I.A. Richard’s figurative language in some selected poems

Name: Dipti D Vaghela

              (diptivaghela50@gmail.com)

Roll no: 07

Enrolment no: PG14101030

Topic: I.A. Richard’s figurative language in some selected poems

Paper no: 7

Name of the Paper: Criticism

Dedicated to: English Department M.K.B. University

~ Preface

        I.A. Richards (Ivor Armstrong) is a critic belonged to modern age. He born in 1893 and he was educated at Cambridge. He was a professor of English Literature. So he started his career as teacher and critic. His first work written in collaboration with C.K.Ogdon, was published in 1922. This was followed by The Meaning of Meaning also written in collaboration. One of his major work is The Principle of Literary Criticism in 1924. It was followed by his The Practical Criticism; it shows him as an unrivalled advocate who practice practical criticism. Some of his other works are Science and Poetry, Coleridge on Imagination, Mencius of the Mind, The Philosophy of Rhetoric and The Speculative Instruments. He set three aims before him constructing the book as under,

     1) To introduce a new kind of documentation to those who are interested in the contemporary state of culture whether as critic, philosopher, as teacher, as psycholojist or curious persons.

    2) To provide a new technique for those who wish to discover for themselves what they think and feel about poetry, and why they should like or dislike.

   3) To prepare the way for educational methods more efficient than those we use now in developing discrimination and power to understand what we hear and read.

~ What is figurative language by I.A. Richardson?

® The importance of words

        He reveals his great interest in textual and verbal analysis in his books Practical Criticism and The Meaning of Meaning. If we ask that how Language made?

So if we want to understand any literary work so first try to understand Language, we must understand words. And after understanding words we can easily understand any works. Words carry four kinds of meaning or the total meaning of a word depends upon four factors as under,

By sense is related with mind or plain literal meaning of the words. Feelings refers to emotions, emotional attitudes, will, desire, pleasure, unpleasure and the rest. Words express ‘these feelings, these nuances of interest’. By tone is meant the writer’s attitude to his readers. There is a relation between the writers and his readers. Intention has an object; it is the writer’s aim which may be conscious or unconscious. The purpose modifies the expression.

® Significance of Context

        Words have different meaning in different contexts. Words are symbols or signs for example if anyone say that elephant, so first the picture of elephant comes in our mind not the spelling of elephant. Without context there is no meaning in words for example the word ‘sweet’ we use for person or food as under,

-        How sweet of you.

-        This sweets for my brother

Thus we can say that meaning is dependent on context but the context may not always be apparent and easily perceptible. For example ‘Mountain and squirrel has a quarrel’.

® Rhythm and Meter: Their Significance

        Rhythm and meter also give meaning of the words. Meter is a specialized form of rhythm. Rhythm made poem more regular and well-formed pattern. Richards remarks that ‘Rhythm and its specialized form, meter, depend upon repetition and expectancy. Equally where what is expected recurs and where it fails, all rhythmical and metrical effects spring from anticipation. As a rule, this anticipation is unconscious. Sequence of syllables both as sound and as images of speech movements leave the mind read for certain further sequences rather than others. Our momentary organization is adapted to one range of possible stimuli rather than to another. Just as the eye reading print unconsciously expects the spelling to be as usual, and the fount of type to remain the same, so the mind after reading a line or two of verse or half a sentence of prose, prepares itself ahead for any one of a number of possible sequences at the same time negatively incapacitating itself for others.’

        It means over all we can say that over-literal reading can never convey the total meaning of a poem.

~ The Nature of Poetic Truth

        If we want to understand the poetic meaning so successive reading is most important. Poetic truth is different than scientific truth for example,

        Scientific truth: Mountain and squirrel can’t talk.

        Poetic truth: The mountain and the squirrel had a

                               Quarrel.

        After this example we can understand that what is Poetic truth? It is matter of emotional belief rather than intellectual belief. It is emotional reaction not versification.

~ Metaphors

        In poetry metaphors are so important. ‘A metaphor is a shift, a carrying over of a word from its normal use to a new use.’ There are two kinds of metaphor as under,

1) Sense metaphor

2) Emotive metaphor

In a sense metaphor the shift is due to a similarity between the original object and the new one. While in emotive metaphor the shift is due to a similarity between the “feelings, the new situation and the normal situation aroused.”The same word in different context may be a sense metaphor and an emotive metaphor. A metaphor is a point which arouses a different meaning of the line. So metaphor is also a key to unlock the poem.

~ Applying I.A. Richards figurative language in different poems

        Here one poem written by Ralph W. Emerson, title of the poem is ‘The Mountain and the Squirrel’.

The Mountain and the Squirrel

The mountain and the squirrel                                                     

Had a quarrel;

And the former called the latter “Little Prig”.

Bun replied,

“You are doubtless very big;

But all sorts of things and weather

Must be taken in together,

To make up a year

And a sphere.

 

“And I think it no disgrace

To occupy my place.

If I’m not so large as you,

You are not so small as I,

And not half so spry.

 

“I’ll not deny you make

A very pretty squirrel track;

Talents differ; all is well and wisely put;

If I cannot carry forests on my back,

Neither can you crack a nut.”

        Over literal meaning of the poem is that mountain and squirrel can’t speak so how can they quarrel? But here in this context the meaning is different. Over all meaning of the poem is that everyone has their own quality. As same in this poem also that mountain has its own and squirrel has its own qualities. As like sword and needle. So we can say that here poet use mountain and squirrel as metaphor.

        One other poem related with friendship as under,     

New friends and old friends

Make new friends, but keep the old;

Those are silver, these are gold.

New- made friendships, like new wine,

Age will mellow and refine.

Friendships that have stood the test-

Time and change-are surely best;

Brow may wrinkle, hair grow grey,

Friendship never knows decay.

 

For ‘mid old friends, tried and true,

Once more our youth we renew.

But old friends, alas! Maydie,

New friends must their place supply.

 

Cherish friendship in your breast-

New is gold, but old is best;

Make new friends, but keep the old;

Those are silver, these are gold.

 

        It is written by Joseph Parry in 1841. In this poem we can see that comparison between old and new. He say new is silver old is gold, it not mean that new friends’ body is silver and old friends’ body is gold. He use simile in this poem that he compare new friends with silver and old friends with gold. New friendship is like a vine. Then he also compares friendship with hair. Hair will be grey but friendship never decays. So he tries to say that friendship is the best than hair, brow, etc. To understand this poem verbal analysis is important and also to analyses metaphors. So I.A. Richards give the theory of figurative language. Without these metaphors and simile poem is like prose that’s why it is important.

        Other one is as under, written by Joyce Kilmer in 1886.

Trees

I think that I shall never see

A poem lovely as a tree.

 

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest

Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;

 

A tree that looks at God all day,                            

And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

 

A tree that may in summer wear

A nest of robins in her hair;

 

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;

Who intimately lives with rain.

 

Poems are made by fools like me,

But only God can make a tree.

                Over literal reading we say that,

-        Tree has no mouth

-        Tree has no eyes so how can that looks at God

-        Tree has no hair

But here meaning is differ, he want to say that God made tree while poem made by man. So tree is better than poem. And perhaps he is great than god by saying himself as fool. It is poem so he can’t say directly and that’s why he uses different words with tree. He uses mouth, eyes, hair as symbols. So here this is poetic truth not scientific truth,because truth is different with different context.  

                Here is forth poem about the mother which is written by Elizabeth A. Allen as under,

My Mother’s Garden

Her heart is like her garden,

Old fashioned, quaint and sweet,

With here a wealth of blossom,

And there a still retreat.

Sweet violets are hiding,

We know as we pass by,

And lilies, pure as angel thoughts,

Are opening somewhere high.

 

Forget-me-nots there linger,

To full perfection brought,

And there bloom purple pansies

In many a tender thought.

There love’s own roses blossom,

As from enchanted ground,

And lavish perfume exquisite

The whole glad year around.

 

And in that quite garden-

The garden of her heart-

Song birds are always singing

Their songs of cheer apart.

And from it floats for ever,

O’ercoming sin and strife,

Sweet as the breath of roses blown,

The fragrance of her life.

                Title is that my mother’s garden. It does not mean that his/her mother has garden of flowers, trees, etc. But as in first line his/her mother’s heart is like her garden it means that poet uses garden as simile. In last two lines also, poet compare fragrance of mother’s life with breath of roses. So once again poet uses simile. In this poem, poet tries to convey the importance of mother. And that’s why poet compare mother with garden. Through those symbols poet write poem about great figure on the earth ‘mother’.

        Now let’s understand some Gujarati poem after understanding English poems.

        Here Gujarati poem related with mother as under,

JananiniJodsakhinahi jade re lol

Mithamadhunemithamehula re lol,

Ethimithitemori mat re,

Jananinijodsakhinai jade re lol.

 

Prabhuna e premtaniputadi re lol,

Jag thijuderieni re,

Jananinijod…

 

Aminibharelieniankhadi re lol,

Vahalnabharelaenaven re,

Jananinijod…

 

Hath guthelenaheerna re lol,

Haiyuhemantkerihel re,

Jananinijod…

 

Devo ne dudh ena dohyala re lol,

Shashi e sinchel eni sody re,

Jananinijod…

 

Jaganoadhar eni angadi re lol,

Kadaja ma kaikbharyakod re,

Jananinijod…

 

Chittdu chadel enu chakde re lol,

Parne bandhel ena pran re,

Jananinijod…

 

Mungi ashish ure malakti re lol,

Leta khute na eni lahan re,

Jananinijod…

 

Dharatimata e hashe dhrujati re lol,

Achada achuk ek may re,

Jananinijod…

 

Ganga na nir to vadheghate re lol,

Madi no megh bare mas re,

Jananinijod…

 

Chalati chanda ni dise chandani re lol,

Ano nahi athame ujas re,

Jananinijad…

In this poem we can see that praise of mother. Poet compare mother with madh and mehula, and he says that our mother is more sweater than other. Her heart is like ‘hemant’. Here poet use simile in this line. Then once again poet compares love of mother with the river Ganga. And he says that love of mother is better than holly river. And ‘madi no megh’ it means not that our mother’s water but her love is like rain forever. Then in last line that ‘eno nahi athame ujas’ it not mean that she gives us sunlight but it mean that sun of her love never set.

        So we can say that over all meaning of the poem is about the love of mother. In Guajarati there is one proverb ‘ma te ma, bija badha vagadana va’.

Here one other Gujarati poem written by Shantilal Shah as under,

Ek j dal na Pankhi

Ek j dal na pankhi,

Ame sahu ek j dal na pankhi.

 

Viharie kadi abha ma unche,

Udi udi kadi avie niche;

Killol karata raheta umangi…ek j dal na pankhi.

 

Sukh ma ne dukh ma sathe j rahi e,

Ladie vadhie kadi, judae thaie;

Toy nirantar raheta sampi…ek j dal na pankhi.

 

Dharati ne khole bal ame sahu,

Karie kudarat gan amesahu;

Jivan kera pravasna sangi…ek j dal na pankhi.

        In general meaning of the poem,

-        Poem is about bird

-        They live with each other

-        They are tourists of life, etc.

But in deep meaning we can see that poet use metaphor from Nature that is ‘bird’. But he tries to talk about human beings. How they live? They are partner of life. They fight among each other but they can’t live without each other. One famous Guajarati proverb ‘bhega vasan kyarek khakhade pan khara’.

        One other hyme written by Suresh Gandhi about ‘Radha’.

Radha Chali

Radha chali pagala joti joti,

Jya jya hari pagalane joya fulada melya goti;

Palavade pad renubandhi, harakhati man mhoti…Radha

 

Koi puche to kahetikhoyu kanth har nu moti,

Champak varnichaturachalidivadolainejoti…Radha

 

Ang ang umang na maye ghadi ubhe sharamati;

Kya e venu! kya e kanudo! Bhini ankhadi lhoti…Radha

 

Here poet wrote about Radha’s feeling. In second line it not means that she keep flower with her and when she saw the footprint of Krishna, she put on that. And then in second stanza that it not mean that she lost pule no but she lost company of Krishna that’s why she sad. And that picture poet try to convince here.

~ Conclusion

        Thus we can say that I.A. Richards gives us wonderful theory. And because of this theory we can easily understand any poem through observing words. That’s why we can say that words are so much important to understand metaphors, simile, poetic truth, etc.

        After understanding of all above poems, we understand that what the importances of metaphors, simile, etc are. Without all these things poem is like ‘widow’. And so if we understand to any poem so first understand all these things which are laying in poetry. So this is the theory of I.A. Richards. 

 

 

Comparative study of Tennyson and Browning

Name: Dipti Vaghela

              (diptivaghela50@gmail.com)

Roll no: 07

Enrolment no: PG14101030

Topic: Comparative study of Tennyson and     Browning

Paper no: 06

Name of the paper: The Victorian Literature

Dedicated to: Department of English M.K.B. University

Preface:

          There are number of age in the history of England from Chaucer to Current time, such as Elizabethan age, Puritan age, Victorian age, etc. If we talk about the Victorian time so we can say that it covers the period from 1832 to 1887.  Queen Victoria reign during the time of 1837 to 1887. Hudson writes, “Victoria ascended the throne in 1837, and it was during the decade between 1830 and 1840 that many of the writers who were to add special distinction to her reign began their work. But though her own life extended till 1901, we may conveniently take the year of her jubilee 1887 as marking the close of an epoch. By that time a fresh race in literature had arisen, while those of the former generation who still survived had nothing of importance to add to their production, and indeed, like Tennyson’s Bedivere, found themselves ‘among new men, strange faces, other minds.” It was an era of material things, Political consciousness, democratic reform, industrial and mechanical progress, scientific, etc. The form is more important than materials. In this age we can find advancement in industry. In this era number of novels published like Oliver Twist, Sense and Sensibility, Middlemarch, Vivian Grey, Poetry also popular in that era. There are some splendid poets such as Tennyson, Robert Browning, Matthew Arnold, etc. So first let’s know in detail about Tennyson and Browning.

●Tennyson

          Alfred Tennyson was born on 6^th August, 1809, at Somersby Rectory. He was fourth child of his parents, there being four brothers and four sisters. His father name is George Clayton who was a scholarly clergyman. His two brothers were poets of repute. His education started when he was seven years old, he was sent to the neighboring Grammar School at Louth. But after four years he returned at home because of unsatisfactory. We can see his first effort in a little volume called Poems by Two Brothers in 1827 when he was sixteen years old. The next year he entered in Trinity College, Cambridge. In that college he becomes the centre of a brilliant circle of friends. At the University he soon became known for his poetical ability. In 1829 he won the Chancellor’s English medal with his poem Timbuctoo. In 1831 he left Cambridge without taking his degree. His father had just died but the family still lived on at Somersby. The name of his first volume is poem. He wrote In Memoriam for his died friend Hallam. His other volumes are English Idylls and other Poems, Ulysses, MorteD’Arthur, The Princess, The Lady of Shallot, The Lotos Eaters etc.

●Browning

          Robert Browning born on 7^th may, 1812 at Cornwall. He was the son of a clerk in the bank of England. His mother was a ‘divine woman’ of mixed German and Scottish and Scottish descent. From whom he inherited his musical and artistic tastes. He did not attend any regular school but mostly continued his education at home. He picked up the rudiments of painting and Greek poetry. He had many skills like ride, fence, box and dance. He entered Guy’s Hospital for his medical Profession. But this was not appropriate for him so he left it soon. And finally he decided that his long cherished idea of becoming a poet. He wrote small volume of verse at the age of twelve but failing to find a publisher. In disgust he threw it in fire. 

          But after some time he published his first work Pauline, he went to Russia in 1834. In Russia he met French, who formed the subject of his next poem, Paracelsus. Then his parents moved from Camberwell to Hatcham and so he made many new friends, including John Foster, whom afterwards assisted to complete his Life of Strafford. He also visited Italy in1838 and the spell of Venice. Then he returns from Italy he read the poems of Elizabeth Barret with interest. And friendship with her then it converts in love. So they decided to marry but father of Elizabeth refuse to permit them. That why they decided to marry without the permission of parents. On 12^th September 1846 they married and lived in Italy for many years with happiness. They get a son in 1849 with joy and during that time Browning’s mother died so poet returned to England. In England he published much of his poetry but few people appreciated his works. In 1860 health of Mrs. Browning began to fail, died in the following years. Browning returned to London with his son and his only sisters came to live with him in his distress. Browning took deep interest in the education of his son. Tennyson once remarked ‘Browning will die in the white tie.’ Then his son had married and settled there as an artist. Once Browning went to pay a visit to his son in November.  Then he passed away and he was buried in the poet’s corner in Westminster Abbey. His earliest work in poetry is Pauline, Paracelsus, Sordello, Dramatic Lyrics, etc.

J Comparison of Tennyson and Robert Browning

          ~ Works of Tennyson

          # Poems by two Brothers

          # The Lotos Eaters

          # The Lady of Shallot

          # O Enone

          # Poems Chiefly Lyrical

          # Ulysses

          # Locksley Hall

          # The Princess a Medley

          # In Memoriam

J Works of Browning

          # Pauline

          # Paracelsus

          # Sordello

          # Dramatic Lyrics

          # Dramatic Personae

          # The Ring and the Book

● Comparison of Tennyson and Browning in his writing

          

          So here we can see points related with Tennyson. Let’s know some points related with Browning.

~ Themes of Tennyson’s Poetry

-         Divided self

-         The historical past-         The mythological past

-         Faith

-         Science and religion

-         Nature selection

-         Typical Victorian

~ Themes of Browning’s Poetry

-         Love

-         Philosophy of life

-         God

So let’s know the poems related with these themes in details.

~ Poems of Tennyson

He suggests all the qualities of England’s greatest poets. The dreaminess of Spenser, the majesty of Milton, the natural simplicity of Wordsworth, the fantasy of Black and Coleridge, the melody of Keats and Shelley, the narrative vigour of Scott and Byron, are evident on the successive pages of Tennyson’s poetry. In his poetry we can see the reflaction of Victorian age like, The English Idylls

          It is the land that free men till,

          That sober-suited freedom chose,

          The land where girt with friends and foes.

          A man may speak the thing he will,

          A land of settled government,

          A land of just and old renown.

His attitude with woman is also a true Victorian. And that thing also we can see in his poem as under,

          Man for the field and woman for the hearth,

          Man for the sword and for the needle she,

          Man to command and woman to obey,

          All else confusion.

He is wrote love poem also. He idealizes married life. It is well exemplified in The Miller’s Daughter. He presents higher sense of love in this poem. He concentrates on spiritual as opposed to physical love.

          Arise and fly

          The reeling faun, the sensual feast,

          Move upward, working out the beast,

          And let the ape and tiger die.

He challenged the materialism of Victorian age and asserted the eternal variety of God,

          There remains more faith in honest doubt

          Believe me than in half the creeds.

He advise the people of his age to faith beyond all forms of faith, to trust in large hope as under,

          One far-off divine event

          To which the whole creation moves.

His other poem regarding the suprime God,

          God is law, say the wise: O soul, and let us rejoice

          For if He thunder by law the thunder is yet his voice.

In every objects of Nature he sees the vision of God like in the sun, moon, stars, etc. Here we can see lines of his poem,

          The sun, the moon, the stars, the hills and the plains

          Are not those a Soul! the vision of Him who reigns.

Tennyson arrives at the truth of religion because the theories of science in Maud and Locksley Hall and he declares in his poem In Memoriam,

          Oh yet we trust that some how good

          Will be the final goal of ill.

And he conclude his entire creation with lines as under,

          That nothing walks with aimless feet

          That not one life shall be destroyed.

Thus we can see variety of themes in his poems. His views regarding many things we can see in his poems like love, God, life, etc. He presents all the essential features of Victorian life in his poems. So after understanding his poems all above us understand easily about him. So now let’s know poems of Robert Browning.

~ Poems of Robert Browning

He wrote poems without form. He is also difficult poet to understand. Browning began his poetic career under the inspiring example of P.B. Shelley, the sun-trader. His first work in poetry is Pauline. It was published when he was twenty years old. It is autobiographical in tone like Wordsworth’s The Prelude. He was artist and thinker, is veiled in embryo. His next important work in poetry was Paracelsus. It is the study of Paracelsus. A famous chemist of the Renaissance times, half mystic, half charlatan…

          Determined to be

          The greatest and most glorious man on earth.

In 1840 he produced Sordello representing the life of Italian poet. The poem is rich in illusion and historical references. Then in 1842 he produced Dramatic Lyrics followed by dramatic Romances and Lyrics.  In these lyrics we can see more artistic pleasure. Among these lyrics some significant are Evelyn Hope, In a Gondola, Porphyria’s Lover, Meeting a night, parting at morning, etc.

          In dramatic Romances and Lyrics the majority of the poems are narrative or monologues. Like My last Duchess, The Italian in England, The last ride together, Holy Cross Day, etc.

          He wrote one poem about man and woman. It dedicated to Elizabeth Barret.

          These they are my fifty men and women

          Naming we the fifty poems finished!

          Take them, Love, the book and me together

          Where the heart lies let the brain lie also.

          The study of human character in this volume is deep and profound. In Dramatic Personae, he carried his study of human beings. He produced a number of dramatic monologues such as Caliban upon Setebos, Bishop Blougram’s Apology, AbtVogler, Rabbi Ben Ezra and A Death in the Desert. These all are intellectual and philosophical in character.

          He also wrote love poems. His love poetry is intensely realistic in character. A man loves a woman not for her spiritual qualities, but for her physical charm and passion. And that is the real thing in his poetry. His love poems also devided into two parts, successful love poems and unsuccessful love poems. The lover in Last Ride Together is optimistic and the poem ends on a note of hope:

          What if we still ride on, we two

          With life for old yet new,

          Changed not in kind but in degree,

          The instant made eternity,

          And Heaven just prove that I and she

          Ride, ride, together, for every ride?

          Browning lays emphasis on married love and like Donne he is the chosen poet of wedded love. He employs the dramatic method I the presentation of his love poems. Most of his love poems are in the form of dramatic monologues. His art as a pet of love suffers limitations to that extent, but the underlying inspiration is the greater. He took God as the creator and governor of the universe. He considered God as an all pervading Deity. Pauline’s lover says “I saw God everywhere- I felt presence.” His personal faith about God,

          Thus He dwells in all

          From Life’s minute beginnings, at last to man.

                             And

          God is seen God

          In the star, in the stone, in the flesh, in the soul and the cloud.

          He nit convinces God as cruel, bad, etc. He believe God as sympathetic power helping men in their endavoursiff they reposed faith in Him and His mercy:

          God made all the creatures and gave them

          Our love and our fear

          We and they are His children

          One family here.

          He said that God is potter and soul is clay. Both of them endure forever. This faith we can see in Robbi Ben Ezra,

          Fool! All that is at all

          Last ever, past recall;

          Earth changes, but thy soul and God stand sure

          Time’s wheel runs back or stops; Potter and clay endure.

          He believed that aim of life was acquire power but soon he realized that mere love for power was not good. Love allied with knowledge and power ought to be the main quest of human being.

          “Love preceding power,

          And with much power, always much more love.”

          “O world, as God had made it, all is beauty

          And knowing this is Love, and Love is duty.

          Thus we can see number of themes in his poetry which we can understand easily after these all examples. So about these examples we conclude that he was unique personality.

~ Conclusion

          So let’s we separated his quality here and conclude this point as under,

   Tennyson                                       Browning                                                                 

-         Think about God and science.       - Think about God as great one

-         Wrote love poems                          - Wrote both type successful    

Love and unsuccessful love

Thus we can say both the writers are performed so important role in the history of England, especially in Literature. Both have their own quality which we can see in their literary works.

~ Reference books

-         History Book by Mundra

-         Internet

The form of novel and its Kind

Name: Dipti Vaghela

            (diptivaghela50@gmail.com)

Roll no: 07

Enrolment no: PG14101030 

Topic: The form of novel and its Kind

Paper no: 5

Name of the paper: The Romantic Literature

Dedicated to: English Department M.K.B.University

◊ Preface

          We get pleasure and moral from literature. ‘Literature is the mirror of society’. It reflect the picture of real life and from the reading of that literature we understand that how to live life? And as we know that there are different type of literature like drama, lyric, ballad, ode, novel, etc. Novel is a long narrative form of prose. It is also an interesting form of literature. It describes fictional characters and events, usually in the form of a sequential story.  It deals imaginatively with human experience, and events involving a group of persons in a specific setting. So let’s know more things about it.

◊ Origin of the Novel

          The term ‘novel’ means Novellus in Latin abbreviation of noun, new in Italian ‘novella’, new things. It was first used for such tales as those of Boccaccio (1313-75) in his Decameron.  In England the novel came to be established in the eighteenth century with the publication of the Samuel Richardson’s Pamela (1740). It is written in the epistolary form. The exotic and the adventurous continued to be popular in the novel side by side with the development of realism.  The novel had reached its fullest development as an art form in the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries. Novelists like Flaubert, Henry James, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, E.M. Foster and Thomas Mann. In their concern for their craft they have made use of various devices to achieve new aesthetic form. Thomas Nash wrote the first English novel is The Unfortunate Traveller, The life of Jack Wilton.

          Meaning of the word novel as under,

          The novel does not simply convey life but it says something about life. It reveals some kind of pattern in life and also it brings significance. It is craft of contriving through the written words. It is representation of human life it instructs or diverts or both.

          There are types of poem like lyric, ode, epic, etc. Types of drama like tragedy, comedy, tragicomedy, etc. As same the form of novel also has its own types so let’s understand its one by one.

◊ Types of Novel

          Let’s understand it in detail,

₀ Epistolary Novel: Epistolary novel written in the form of letters. These were popular in the English and French. Epistolary word derived from the word of epistle. It created by combined letters. So we can say that story moves through letters. It means the letters become the medium of narrate. There are some examples of this type. Like Samuel Richardson’s Pamela and Clarissa Harlow. There is some example of Gujarati novel like Morpicha written by Vinod Joshi.

₀ Gothic Novel: It was the style of architecture common in Western Europe during the 12^th and 16^th centuries. It is a type of romance or fiction which was popular in the late 18^th and 19^th centuries. It was inaugurated by Horace Walpole’s Castle of Otranto in 1764 a gothic story.  It was written in imitation of medieval Romances. The setting of these novels was in mediaeval. And often the use of gloomy castle full of dangerous and underground passage, dark battlements and hidden panels. Also they had plots involving ghosts, madness, outrage, super station and revenge. It showed the way to the exploitation of terror by greater story. Some other examples of this type like The Mysteries of Udolpho and the Italian by Ann Radcliffe in 1794 and 1797. Matthew Gregory Lewis’s The Monk in 1796. It had more horrific elements into the English gothic, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, etc.

₀ The Picaresque Novel: The word ‘Picaresque’ has been derived from the Spanish word ‘Picaro’ which means rogue, thief, and knave. It is the tale of the adventures or misadventures of a picaro or rogue who wanders from one country to another. And in this way the novelist gets an introducing variety of characters and incidents.

          It was applied to any long story in which a number of separate events, sometime comic, violent, or joined together. In play has traditionally been called main character as hero; but in a picaresque story this word is not altogether suitable because the hero is generally a rogue.  Lately the phrase ánti hero’ has come in use. In this novel picture may be satiric but the aim of the novelist is to delight and entertain and not to reform or improve. It is like the movie ‘Rascals’. Thus this novel is the tale of a hard worked travelling hero, suffering every vicissitude good or bad and enduring them all. Examples of some writers who wrote in picaresque tradition like life of Jack Wilton by Thomas Nash. It is the first picaresque novel. It relates the adventures of Jack Wilton, who travels through France, Germany, Flanders and Italy. Richard Hood’s The English Rogue is also in the Picaresque tradition. Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe but it cannot be called a picaresque novel. Smollett wrote Roderick Random in the form of picaresque novel, Tom Jones also in the form of picaresque by Fielding. It is the story of illegitimate child with no parents to look after him.

₀ The Panoramic Novel: This kind of novel presents contemporary life, dress, society, habits and manners. In this kind of novel, the novelist ranges over a wide ground and provides a comprehensive picture of that time. It present a good length which weaves many events and make a whole picture of life as same as the epic and it is as long as the epic. That’s why it is also called Epical novel. This kind of novel has an immense variety of characters incidents. It means this type of novels emerges the back ground of that society. Henry fielding is the father of the English novel and founder/creator of the panoramic or epical novel. Thackeray wrote Vanity Fair is also epical novel and as the Fielding’s Tom Jones make a comprehensive. Richardson’s Clarissa has more than a million words. It is four times as long as David Copperfield and at least twice as long as War and Peace.

₀ The Historical Novel:  Another kind of the novel is the historical novel. It presents a good combination of bad history and bad fiction because it departs from fiction and deviates from facts. A perfect historical novel is not possible but good historical novels there are in plenty. If history and fiction are correctly understood and made use of, it is possible to write a good historical novel.

          The historical novelist takes certain events and characters from history and weaves around them a fictitious enchantment. He described the spirit and atmosphere of history as same in the serials like Jodha Akbar, MaharanaPratap,Mahabharata. Etc. He reconstructs imaginatively the life of the past. He creates his arts with the support of history. It is not the story of fact incidents but story of imagination related with history. And that we called a historical novel. It makes the historical events and issues crucial for the central characters and for the course of narrative. Some of the greatest historical novels also use the protagonists and actions to reveal what the author regards as the deep forces that impel the historical process. Sir Walter Scott is the creator of the historical novel. He mixed into a unity fact, fancy, history and romance. He fact of history and changes the sequence of events in the interest of his art. His work Ivanhoe (1819) is the historical novel. Dickens A tale of two Cities (1859), George Eliot’s Romola (1863), Bulwer Lytton’s novels such as Rienzi and The Last Days of Pompeii, historical fiction attains maturity. Thackeray wrote ‘Henry Esmond’ takes the historical novel a stage further. W.H. Ainsworth wrote some forty historical novels of which the best known are Road wood, Jack Shephard, The tower of London, Old St Paul’s and The Lancashire Witches. Charles Reade is another great historical novelist. His masterpiece, The Cloister and The Hearth is a historical romance. Charles Kingsley is also great historical novelist of the Victorian era. His most important work is Westward Ho, published in 1855. Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the wind in 1936, in Georgia during the Civil war Reconstruction. So this is the historical novel and now we know in detail about the Regional novel.

ᴼ The Regional Novel: The regional novel is the novel which depicts the physical feature, life, customs, manners, history, etc, of some particular region or locality. As same in some serials like ‘BalikaVadhu’ Rajasthan is the region in this serial. It reflects the culture of that particular place. In this kind of novel a novelist emphasize the unique fetchers of one particular locality like the other kind. Regional novel is also artistic and creative type of novel. A novelist selects a region that becomes a symbol of the world at large which reflects the great world beyond. It emphasizes the setting, speech and social structure and customs of a particular locality. And writer not describe merely as local color but temperament of the characters and their ways of thinking, feeling, and interacting. There are some great writers who wrote regional novels such as Maria Edgewarth is the first of the great regional novelist of England. Her work Castle Rackrent. Bronte Sisters are greatest among the regional novelists of England. They wrote some novels like Wuthering Heights, The Professor and Villette. The early novels of George Eliot, Adam Bede, Mill on the Floss and Silas Marner are realistic and concrete in the presentation of the life of the ordinary people. Thomas Hardy is the most important regional novelist of England and deserves more space and attention. He is well known for his Wessex novel. Arnold Bennett (1867-1931) was essentially a realist and a regionalist and his realism is well brought out in the vivid and real picture of the pottery districts of England or in his study of the Five Towns, The old Wive’s Tale, Clayhanger, Imperial Palace are among his better known novels.

ᴼ The Psychological Novel:  First is that Psychology means something which is related with mind or human .The word Psychological suggests that we naturally find about human behavior in this kind of novel. This kind of novelists analyze the motives, impulses and mental process which move his characters to act in one particular way. He describes human conflict of inner world wonderfully. He opens character internal personality to the reader and the novel acquires a broad intellectual tone. It means a fiction related with human behavior or mind that is the Psychological novel. There are some writers who wrote this kind of novels like Samuel Richardson, George Eliot and George Meredith. They are early novelists to be mentioned in this connection. So now let’s know other kind The stream of Consciousness novel. So let’s know it in detail.

ᴼ The stream of consciousness novels: If we coming to modern times we find a new kind of novel, “The stream of consciousness novel’. It carries the probing in to the soul a step ahead of analysis of mentality motives, passion, etc. It is a reflection of human emotions, feelings and all kinds of sentiments. This kind of novel is good which evokes or opens the characters’ soul and shows us what is happening. The action of the character is arranged in order to the harmony of soul. There are writers like Henry James, James Joyce, Virginia Woof, etc, have practiced this form of the novel with great success. So after the understanding of these kind novels also some minor kind of novels. As under,

          There are other kinds like proletarian novel. This kind of fiction flourished especially during the great economic depression of the 1930s. An English example is Walter Green wood’s Love on the dole (1931). Proletarian means related with political actions. Some realistic novels like George Eliot’s Middlemarch and Tolstoy’s War and Peace. Use of vents and personages from the historical past to add interest. Vladimir Nabokov was a supreme technician who wrote involuted novels. The second half of the twentieth century era of what is sometimes called the antinovel. It is the work which is deliberately constructed in a negative fashion, relying for its effects on the deletion of standard elements, on violating tradition norms. Bildungsroman and Erziehungsroman are German terms signifying “novel of formation” or “novel of education”. The subject of this   novel is the development of protagonist’s mind and character, in the passage from childhood through varied experiences. It shows one’s identity and role in the world. The mode began in Germany with K.P. moritz’s Anton Reiser. Then realistic novel is also one kind which describes as the fictional attempt to give the effect of realism. It is representing complex characters with mixed motives that are rooted in such eighteenth century writers as Defoe and Fielding and achieved a high development in the master novelists of the nineteenth century. Some other writers also joint them like Jane Austen, George Eliot, Anthony Trollop, William Dean Howells and Henry James in England and America. So these are some other kinds of novel. 

ᴼ Conclusion:

          Thus we can say that novel is the longest genre of narrative prose fiction, followed by the novella, short story and flash fiction. So we also called its like epic in length. Now a days we can say that how popular the form of novel? There are so many novelists in the current time like Chetan Bhagat, etc. There are some greatest novels in the language of Gujarati like MalelaJiv, Valamna, ManaviniBhavai, Samudrantike, Jay Somnath, etc. There are some movies in this current time based on some novels such as Two States from the novel two states, Three Ediots based on the novel Five point  someone, Hello on the novel ‘ One night at the call center. These novels written by Chetan Bhagat. So these are the information about the form novel.

ᴼ Reference Books

1)   Literary forms trends and movements by Dr. RaghukulTilak

2)   English Literature by R.J. Rees

3)   A Dictionary of Literary Terms by A.N. Gupta and Satish Gupta

4)   An Introduction to the English Novel 1 by Arnold Kettle

5)   A Glossary of Literary Terms by M.H. Abrahams and Geoffrey Galt Harpham.