytemnestra" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Electra</a> complexes have become commonplaces of superficial novels and films. The great disclosures about human motivation have been achieved more by the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="intuition" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/intuition" data-type="MW">intuition</a> and introspection of novelists and dramatists than by the more systematic work of the clinicians.</p><span class="marker MOD9 mod-inline"></span> </section> </section><span class="marker end-of-content"></span><span class="marker after-article"></span></div> <div id="chatbot-simplify-root"></div> <div id="chatbot-root"></div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="ai-dialog-placeholder"></div> </div> </div> <aside class="col-md-da-320"></aside> </div> </div> </div> </div> </article> </div> </div> </div> </div> </main> <div id="md-footer"></div> <noscript><iframe src="//www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-5W6NC8" height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden"></iframe></noscript>  <script> window.ap3c = window.ap3c || {}; var ap3c = window.ap3c; ap3c.cmd = ap3c.cmd || []; ap3c.cmd.push(function() { ap3c.init('ZO4siT4cLwnykPnzZWJtd3Byb2Q', 'https://engage.email.britannica.com/'); ap3c.track({v: 0}); }); ap3c.activity = function(act) { ap3c.act = (ap3c.act || []); ap3c.act.push(act); }; var s, t; s = document.createElement('script'); s.type = 'text/javascript'; s.src = "https://engage.email.britannica.com/app.js"; t = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; t.parentNode.insertBefore(s, t); </script> <script class="marketing-page-info" type="application/json"> {"pageType":"Topic","templateName":"DESKTOP","pageNumber":9,"pagesTotal":14,"pageId":421071,"pageLength":1686,"initialLoad":true,"lastPageOfScroll":false} </script> <script class="marketing-content-info" type="application/json"> [] </script> <script src="https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-133/js/libs/jquery-3.5.0.min.js?v=3.133.36"></script> <script type="text/javascript" data-type="Init Mendel Code Splitting"> (function() { $.ajax({ dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: 'https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-133/dist/topic-page.js?v=3.133.36' }); })(); </script> <script class="analytics-metadata" type="application/json"> {"leg":"C","adLeg":"C","userType":"ANONYMOUS","pageType":"Topic","pageSubtype":null,"articleTemplateType":"PAGINATED","gisted":false,"pageNumber":9,"hasSummarizeButton":false,"hasAskButton":true} </script> <script type="text/javascript"> EBStat={accountId:-1,hostnameOverride:'webstats.eb.com',domain:'www.britannica.com', json:''}; </script> <script type="text/javascript"> ( function() { $.ajax( { dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: '//www.britannica.com/webstats/mendelstats.js?v=1' } ) .done( function() { try {writeStat(null,EBStat);} catch(err){} } ); })(); </script> <div id="bc-fixed-dialogue"></div> </body> </html>

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