How novels work

l. Beginning The title 16 • The prologue 28 • The framing device 31 • The opening 36 2. Narrating 40 First-person narration 45 • Recollection 47 • The inadequate narrator 50 • A man writing as a wornan 52 • Multiple narrators 55 • Skaz 57 • The self-conscious novel 60 • Addressing the reader 62 • The omniscient narrator 64 • Point of view 67 • Tense 71 Tense shift 74 • Free indirect style 76 3. People 79 Characterization 84 • Motivation 86 • The anti-hero 90 • The villain 93 • Real people 97 • The alter ego 101 4. Genre The thriller 108 • Romance 112 • Satire 115 • Magical realism 117 • The novel of circulation 119 • The conte 122 • The historical mystery 124 in~ 5. Voices 127 Dialect 130 • Dialogue 133 • Languages 137 • Translation 140 • Phone conversation 142 • Clichés 147 • Swearing 149 6. Structure 155 Chapter headings 157 • Chronology 160 • Inset narratives 164 • Parallel narratives 167 • Plot 169 • Revelations 172 • Split narratives 175 • Metanarrative 178 • Montage 180 • P7. Detail 189 Facts 193 • Location 195 • Setting 197 • Weather 200 • Meals 203 • Brands 206 • Research 208 8. Style Plain prose 216 • Antique prose 218 • Parataxis 220 • Paragraphs 224 • Diction 228 • Amplification 233 • Parenthèses 236 • Hyperbole 239 • Pastiche 241 • Heteroglossia 244 * Streams of consciousness 247 3\\\\\\\'1´3 9. Devices 251 Letters 255 • Email 257 • Newspaper articles 260 • Ekphrasis 263 • Lists 266 • Natural description 269 • Similes 272 • Names 275 • Coincidences 278 10. Literariness 284 Intertextuality 286 • Epigrams 290 • Q,uotation 292 • Symbolism 295 • Novels within novels 297 11. Ending 303 The dénouement 308 • Thé false ending 311 • Epilogue 314 • The postscript 317 Select Bibliographe 327 Novels 327 • Other works 333 rolepsis 183