Novel

Introduction & Top Questions
Origins of the modern novel
Elements
- Plot
- Character
- Scene, or setting
- Narrative method and point of view
- Scope, or dimension
- Myth, symbolism, significance
Uses
- Interpretation of life
- Entertainment or escape
- Propaganda
- Reportage
- Agent of change in language and thought
- Expression of the spirit of its age
- Creator of lifestyle and arbiter of taste
Style
- Romanticism
- Realism
- Naturalism
- Impressionism
- Expressionism
- Avant-gardism and the antinovel
- Magical realism
Types of novel
- Historical
- Picaresque
- Sentimental
- Gothic
- Psychological
- The novel of manners
- Epistolary
- Pastoral
- Apprenticeship
- Roman à clef
- Antinovel
- Cult novels
- Detective, mystery, thriller
- Western
- The bestseller
- Fantasy and prophecy
- Proletarian
- Other types
Evaluation and study
The future of the novel

References & Edit History Related Topics

Images, Videos & Interactives

Open book with Regency-era illustration of Jane Austen holding a book; large script “J. Austen” across; background of handwritten text.

Explore Essential Elements of the Novel with Clifton Fadiman and Actors

A Guide to the Characters of Jane Austen

Interactive map of the locations of Jane Austen's novels

Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby raises a champagne glass, with 'The Great Gatsby' book cover superimposed and an arrow pointing to it.

Title page of Voltaire's Candide, ou l'Optimisme, printed in 1759, with French text, a floral ornament, and handwritten notes at the bottom.

At a Glance

novel summary

Quizzes

Portrait of young thinking bearded man student with stack of books on the table before bookshelves in the library

Famous Novels, First Lines Quiz

Young woman with glasses reading a book, student

Famous Novels, Last Lines Quiz

Textbook chalkboard and apple. Fruit of knowledge. Hompepage blog 2009, History and Society, school education students

The Literary World (Famous Novels)

Row of colorful books on a bookshelf. Stack of books, pile of books, literature, reading. Homepage 2010, arts and entertainment, history and society

The Literary World

Nobel prize-winning American author, Pearl S. Buck, at her home, Green Hills Farm, near Perkasie, Pennsylvania, 1962. (Pearl Buck)

Novels and Novelists Quiz

Related Questions

How did Alessandro Manzoni’s The Betrothed contribute to modern Italian prose?
How did Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Julie change European ideas about love?
How did Jean-Paul Sartre’s Nausea express existentialist ideas through fiction?
How did Naguib Mahfouz help bring the Arabic novel to maturity?
How did Samuel Richardson, Laurence Sterne, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau influence Romanticism through fiction?
How did Sir Walter Scott’s novels encourage regional sentiment?
How did magical realism introduce new narrative styles to the novel?
How did the historical novel combine imagined characters with real events?
How do David Copperfield and Great Expectations fit the bildungsroman tradition?
How do Henry James’s novels make inner thoughts central to the story?
How do characters shape the events of a novel?
How do plot and story drive a novel forward?
How does Crime and Punishment examine the mind of its murderer?
How does Gustave Flaubert explore Emma Bovary’s thoughts and desires in Madame Bovary?
How does Leo Tolstoy explore psychology in Anna Karenina?
How does a Gothic novel create suspense and fear?
How does a novel differ from a book?
How does a novel differ from a novella?
How does a novel differ from a short story?
How does a novel differ from fiction in general?
How does a novel of manners portray social customs and expectations?
How does a psychological novel differ from an action-driven novel?
How does a psychological novel explore a character’s mind and motives?
How does an epistolary novel tell a story through letters?
How does metafiction challenge traditional storytelling in novels?
How does narrative point of view influence a novel?
How does the picaresque novel use a rogue and a series of adventures?
How is a bildungsroman structured around a character’s growth?
What do the terms “Big Brother” and “doublethink” mean in Nineteen Eighty-four?
Which elements are typically included in a novel?
Which major novelists wrote during the 19th century?
Which novels are famous examples of the novel of manners?
Why do novels usually focus on human experience?
Why is Apuleius’s The Golden Ass considered an important early work of prose fiction?
Why is Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron important to the history of the novel?
Why is Goethe’s Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship important to the bildungsroman?
Why is Madame de La Fayette’s The Princess of Cleves important to the psychological novel?
Why is Miguel de Cervantes’s Don Quixote important in the development of the modern novel?
Why is Murasaki Shikibu’s The Tale of Genji often considered the world’s first novel?
Why is the 19th century often called the golden age of the novel?
What is a novel?
What is the difference between a novel and a book?
What is the difference between a novel and fiction?
Do adults read children’s literature?
What is a novel of manners?
Which novel marked a landmark in the development of the novel of manners?
Who won the 2026 Booker Prize, and why was it significant?
Who won the 2026 International Booker Prize?
What is the Booker Prize?
What is the International Booker Prize?

Literature Novels & Short Stories

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External Websites

University of Babylon - Novel (PDF)
Humanities LibreTexts - Chapters - Novel
Gresham College - The Mysteries of Writing: Novels and Poetry - An introduction by professor Belinda Jack

Britannica Websites

Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.

novel - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)
novel - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

Novel

literature

Written by

Anthony Burgess

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 A Clockwork...

Anthony Burgess

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Britannica Editors

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....

Britannica Editors

Last updated

Oct. 30, 2026 •History

A novel is an invented prose narrative of considerable length and a certain complexity that deals imaginatively with human experience, usually through a connected sequence of events involving a group of characters in a specific setting. Within its broad framework, the genre of the novel has encompassed an extensive range of types and styles: picaresque, epistolary, Gothic, romantic, fantastic, historical—to name only some of the more influential ones. (Read Britannica’s biography of this author, Anthony...

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