Novels / Stories Perspective A novel is an extended story written in prose. Or, to put it more simply, novels tell stories.
The novel is a relatively modern form of literature. The modern novel has existed for only the past three hundred years. Earlier narratives—such as Homer's Iliad or Chaucer's Canterbury Tales —were written in verse.

Novels and stories portray the trials and tribulations of life and the crises of human existence. The characters and settings reflect real life, although a sub-set of novels features more unrealistic (and often melodramatic) plots in imagined historical or future times (as with J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit , Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea , or modern science fiction).

While written in prose, stories often exhibit poetic use of language and dialogue commonly associated with drama. (See Poetry and Drama .)

The Author and the Narrator The author of a story often plays an active role within a story. The author, in the voice of the narrator, can openly comment on characters and their actions and predicaments. This "point of view" has been compared to the angle from which a camera might observe actions. The two major options for the point of view of a story are named after the pronouns authors might use: • first person narrator who participates in the story – I did this.
• third person narrator who stands outside the story itself – He/she did/thought this The two different forms of narrator enable two different effects. A first person narrator might be an observer who sees all events, a minor character (as with Ishmael in Moby Dick), or even a major participant (as with the main character in Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye). When a character in the story, the narrator is limited in his or her understanding. Such narrators cannot be privy to other characters' thoughts or to