1. NOVEL
Definition
A long story in prose meant primarily for entertainment and presenting a realistic picture of life.
Setting, Plot, Character and Dialogue are the most important elements that go into the making of a novel.
Plot is the systematic organization and arrangement of events. Plot can be of two types: (i) Incoherent or loose plot and (ii) Organic plot. The Plot can also be either simple or complex
METHOD OF NARRATION
(i) The direct or epic (the novelist assumes the role of a historian and narrates the story from outside. (ii) The autobiographical ( The novelist writes in the first person identifying himself with one of the characters , generally the hero or the heroine and thus producing an imaginary autobiography.
(iii) The documentary ( the story is narrated by means of letters and diaries as is the case with the novels of Richardson and Wilkie Collins

2. Historical Survey
Considered as an art form, the novel is comparatively of recent origin.
The Middle Ages had Romances or long fairy tales and tales of adventures and Knight errantry. Malory’s Morte D’ Arthur , printed towards the end of the 15th century is a collection of such tales.
By the middle of the 16th century, long medieval romances gave way to Italian prose tales or novella which appeared ij English translation in large number. Heroic romance, inspired by such French models such as D’urfe and Madam Scudery flourished all through the 17th century but more specifically after the Restoration
Another great name in the early days of novel is that of Daniel Defoe. Defoe for the first time makes the novel an exciting and all absorbing source of entertainment. Robinson Crusoe, Moll Flanders, Roxana are Defoe’s great novels

3. Types of Novel
The Picaresque novel: (Tale of a adventures or misadventures af a ‘picaro’ which means a ‘knave’ or a ‘rogue’. Who wanders from one country to another, from one setting to another. Thomas Nash’s The Unfortunate Traveller or The life of Jack Wilton is the first picaresque novel in English. Richard Hood’s The English Rogue is also in the Picaresque tradition. Fielding’s Tom Jones is built on a picaresque model
*(ii) The Panoramic Novel
Henry Fielding is the creator of Panoramic novel in English Thackeray’s Vanity Fair is also Panoramic.

4. *(iii) The Historical Novel
Sir Walter Scott is the creator of Historical novel. He blended into a unity fact and fancy, history and romance. Ivanhoe, Quentin Durward are famous novels of Scott. Bulwar Lytton’s The Last Days of Pompeii, Thackeray’s Henry Esmond, W.H.Anisworth’s Road-wood, The Tower of London and Charles Reade’s The Cloister and the Hearth are in historical tradition.
*(iv) The Novel of Social Reform
Charles Dickens’s name is associated with the novels of Social Reforms.. His David Copperfield, Oliver Twist and Great Expectations are famous for the social issues they deal with.

5. *(v) The Regional Novel
The Brontes and Thomas Hardy are famous regional novelists in English. Hardy’s Wessex novels are I great regional novels.
*(vi) The Stream of Conciousness Novel
Henry James, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Dorothy Richardson are great novelists adopting stream of consciousness technique in their novels.