III. TYPES OF PROSE FICTION

No attempt has been made in this volume to consider the difficult problem of classification. In his once famous Rhetoric (1783), Blair affirmed that literary species' shade into one another like the colors of nature.' The following list will indicate that certain novelistic types are well-established in European criticism, and that many others, of various degrees of historical and technical isolation, are distinguished by individual critics. While the list is far from complete, it is sufficient to show the variety of bases on which classification or description is attempted. With very few exceptions, the terms have been taken from critics of some note, but authority has been quoted only in a few cases, for special reasons.

The student of comparative literature may, perhaps, be interested in comparing the general tone of several national schools of criticism-in examining the contrast, for example, between the accurate but cumbersome German terminology and the less technical but more lucid manner of the French critics. The student of comparative æsthetics will find some of the broader terms, or similar ones, in dictionaries of music and painting. Many are borrowed from dramatic criticism, and others were originally found in the field of the epic.

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The following abbreviations are used: "N", for novel; “R”, for romance, roman and romanzo; "T. T.", for type-title (see Section 5). The figures after the terms are for cross-reference, and suggest a much more elaborate study of shading, contrast, and systematic arrangement.

ENGLISH

1. Action, N. of. 13, 66, 151.

4. Amatory Narrative. (Dunlop.) 2. Adventure, N. of; R. of.-Adven- 5. Analytic (Analytical) N.

tures. (T. T.)

3. Allegorical-N.;-R. 217.

6. Annals. (T. T.)

7. Antiquarian R. (Baker.)

N. of.

Humors, N. of. (Traill, contrasted with N. of Manners.)

30. Drama, - Complete; — Psychologi- 63. Idyll, — Prose;

cal; - Tragic.

mental.

34. Elevated Fiction. (Senior, con- 69. trasted with Familiar.)

Intellectual N. (Bulwer Lytton.) 183.

35. Epic,-Comic; -Pastoral; - Prose. 70. International N. (Cross; "created

36. Episodes. (T. T.)

37. Epistolary - N; - R.

38. Epoch, N. of an. 341.

by Maria Edgeworth.") 20, 144. 71. Intrigue and Gallantry, R. of. (W. Hazlitt.) 160, 348.

39. Erotic Adventure, N. of (Warren, 72.

Key, N. with a.

of Greek Romances); Lyrico- 73. Knavery, R. of. 104, 119, 320.

Erotic N.

74. Letters, N. of.

-N;- Pamphlet (e.g., Greene); 114. Psychological-Comedy;-Drama;

86. Modern Life and Society, N. of. 124. Scientific Experiment, Tale of.

95. Oriental - History (Goldsmith); 132. Spiritual R. (Hallam; Scott, con

N;-R. 139. Terror, Gothic Tale of. 52.

104. Picaresque - N; - R; Picaroon 141. Third-Person N.

142. Tragic-Drama;-N;- Pastoral; Tragi-Comedy.

143. Traveller's N. (Masson.) N. of Plot. 13, 144. Ubiquitous N. (Walter Bagehot.)

FRENCH

(Jusserand.) 187. Lyrique, R. (Lanson, of George

153. Analytique, R; R. d'Analyse- 189. Militaires, R. de Mœurs.

Conte d'; R. d'; 194. Nationaux, R's. (Erckmann-ChaAventures. (T. T.)

186. Longue Haleine, R. à (of Heroic 221. Voyage Imaginaire. 297.

255. Gesellschaftsroman. (Mielke.) 327. 291. Objektive Erzählung. (Spielhagen.)