A Dictionary of Novel (Paperback - 2022)

Novel is arguably the most important genre of English literature. According to Jane Austen, the greatest powers of the mind are displayed in the novel. In fact, the whole body of literature is broadly categorised into (i) fiction—something that is invented or imagined and is not true—represented by novels, short stories, etc., and (ii) non-fiction—that describes facts of the world.

The world of novels is very vast, and encompasses memoir-novel, expostulatory novel, romance, science fiction, among other things. There are various aspects of novel, e.g. plot, character, theme, language, setting and technique, which the students of literature need to analyse.

A Dictionary of Novel provides the students with critical tools necessary to an understanding of fiction. It contains nearly one thousand terms (or entries) that frequently crop up in criticisms of, and discussions about, novels. It is rather inclusive as to the number of terms, both critical and non-critical, and both directly related to criticisms and discussions of the novel and tangentially so. The terms have been explained in simple, non-technical language, clearly and concisely, citing illustrative instances wherever necessary. More spaces have been given to more important, more relevant and more complex terms than those which are not so.

It is hoped that the Dictionary would be of considerable help to those who are interested in, or concerned with, the novel—students, teachers and scholars as well as all the other serious readers of novels.

Sunil Kumar Sarker, Ph.D. (English) and Ph.D. (Philosophy) is a well-known author, having written extensively on, among other subjects, English literature. Among his more than a dozen books on English literature are: T.S. Eliot (2nd impression), W.B. Yeats (2nd impression), Shakespeare’s Sonnets (3rd impression), Milton, S.T. Coleridge, A Companion to William Wordsworth (2 vols.), A Companion to E.M. Forster (3 vols.), and A Companion to Philip Larkin (2 vols.).