Novel - Social, Economic, Aspects

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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 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Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). </div> <div class="type-menu"> <label for="feedback-type" class="label mb-10">Feedback Type</label> <select id="feedback-type" class="form-select mb-30" name="feedbackTypeId" required> <option value="" selected="selected">Select a type (Required)</option> <option value="1">Factual Correction</option> <option value="2">Spelling/Grammar Correction</option> <option value="3">Link Correction</option> <option value="4">Additional Information</option> <option value="5">Other</option> </select> </div> <label for="feedback" class="label mb-10">Your Feedback</label> <textarea id="feedback" class="form-control mb-30" name="feedback" maxlength="3000" rows="7" required></textarea> <button class="btn btn-blue" type="submit">Submit Feedback</button> </form> <div class="success-messaging d-none mt-30"> <div class="title">Thank you for your feedback</div> <p>Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.</p> </div> </div> </div> <div class="md-websites-modal size-lg d-none"> <div class="md-modal-body"> <div class="h2 font-serif pb-15 border-bottom font-weight-bold"> External Websites </div> <div class="pb-20"> <ul class="list-unstyled mt-20 lh-lg"> <li><a class="external" href="https://literarydevices.net/novel/" target="_blank" rel="noopener ">Literary Devices - Novel</a></li> <li><a class="external" href="https://www.ijcrt.org/papers/IJCRT2005430.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener ">International Journal of Creative Research Thoughts - Novel as an Epic</a></li> <li><a class="external" href="https://human.libretexts.org/Courses/Harrisburg_Area_Community_College/Introduction_to_Novel_Writing_(Girardi)/01%3A_Chapters/1.01%3A_What_is_a_novel" target="_blank" rel="noopener ">Humanities LibreTexts - What is a novel?</a></li> <li><a class="external" href="https://www.academia.edu/19235245/UNDERSTANDING_NOVEL_AS_A_MAJOR_FORM_OF_LITERATURE" target="_blank" rel="noopener ">Academia - Understanding novel as a major form of Literature</a></li> </ul> </div> <div class="md-websites-ebk-title">Britannica Websites</div> <div class="md-websites-ebk-subtitle">Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.</div> <ul class="list-unstyled bps-topic-web-sites lh-lg"> <li><a class="external" href="https://kids.britannica.com/kids/article/novel/390589" target="_blank" rel="noopener">novel - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)</a></li> <li><a class="external" href="https://kids.britannica.com/students/article/novel/276129" target="_blank" rel="noopener">novel - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="toc-header-marker"></div> <button class="ai-ask-button btn border-2 js-header-ai-ask-button d-none btn-sm btn-outline-red-400 border-red-400 mr-0 mr-lg-10 ml-5 ml-sm-10 ml-lg-0 p-10"> Ask the Chatbot a Question </button> <div class="md-byline module-spacing "> <div class="font-serif font-12"> <span class="written-by text-gray-700"> Written by </span> <div class="editor-popover popover p-0"> <a class="d-block p-20 gtm-byline font-12 byline-contributor" href="/contributor/Anthony-Burgess/421" > <div class="editor-title font-16 font-weight-bold">Anthony Burgess</div> <div class="editor-description font-12 font-serif mt-5 clamp-description text-black">Anthony Burgess (1917-93) was an English novelist, critic, and man of letters whose fictional explorations of modern dilemmas combine wit, moral earnestness, and a note of the bizarre. 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 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="2024-10-28T00:00:00CDT" >Oct 28, 2024</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 border-2 ai-ask-button btn border-2 module-spacing btn-sm js-inline-ai-ask-button btn-outline-red-400 border-red-400 p-10 ml-5"> Ask the Chatbot a Question </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/N-K-Jemisin" topicid="2190264">N.K. Jemisin</a></dd> <dd><a href="/biography/Anthony-Horowitz" topicid="1895093">Anthony Horowitz</a></dd> <dd><a href="/biography/Elena-Ferrante" topicid="2050102">Elena Ferrante</a></dd> <dd><a href="/biography/Harold-Keith" topicid="1395882">Harold Keith</a></dd> <dd><a href="/biography/Ben-Elton" topicid="2255621">Ben Elton</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 class="text-center"> <a class="btn btn-sm btn-link p-0" href="/facts/novel"> See all related content </a> </div> </div> </div> </div><div class="bg-gray-50 p-15 rounded module-spacing recent-news d-flex flex-column float-false"> <div> <h2 class="font-weight-bold font-14 m-0 d-inline"> News <span class="text-gray-600">•</span> </h2> <div class="recent-news-item first-recent-news-item d-inline"> <a class="font-14 gtm-ap-news-link" href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/11/18/stranger-than-fiction-edwin-frank-book-review" rel="nofollow">Is the Twentieth-Century Novel a Genre?</a> <span class="font-14 text-gray-600"> <span>•</span> Nov. 11, 2024, 12:17 AM ET (The New Yorker) </span> </div> </div> <div class="rest-of-recent-news-items"> <button class="js-toggle-recent-news d-flex btn btn-unstyled font-14 pr-10 rounded-sm mt-10" aria-label="Toggle additional news items"> Show less <em class="material-icons" data-icon="expand_less"></em> </button> </div> </div><span class="marker before-article"></span><span class="marker h6"></span><section data-level="1" id="ref51036">  <span class="marker PREMOD1 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Though <span id="ref504235"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/publishing" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">publishers of fiction</a> recognize certain obligations to art, even when these are unprofitable (as they usually are), they are impelled for the most part to regard the novel as a commercial property and to be better pleased with large sales of <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="indifferent" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/indifferent" data-type="EB">indifferent</a> work than with the mere unremunerative acclaim of the intelligentsia for books of rare merit. For this reason, any novelist who seeks to practice his craft professionally must consult the claims of the market and effect a compromise between what he wishes to write and what the public will buy. Many worthy experimental novels, or novels more earnest than entertaining, gather dust in manuscript or are circulated privately in photocopies. Indeed, the difficulty that some unestablished novelists find in gaining a readership (which means the attention of a commercial publisher) has led them to take the copying machine as seriously as the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/technology/printing-press" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">printing press</a> and to make the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="composition" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/composition" data-type="MW">composition</a>, mimeographing, binding, and distribution of a novel into a single cottage industry. For the majority of novelists the financial rewards of their art are nugatory, and only a strong devotion to the form for its own sake can drive them to the building of an <em>oeuvre</em>. The subsidies provided by university sinecures sustain a fair number of major American novelists; others, in most countries, support their art by practicing various kinds of subliterature—journalism, film scripts, textbooks, even pseudonymous <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/pornography" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">pornography</a>. Few novelists write novels and novels only.</p><span class="marker MOD1 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD2 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">There are certain marginal windfalls, and the hope of gaining one of these <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="tempers" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/tempers" data-type="EB">tempers</a> the average novelist’s chronic desperation. America has its National Book Award as well as its <a href="https://www.britannica.com/money/book-club" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">book club</a> choices; France has a great variety of prizes; there are also international bestowals; above all there glows the rarest and richest of all accolades—the <span id="ref504236"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Nobel-Prize" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Nobel Prize</a> for Literature. Quite often the Nobel Prize winner needs the money as much as the fame, and his election to the honor is not necessarily a reflection of a universal esteem which, even for geniuses like <span id="ref504237"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Samuel-Beckett" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Samuel Beckett</a>, means large sales and rich royalties. When <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sinclair-Lewis" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Sinclair Lewis</a> received the award in 1930, wealth and fame were added to wealth and fame already sufficiently large; when William Faulkner was chosen in 1949, most of his novels had been long out of print in America.</p><span class="marker MOD2 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD3 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Prizes come so rarely, and often seem to be bestowed so capriciously, that few novelists build major hopes on them. They build even fewer hopes on <span id="ref504238"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/patronage-art" class="md-crosslink ">patronage</a>: Harriet Shaw Weaver, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/James-Joyce" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">James Joyce’s</a> patroness, was probably the last of a breed that, from Maecenas on, once intermittently flourished; state patronage—as represented, for instance, by the annual awards of the Arts Council of Great Britain—can provide little more than a temporary palliative for the novelist’s indigence. Novelists have more reasonable hopes from the world of the film or the stage, where <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="adaptations" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/adaptations" data-type="MW">adaptations</a> can be profitable and even salvatory. The long struggles of the British novelist <span id="ref1325798"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/T-H-White" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">T.H. White</a> came to an end when his Arthurian sequence <em><span id="ref504239"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Once-and-Future-King" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">The Once and Future King</a></em> (1958) was translated into a stage <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/musical" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">musical</a> called <em>Camelot</em>, though, by treating the lump sum paid to him as a single year’s income instead of a reward for decades of struggle, nearly all the windfall would have gone for taxes if White had not taken his money into low-tax exile. Such writers as <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Graham-Greene" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Graham Greene</a>, nearly all of whose novels have been filmed, must be tempted to regard mere book sales as an inconsiderable aspect of the rewards of creative writing. There are few novelists who have not received welcome and unexpected advances on film options, and sometimes the hope of film <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="adaptation" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/adaptation" data-type="MW">adaptation</a> has influenced the novelist’s style. In certain countries, such as Great Britain but not the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/United-States" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">United States</a>, television adaptation of published fiction is common, though it pays the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/author" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">author</a> less well than commercial cinema.</p><span class="marker MOD3 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD4 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">When a novelist becomes involved in film-script writing—either in the adaptation of his own work or that of others—the tendency is for him to become subtly corrupted by what seems to him an easier as well as more lucrative technique than that of the novel. Most novelists write <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/dialogue" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">dialogue</a> with ease, and their contribution to a film is mostly dialogue: the real problem in novel writing lies in the management of the <em>récit</em>. A number of potentially fine novelists, like <span id="ref504240"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Terry-Southern" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Terry Southern</a> and Frederic Raphael, have virtually abandoned the literary craft because of their continued success with <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/script-literature" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">script</a> writing. In 70-odd years the British novelist <span id="ref504241"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Richard-Arthur-Warren-Hughes" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Richard Hughes</a> produced only three novels, the excellence of which has been universally recognized; fiction lovers have been deprived of more because of the claims of the film world on Hughes’s talent. This kind of situation finds no counterpart in any other period of literary history, except perhaps in the Elizabethan, when the commercial lure of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/dramatic-literature" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">drama</a> made some good poets write poor plays.</p><span class="marker MOD4 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD5 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The majority of professional novelists must look primarily to book sales for their income, and they must look decreasingly to hardcover sales. The novel in its traditional format, firmly stitched and sturdily clothbound, is bought either by libraries or by readers who take fiction seriously enough to wish to <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="acquire" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/acquire" data-type="EB">acquire</a> a novel as soon as it appears: if they wait 12 months or so, they can buy the novel in <span id="ref504242"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/paperback-book" class="md-crosslink ">paper covers</a> for less than its original price. This edition of a novel has become, for the vast majority of fiction readers, the form in which they first meet it, and the novelist who does not achieve paperback publication is missing a vast potential audience. He may not repine at this, since the quantitative approach to literary <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/communication" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">communication</a> may safely be disregarded: the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/legend-literature" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">legend</a> on a paperback cover—FIVE MILLION COPIES SOLD—says nothing about the worth of the book within. Nevertheless, the advance he will receive from his hardcover publisher is geared to eventual paperback expectations, and the “package deal” has become the rule in negotiations between publisher and author’s agent. The agent, incidentally, has become important to both publisher and author to an extent that writers like <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Daniel-Defoe" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Daniel Defoe</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Samuel-Richardson" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Samuel Richardson</a> would, if resurrected, find hard to understand.</p><div class="module-spacing"> </div><span class="marker MOD5 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD6 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The novelist may reasonably expect to augment his income through the sale of foreign rights in his work, though the rewards <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="accruing" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/accruing" data-type="MW">accruing</a> from <span id="ref504243"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/translation-literature" class="md-crosslink ">translation</a> are always uncertain. The translator himself is usually a professional and demands a reasonable reward for his labors, more indeed than the original author may expect: the reputations of some translators are higher than those of some authors, and even the translators’ names may be better known. Moreover, the author who earns most from publication in his own language will usually earn most in translation, since it is the high initial home sales that attract foreign publishers to a book. The more “literary” a novel is, the more it <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="exploits" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/exploits" data-type="EB">exploits</a> the resources of the author’s own language, the less likely is it to achieve either popularity at home or publication abroad. Best-selling novels like <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mario-Puzo" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Mario Puzo’s</a> <em>Godfather</em> (1969) or <span id="ref1325797"></span>Arthur Hailey’s <em><span id="ref1325796"></span>Airport</em> (1968) are easy to read and easy to translate, so they win all around. It occasionally happens that an author is more popular abroad than he is at home: the best-selling novels of the Scottish physician-novelist <span id="ref504244"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/A-J-Cronin" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">A.J. Cronin</a> are no longer highly regarded in England and America, as they were in the 1930s and ’40s, but they continued to sell by the million in the U.S.S.R. several decades later. However, a novelist is wisest to expect most from his own country and to regard foreign popularity as an inexplicable bonus.</p><span class="marker MOD6 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD7 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">As though his financial problems were not enough, the novelist frequently has to encounter those dragons unleashed by public <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> or by the law. The struggles of Flaubert, Zola, and Joyce, denounced for attempting to advance the frontiers of literary <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="candor" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/candor" data-type="MW">candor</a>, are well known and still vicariously painful, but lesser novelists, working in a more permissive age, can record cognate agonies. Generally speaking, any novelist writing after the publication in the 1960s of <span id="ref504245"></span>Hubert Selby’s <em><span id="ref504246"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Last-Exit-to-Brooklyn" class="md-crosslink ">Last Exit to Brooklyn</a></em> or <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Gore-Vidal" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Gore Vidal’s</a> <em><span id="ref992622"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Myra-Breckinridge" class="md-crosslink ">Myra Breckinridge</a></em> can expect little objection, on the part of either publisher or police, to language or subject matter totally unacceptable, under the obscenity laws then operating, in 1922, when <em>Ulysses</em> was first published. This is certainly true of America, if not of Ireland or Malta. But many serious novelists fear an eventual reaction against literary permissiveness as a result of the exploitation by <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="cynical" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cynical" data-type="MW">cynical</a> obscenity mongers or hard-core pornographers of the existing liberal situation.</p><span class="marker MOD7 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD8 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">In some countries, particularly <span id="ref504248"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/English-law" class="md-crosslink ">Great Britain</a>, the law of <span id="ref504247"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/libel" class="md-crosslink ">libel</a> presents insuperable problems to novelists who, innocent of libellous intent, are nevertheless sometimes charged with defamation by persons who claim to be the models for characters in works of fiction. Disclaimers to the effect that “resemblances to real-life people are wholly coincidental” have no validity in law, which upholds the right of a plaintiff to base his charge on the corroboration of “reasonable people.” Many such libel cases are settled before they come to trial, and publishers will, for the sake of peace and in the interests of economy, make a cash payment to the plaintiff without considering the author’s side. They will also, and herein lies the serious blow to the author, <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="withdraw" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/withdraw" data-type="EB">withdraw</a> copies of the allegedly offensive book and pulp the balance of a whole edition. Novelists are seriously hampered in their endeavors to show, in a traditional spirit of artistic honesty, corruption in public life; they have to tread carefully even in depicting purely imaginary characters and situations, since the chance collocation of a name, a profession, and a locality may produce a libellous situation.</p><span class="marker MOD8 mod-inline"></span> </section> <span class="marker end-of-content"></span><span class="marker after-article"></span></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 type="text/javascript" id="_informizely_script_tag"> var IzWidget = IzWidget || {}; (function (d) { var scriptElement = d.createElement('script'); scriptElement.type = 'text/javascript'; scriptElement.async = true; scriptElement.src = "https://insitez.blob.core.windows.net/site/f780f33e-a610-4ac2-af81-3eb184037547.js"; var node = d.getElementById('_informizely_script_tag'); node.parentNode.insertBefore(scriptElement, node); } )(document); </script>  <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":13,"pagesTotal":14,"pageId":421071,"pageLength":1652,"initialLoad":true,"lastPageOfScroll":false} </script> <script class="marketing-content-info" type="application/json"> [] </script> <script src="https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-130/js/libs/jquery-3.5.0.min.js?v=3.130.14"></script> <script type="text/javascript" data-type="Init Mendel Code Splitting"> (function() { $.ajax({ dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: 'https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-130/dist/topic-page.js?v=3.130.14' }); })(); </script> <script class="analytics-metadata" type="application/json"> {"leg":"B","adLeg":"B","userType":"ANONYMOUS","pageType":"Topic","pageSubtype":null,"articleTemplateType":"PAGINATED","gisted":false,"pageNumber":13,"hasSummarizeButton":false,"hasAskButton":false} </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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