Novels

A Novel is generally a fictional story in which the situations and characters can be based on real life, or entirely fiction. The situations and characters are usually formed within the structure of a plot. Although novels have served as the instrument of instruction, of satire, of political argument, and of moral edification, the novels primary purpose has always been entertainment. It constitutes the third stage in the development of fiction, the epic, and the romance, being the first and second stages.

The tern "novel" appears to have been applied at the outset to any new story. In the 12Th and 13Th centuries it was common practice among the Provencal poets of France for a realistic tale of intrigue told in verse form. The term novella was made popular in Italy by Giovanni Boccaccio as the title of a short anecdotal narrative in prose. When these novels were translated into English the term "novels" itself passed into English Language. The earliest ascertained use of the word "novels" in English literature occurred in The Palace of Pleasure, a group of tales translated by William Painter from the novels of Giovanni Boccaccio and the Piedmontese writer Matteo Bandello and published in 1566. The Italian novella was then progressively expanded by English writers to the 18Th century. Despite this development, however, and the multiplication of incidents, novels remained essentially a formless rambling story, lacking the structure formed in a plot. The English author who wrote the first modern novel was Samuel Richardson. His novel Pamela (1740) was in epistolary or letter form, and recounts the trials and victory of a maidservant in preserving her virtue from the dishonorable advances of her employer.