What is a novel?

It is a long work of narrative fiction normally in prose, and typically published as a book. The novel is also a type of prose; which is a long narrative that describes fictional characters and events in form of a story. A novel contains many characters, conflicts, themes, and sub–themes, making the plot much more complicated than other forms of shorter fictional prose. The language of novels is highly figurative and emotive because the writer’s interest must be sustained for a long time. Divisions in a novel are called chapters and the length of these will vary from novel to novel.

     Examples

– Weep Not Child by Ngugi wa Thiong’o

– African Child by Camara Laye

– A Man of the People by Chinua Achebe

– Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

– Mine Boy by Peter Abrahams

      Features of a novel

-The novel is a piece of fiction. It depicts imaginary characters and situations. It may, however, contain references to real events and people, but this is, in most cases, disguised. Therefore, it is important to note that though its characters and actions are imaginary, these characters and events bear a close resemblance to real life.

-The novel is written in prose form rather than verse. Even though some novels may contain some poetic elements, it is important to note that much of the novel remains in prose form. This means that as opposed to poetry, the novel is not structured in the form of stanzas. It has sentences that run on, one after the other to form paragraphs.

-The novel is a narrative. It comprises telling rather than acting the story out. This is the aspect that distinguishes it from drama.

-A novel comprises characters whose actions are woven in a plot. In fact, a novel comprises people who do things in a given context created by the author. The characters’ actions are arranged in a logical order of cause and effect. The author ensures the reader understands why or what causes characters behave to the way they do.

-The novel is of considerable length. This is because it focuses on an issue that it investigates in order to arrive at a way of interpreting it. Many critics agree that anything shorter than thirty pages can be classified as a short story. A story that is about thirty to one hundred pages is referred to as a novella, while anything above one hundred pages is a novel.