NOVEL AND ITS MAJOR FORMS

 A novel is a long prose fiction having a plot, number of characters, and the plot developing and coming to a logical conclusion through the characters’ interaction with one another.

 The following are the major forms of the Novel:

THE PROSE ROMANCES:  Prose Romances, like Verse Romances, are simply fantasies in which the authors make the fullest use of their imagination and fancy and create an ideal world which bears little or no resemblance with real life.

THE TRAVELOGUES: The travelogues are travel stories relating the adventures of the travellers and voyagers in unknown and un chartered seas. They often land on uninhabited islands or some islands inhabited by strange creatures. Thus they are typical adventure stories.

THE GOTHIC NOVELS: The Gothic Novels were written in the latter half of the 18^th century. The Gothic Novels are also called horror or terror novels. They have Gothic atmosphere marked with super natural horror, mystery and suspense.

THE PICARESQUE NOVELS: The Picaresque Novels have a wandering rogue for the hero. He is  a bad character who wanders from place to place and encounters many adversaries who are equally roguish. The novelist narrates these episodes one by one. The whole plot becomes episodic or disjointed.

THE EPISTOLARY NOVEL: The Epistolary Novel is a novel of which the plot develops through the medium of letters. The characters exchange their thoughts and views through letters. There is very little dialogue face to face.

THE DOMESTIC NOVEL:  The Domestic Novel presents the day to day domestic life of the middle –class families and their friends and relations. The festivals and festivities, functions and celebrations, birthdays and marriages are graphically described in them.

THE HISTORICAL NOVEL: The Historical Novel draws its theme from some important historical event. But around this historical event the novelist weaves some imaginative and artistic environment to make it an interesting and arresting theme for a novel.

THE REGIONAL NOVEL: The Regional Novel is a Novel which describes the social and family life, customs and manners, language and dress, occupations and professions of the people of a particular region. The entire novel is woven around these factors of the region.

THE PROPHETIC NOVEL: The Prophetic Novels try to forecast what the future would be like. They do not claim to be absolutely correct. They only give a tentative picture of the future on the basis of the tendencies prevailing in the present.

THE PSYCHOLOGICAL NOVEL: The psychological Novels are also known as the “”Stream of consciousness Novels.”” These novels probe into working of human psychology at the conscious, sub-conscious and unconscious levels. The plot is developed on these psychological levels.

THE SHORT STORY: A Short story is a novel in a miniature form. All the components parts which we find in a novel are found in the short story also, but they are found on a small scale in a compact form.