Novel sequence
Encyclopedia
A novel sequence is a set or series of novel
s which share common themes, characters, or settings, but where each novel has its own title and free-standing storyline, and can thus be read independently or out of sequence.
is long enough and whether its parts are discrete enough to qualify as a novel sequence.
For example the Barchester
novels of Anthony Trollope
are only loosely related, although they contain a recurring cast of characters; his political novels about the Pallisers
have a tighter connection and dynamic. A strict definition might exclude both.
's works appearing in the 1820s, and Anthony Trollope
's Barchester books in the 1850s. In French literature
, Honoré de Balzac
's ambitious La Comédie humaine
, a set of nearly 100 novels, novellas and short stories with some recurring characters, started to come together during the 1830s. Émile Zola
's Rougon-Macquart
cycle is a family saga
, a format that later became a popular fictional form, going beyond the conventional three-volume novel
.
The metaphor of the roman-fleuve was coined by Romain Rolland
to describe his 10 volume cycle Jean-Christophe
, in the preface to the seventh volume, Dans la maison, ([In] The House), published in 1908/1909, where he writes:
The term has subsequently been applied to other French novel sequences, particularly of the interwar period and the 1930s, notably:
The 19th century predecessors, as noted above, may be distinguished as being rather "family sagas", as their stories are from the perspective of a single family, rather than society as a whole.
's À la recherche du temps perdu
came to be regarded by many as a definitive roman fleuve. Today, however, its seven volumes are generally considered to be a single novel. In some serious sense, it escapes classification.
Proust's work was immensely influential, particularly on British novelists of the middle of the twentieth century who did not favour modernism
. Some of those follow the example of Anthony Powell
, a Proust disciple, but consciously adapting the technique to depict social change, rather than change in high society. This was a step beyond the realist novels of Arnold Bennett
(the Clayhanger
books) or John Galsworthy
.
are not generally considered romans-fleuve; the Aubrey–Maturin series
of Patrick O'Brian
might qualify, and possibly the Vorkosigan Series
of Lois McMaster Bujold
.
Novel sequences, though, are now most common in genre fiction, particularly in science fiction
and epic fantasy. The introduction of the preconstructed novel sequence is often attributed to E. E. Doc Smith, with his Lensman
books. Such sequences, from contemporary authors, tend to be more clearly defined than earlier examples. Authors are now more likely to announce an overall series title, or write in round numbers such as 12 volumes. These characteristics are not those of the classical model forms, and become more like the 'franchises' of the film industry.
The types instead begin to fill out a concentric model like
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
s which share common themes, characters, or settings, but where each novel has its own title and free-standing storyline, and can thus be read independently or out of sequence.
Definitions
There is no useful, formal demarcation between novel sequences and multi-part novels. Novels that are related may or may not fall into a clear sequence. It is also debatable whether a trilogyTrilogy
A trilogy is a set of three works of art that are connected, and that can be seen either as a single work or as three individual works. They are commonly found in literature, film, or video games...
is long enough and whether its parts are discrete enough to qualify as a novel sequence.
For example the Barchester
Chronicles of Barsetshire
The Chronicles of Barsetshire is a series of six novels by the English author Anthony Trollope, set in the fictitious cathedral town of Barchester...
novels of Anthony Trollope
Anthony Trollope
Anthony Trollope was one of the most successful, prolific and respected English novelists of the Victorian era. Some of his best-loved works, collectively known as the Chronicles of Barsetshire, revolve around the imaginary county of Barsetshire...
are only loosely related, although they contain a recurring cast of characters; his political novels about the Pallisers
Palliser novels
The Palliser novels are six novels by Anthony Trollope.The common thread is the wealthy aristocrat and politician Plantagenet Palliser and his wife Lady Glencora...
have a tighter connection and dynamic. A strict definition might exclude both.
History
The novel sequence was a product of the nineteenth century, with James Fenimore CooperJames Fenimore Cooper
James Fenimore Cooper was a prolific and popular American writer of the early 19th century. He is best remembered as a novelist who wrote numerous sea-stories and the historical novels known as the Leatherstocking Tales, featuring frontiersman Natty Bumppo...
's works appearing in the 1820s, and Anthony Trollope
Anthony Trollope
Anthony Trollope was one of the most successful, prolific and respected English novelists of the Victorian era. Some of his best-loved works, collectively known as the Chronicles of Barsetshire, revolve around the imaginary county of Barsetshire...
's Barchester books in the 1850s. In French literature
French literature
French literature is, generally speaking, literature written in the French language, particularly by citizens of France; it may also refer to literature written by people living in France who speak traditional languages of France other than French. Literature written in French language, by citizens...
, Honoré de Balzac
Honoré de Balzac
Honoré de Balzac was a French novelist and playwright. His magnum opus was a sequence of short stories and novels collectively entitled La Comédie humaine, which presents a panorama of French life in the years after the 1815 fall of Napoleon....
's ambitious La Comédie humaine
La Comédie humaine
La Comédie humaine is the title of Honoré de Balzac's multi-volume collection of interlinked novels and stories depicting French society in the period of the Restoration and the July Monarchy .-Overview:...
, a set of nearly 100 novels, novellas and short stories with some recurring characters, started to come together during the 1830s. Émile Zola
Émile Zola
Émile François Zola was a French writer, the most important exemplar of the literary school of naturalism and an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism...
's Rougon-Macquart
Les Rougon-Macquart
Les Rougon-Macquart is the collective title given to a cycle of twenty novels by French writer Émile Zola. Subtitled Histoire naturelle et sociale d'une famille sous le Second Empire , it follows the life of a fictional family living during the Second French Empire and is an example of French...
cycle is a family saga
Family saga
The family saga is a genre of literature which chronicles the lives and doings of a family or a number of related or interconnected families over a period of time...
, a format that later became a popular fictional form, going beyond the conventional three-volume novel
Three-volume novel
The three-volume novel was a standard form of publishing for British fiction during the nineteenth century. It was a significant stage in the development of the modern Western novel as a form of popular literature.The format does not correspond closely to what would now be considered a trilogy of...
.
Roman-fleuve
The roman-fleuve (French, literally "river-novel") refers to an extended sequence of novels of which the whole acts as a commentary for a society or an epoch, and which continually deals with a central character, community or a saga within a family. The river metaphor implies a steady, broad dynamic lending itself to a perspective. Each volume makes up a complete novel by itself, but the entire cycle exhibits unifying characteristics.The metaphor of the roman-fleuve was coined by Romain Rolland
Romain Rolland
Romain Rolland was a French dramatist, novelist, essayist, art historian and mystic who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1915.-Biography:...
to describe his 10 volume cycle Jean-Christophe
Jean-Christophe
Jean-Christophe is the novel in ten volumes by Romain Rolland for which he received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1915. It was translated into English by Gilbert Cannan....
, in the preface to the seventh volume, Dans la maison, ([In] The House), published in 1908/1909, where he writes:
- When you see a man, do you ask yourself whether he is a novel or a poem? [...] Jean-Christophe has always seemed to me to flow like a river; I have said as much from the first pages.
The term has subsequently been applied to other French novel sequences, particularly of the interwar period and the 1930s, notably:
- Marcel ProustMarcel ProustValentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust was a French novelist, critic, and essayist best known for his monumental À la recherche du temps perdu...
, À la recherche du temps perdu (1908–1922) - Georges DuhamelGeorges DuhamelGeorges Duhamel , was a French author, born in Paris. Duhamel trained as a doctor, and during World War I was attached to the French Army. In 1920, he published Confession de minuit , the first of a series featuring the anti-hero Salavin...
, Vie et aventures de Salavin (1920–1932) and Chronique des Pasquier (1933–1945) - Roger Martin du GardRoger Martin du GardRoger Martin du Gard was a French author and winner of the 1937 Nobel Prize for Literature. Trained as a paleographer and archivist, Martin du Gard brought to his works a spirit of objectivity and a scrupulous regard for details...
, Les Thibault (1922–1940) - Jules RomainsJules RomainsJules Romains, born Louis Henri Jean Farigoule , was a French poet and writer and the founder of the Unanimism literary movement...
, Les Hommes de bonne volonté (1932–1947) - Louis AragonLouis AragonLouis Aragon , was a French poet, novelist and editor, a long-time member of the Communist Party and a member of the Académie Goncourt.- Early life :...
, Cycle du monde réel (1933–1951) - Jacques ChardonneJacques ChardonneJacques Chardonne is the pseudonym of French writer Jacques Boutelleau...
, Les Destinées sentimentales (1934–1936)
The 19th century predecessors, as noted above, may be distinguished as being rather "family sagas", as their stories are from the perspective of a single family, rather than society as a whole.
Proust
In the twentieth century Marcel ProustMarcel Proust
Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust was a French novelist, critic, and essayist best known for his monumental À la recherche du temps perdu...
's À la recherche du temps perdu
In Search of Lost Time
In Search of Lost Time or Remembrance of Things Past is a novel in seven volumes by Marcel Proust. His most prominent work, it is popularly known for its considerable length and the notion of involuntary memory, the most famous example being the "episode of the madeleine." The novel is widely...
came to be regarded by many as a definitive roman fleuve. Today, however, its seven volumes are generally considered to be a single novel. In some serious sense, it escapes classification.
Proust's work was immensely influential, particularly on British novelists of the middle of the twentieth century who did not favour modernism
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
. Some of those follow the example of Anthony Powell
Anthony Powell
Anthony Dymoke Powell CH, CBE was an English novelist best known for his twelve-volume work A Dance to the Music of Time, published between 1951 and 1975....
, a Proust disciple, but consciously adapting the technique to depict social change, rather than change in high society. This was a step beyond the realist novels of Arnold Bennett
Arnold Bennett
- Early life :Bennett was born in a modest house in Hanley in the Potteries district of Staffordshire. Hanley is one of a conurbation of six towns which joined together at the beginning of the twentieth century as Stoke-on-Trent. Enoch Bennett, his father, qualified as a solicitor in 1876, and the...
(the Clayhanger
The Clayhanger Family
The Clayhanger Family is a series of novels by Arnold Bennett, published between 1910 and 1918. Though the series is commonly referred to as a "trilogy", it consists of four books; the first three novels were released in one single volume as The Clayhanger Family in 1925.-Clayhanger :The novels are...
books) or John Galsworthy
John Galsworthy
John Galsworthy OM was an English novelist and playwright. Notable works include The Forsyte Saga and its sequels, A Modern Comedy and End of the Chapter...
.
Contemporary pressures and novel sequences
A novel sequence usually contains story arcs or themes that cross over several books, rather than simply sharing one or more characters. Sequences of genre fictionGenre fiction
Genre fiction, also known as popular fiction, is a term for fictional works written with the intent of fitting into a specific literary genre in order to appeal to readers and fans already familiar with that genre....
are not generally considered romans-fleuve; the Aubrey–Maturin series
Aubrey–Maturin series
The Aubrey–Maturin series is a sequence of nautical historical novels—20 completed and one unfinished—by Patrick O'Brian, set during the Napoleonic Wars and centering on the friendship between Captain Jack Aubrey of the Royal Navy and his ship's surgeon Stephen Maturin, who is also a physician,...
of Patrick O'Brian
Patrick O'Brian
Patrick O'Brian, CBE , born Richard Patrick Russ, was an English novelist and translator, best known for his Aubrey–Maturin series of novels set in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars and centred on the friendship of English Naval Captain Jack Aubrey and the Irish–Catalan physician Stephen...
might qualify, and possibly the Vorkosigan Series
Vorkosigan Saga
The Vorkosigan Saga is a series of science fiction novels and short stories set in a common fictional universe by American author Lois McMaster Bujold. Most of these were published between 1986 and 2002, with the exceptions being “Winterfair Gifts” and Cryoburn...
of Lois McMaster Bujold
Lois McMaster Bujold
Lois McMaster Bujold is an American author of science fiction and fantasy works. Bujold is one of the most acclaimed writers in her field, having won the prestigious Hugo Award for best novel four times, matching Robert A. Heinlein's record. Her novella The Mountains of Mourning won both the Hugo...
.
Novel sequences, though, are now most common in genre fiction, particularly in science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
and epic fantasy. The introduction of the preconstructed novel sequence is often attributed to E. E. Doc Smith, with his Lensman
Lensman
The Lensman series is a serial science fiction space opera by Edward Elmer "Doc" Smith. It was a runner-up for the Hugo award for best All-Time Series ....
books. Such sequences, from contemporary authors, tend to be more clearly defined than earlier examples. Authors are now more likely to announce an overall series title, or write in round numbers such as 12 volumes. These characteristics are not those of the classical model forms, and become more like the 'franchises' of the film industry.
The types instead begin to fill out a concentric model like
- trilogy < sequence < 'saga' grouping (single author) < shared universeShared universeA shared universe is a fictional universe to which more than one writer contributes. Work set in a shared universe share characters and other elements with varying degrees of consistency. Shared universes are contrasted with collaborative writing, in which multiple authors work on a single story....
< genre.
Examples
- Douglas AdamsDouglas AdamsDouglas Noel Adams was an English writer and dramatist. He is best known as the author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which started life in 1978 as a BBC radio comedy before developing into a "trilogy" of five books that sold over 15 million copies in his lifetime, a television...
's "increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhiker's trilogy"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the GalaxyThe Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a science fiction comedy series created by Douglas Adams. Originally a radio comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1978, it was later adapted to other formats, and over several years it gradually became an international multi-media phenomenon...
started as a BBC radio series and was adapted to a trilogyTrilogyA trilogy is a set of three works of art that are connected, and that can be seen either as a single work or as three individual works. They are commonly found in literature, film, or video games...
which eventually grew to five novels. - Louis AragonLouis AragonLouis Aragon , was a French poet, novelist and editor, a long-time member of the Communist Party and a member of the Académie Goncourt.- Early life :...
's Cycle du Monde Réel - Isaac AsimovIsaac AsimovIsaac Asimov was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000...
's Foundation Series was first a series of magazine stories; then a book publication as edited into a trilogy; and then, by the later addition of volumes, a longer sequence that made contact with his Robot SeriesIsaac Asimov's Robot SeriesIsaac Asimov's Robot Series is a series of short stories and novels by Isaac Asimov featuring positronic robots.- Short stories :Most of Asimov's robot short stories are set in the first age of positronic robotics and space exploration...
books. Finally other authors have added books. - Jonathan BaylissJonathan BaylissJonathan Bayliss was an American novelist and playwright who lived and wrote in Gloucester, Massachusetts. He was a close friend of poet Charles Olson after Olson's return to Gloucester in the late 1950s...
's Gloucesterman series was initially conceived as a trilogy comprising Gloucesterbook, Gloucestertide, and the projected Gloucestermas. When Bayliss's decades-in-the-works Prologos was published in 1999, it shared enough characters and themes in common with the Gloucester novels that the Gloucesterman series is now considered a tetralogy, with Prologos the introductory volume to the original trilogy. - David BrinDavid BrinGlen David Brin, Ph.D. is an American scientist and award-winning author of science fiction. He has received the Hugo, Locus, Campbell and Nebula Awards.-Biography:...
's UpliftUplift UniverseThe Uplift Universe is a fictional universe created by science fiction writer David Brin. A central feature in this universe is the process of biological uplift.His books which take place in this universe:* Sundiver...
series is a set of two trilogies, not (initially) sharing characters. - A. S. ByattA. S. ByattDame Antonia Susan Duffy, DBE is an English novelist, poet and Booker Prize winner...
's "Frederica Potter" quartet - Jacques ChardonneJacques ChardonneJacques Chardonne is the pseudonym of French writer Jacques Boutelleau...
's Les Destinées sentimentales - James Fenimore CooperJames Fenimore CooperJames Fenimore Cooper was a prolific and popular American writer of the early 19th century. He is best remembered as a novelist who wrote numerous sea-stories and the historical novels known as the Leatherstocking Tales, featuring frontiersman Natty Bumppo...
's Leatherstocking TalesLeatherstocking TalesThe Leatherstocking Tales is a series of novels by American writer James Fenimore Cooper, each featuring the main hero Natty Bumppo, known by European settlers as "Leatherstocking," 'The Pathfinder", and "the trapper" and by the Native Americans as "Deerslayer," "La Longue Carabine" and... - the novels of Amanda CraigAmanda CraigAmanda Craig is a British novelist. Craig studied at Bedales School and Cambridge and works as a journalist. She is married with two children and lives in London....
- Clive CusslerClive CusslerClive Eric Cussler is an American adventure novelist and marine archaeologist. His thriller novels, many featuring the character Dirk Pitt, have reached The New York Times fiction best-seller list more than seventeen times...
's "Dirk PittDirk PittDirk Pitt is a fictional character, the protagonist of a series of bestselling adventure novels written by Clive Cussler. The name Dirk Pitt is a registered trademark of Clive Cussler.-Character information and the supporting cast:...
" series - Georges DuhamelGeorges DuhamelGeorges Duhamel , was a French author, born in Paris. Duhamel trained as a doctor, and during World War I was attached to the French Army. In 1920, he published Confession de minuit , the first of a series featuring the anti-hero Salavin...
's Chronique des Pasquier - Lawrence DurrellLawrence DurrellLawrence George Durrell was an expatriate British novelist, poet, dramatist, and travel writer, though he resisted affiliation with Britain and preferred to be considered cosmopolitan...
's Alexandria Quartet and other sequences - C. S. ForesterC. S. ForesterCecil Scott "C.S." Forester was the pen name of Cecil Louis Troughton Smith , an English novelist who rose to fame with tales of naval warfare. His most notable works were the 11-book Horatio Hornblower series, depicting a Royal Navy officer during the Napoleonic era, and The African Queen...
's "Horatio HornblowerHoratio HornblowerHoratio Hornblower is a fictional Royal Navy officer who is the protagonist of a series of novels by C. S. Forester. He was later the subject of films and television programs.The original Hornblower tales began with the 1937 novel The Happy Return Horatio Hornblower is a fictional Royal Navy...
" series - Diana GabaldonDiana GabaldonDiana J. Gabaldon is an American author of Mexican-American and English ancestry. Gabaldon is the author of the Outlander Series. Her books they contain elements of romantic fiction, historical fiction, mystery, adventure, and science fiction.-Early life and science career:Diana J. Gabaldon was...
's OutlanderOutlander (novel)Outlander is the first novel in a series of seven by Diana Gabaldon. The book focuses on two main characters, Claire Randall and James Alexander Malcolm MacKenzie Fraser, and takes place in 18th- and 20th-century Scotland...
series - John GalsworthyJohn GalsworthyJohn Galsworthy OM was an English novelist and playwright. Notable works include The Forsyte Saga and its sequels, A Modern Comedy and End of the Chapter...
's The Forsyte SagaThe Forsyte SagaThe Forsyte Saga is a series of three novels and two interludes published between 1906 and 1921 by John Galsworthy. They chronicle the vicissitudes of the leading members of an upper-middle-class British family, similar to Galsworthy's own... - Susan HowatchSusan HowatchSusan Howatch is an English author. Her writing career has been distinguished by family saga-type novels which describe the lives of related characters for long periods of time...
's Starbridge sequence - John le CarréJohn le CarréDavid John Moore Cornwell , who writes under the name John le Carré, is an author of espionage novels. During the 1950s and the 1960s, Cornwell worked for MI5 and MI6, and began writing novels under the pseudonym "John le Carré"...
's numerous books featuring George SmileyGeorge SmileyGeorge Smiley is a fictional character created by John le Carré. Smiley is an intelligence officer working for MI6 , the British overseas intelligence agency...
are more novelistic in their technique than most genre fiction, but, apart from the "Karla Trilogy", the organisation is too lax to consider them a sequence, in intent or execution. - Roger Martin du GardRoger Martin du GardRoger Martin du Gard was a French author and winner of the 1937 Nobel Prize for Literature. Trained as a paleographer and archivist, Martin du Gard brought to his works a spirit of objectivity and a scrupulous regard for details...
's Les Thibault - Yukio MishimaYukio Mishimawas the pen name of , a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor and film director, also remembered for his ritual suicide by seppuku after a failed coup d'état...
's The Sea of FertilityThe Sea of Fertilityis a tetralogy written by the Japanese author Yukio Mishima. The four novels include Spring Snow , Runaway Horses , The Temple of Dawn and The Decay of the Angel . The series, which Mishima began writing in 1964 and which was his final work, is usually thought of as his masterpiece...
tetralogy. - Ferdinand MountFerdinand MountSir William Robert Ferdinand Mount, 3rd Baronet , usually known as Ferdinand Mount, is a British writer and novelist, columnist for The Sunday Times and commentator on politics, and Conservative Party politician...
's Chronicles of Modern Twilight - Patrick O'BrianPatrick O'BrianPatrick O'Brian, CBE , born Richard Patrick Russ, was an English novelist and translator, best known for his Aubrey–Maturin series of novels set in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars and centred on the friendship of English Naval Captain Jack Aubrey and the Irish–Catalan physician Stephen...
's Aubrey–Maturin seriesAubrey–Maturin seriesThe Aubrey–Maturin series is a sequence of nautical historical novels—20 completed and one unfinished—by Patrick O'Brian, set during the Napoleonic Wars and centering on the friendship between Captain Jack Aubrey of the Royal Navy and his ship's surgeon Stephen Maturin, who is also a physician,... - James PattersonJames PattersonJames B. Patterson is an American author of thriller novels, largely known for his series about American psychologist Alex Cross...
's "Alex CrossAlex CrossAlex Cross is a fictional character, the protagonist in a series of books by novelist James Patterson.-Character overview:Cross is a Black detective and psychologist living and working in the Southeast quadrant of Washington, D.C...
" series - Benito Pérez GaldósBenito Pérez GaldósBenito Pérez Galdós was a Spanish realist novelist. Considered second only to Cervantes in stature, he was the leading Spanish realist novelist....
's Episodios nacionalesEpisodios NacionalesThe Episodios Nacionales are a collection of forty-six historical novels written by Benito Pérez Galdós between 1872 and 1912. They are divided into five series and they deal with Spanish History from roughly 1805 to 1880... - Anthony PowellAnthony PowellAnthony Dymoke Powell CH, CBE was an English novelist best known for his twelve-volume work A Dance to the Music of Time, published between 1951 and 1975....
's A Dance to the Music of TimeA Dance to the Music of TimeA Dance to the Music of Time is a twelve-volume cycle of novels by Anthony Powell, inspired by the painting of the same name by Nicolas Poussin. One of the longest works of fiction in literature, it was published between 1951 and 1975 to critical acclaim... - Terry PratchettTerry PratchettSir Terence David John "Terry" Pratchett, OBE is an English novelist, known for his frequently comical work in the fantasy genre. He is best known for his popular and long-running Discworld series of comic fantasy novels...
's DiscworldDiscworldDiscworld is a comic fantasy book series by English author Sir Terry Pratchett, set on the Discworld, a flat world balanced on the backs of four elephants which, in turn, stand on the back of a giant turtle, Great A'Tuin. The books frequently parody, or at least take inspiration from, J. R. R....
novels - Simon RavenSimon RavenSimon Arthur Noël Raven was an English novelist, essayist, dramatist and raconteur who, in a writing career of forty years, caused controversy, amusement and offence...
's Alms for Oblivion and The First Born of Egypt - Dorothy RichardsonDorothy RichardsonDorothy Miller Richardson was a British author and journalist.-Biography:Richardson was born in Abingdon in 1873. Her family moved to Worthing, West Sussex in 1880 and then Putney, London in 1883...
's Pilgrimage - Romain RollandRomain RollandRomain Rolland was a French dramatist, novelist, essayist, art historian and mystic who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1915.-Biography:...
's Jean-ChristopheJean-ChristopheJean-Christophe is the novel in ten volumes by Romain Rolland for which he received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1915. It was translated into English by Gilbert Cannan.... - Paul Scott's Raj QuartetRaj QuartetThe Raj Quartet is a four-volume novel sequence, written by Paul Scott, about the concluding years of the British Raj in India. The series was written during the period 1965–75. The Times called it "one of the most important landmarks of post-war fiction."The story of The Raj Quartet begins...
- C. P. SnowC. P. SnowCharles Percy Snow, Baron Snow of the City of Leicester CBE was an English physicist and novelist who also served in several important positions with the UK government...
's Strangers and BrothersStrangers and BrothersStrangers and Brothers is a series of novels by C. P. Snow, published between 1940 and 1974. They deal with – amongst other things – questions of political and personal integrity, and the mechanics of exercising power.... - Anthony TrollopeAnthony TrollopeAnthony Trollope was one of the most successful, prolific and respected English novelists of the Victorian era. Some of his best-loved works, collectively known as the Chronicles of Barsetshire, revolve around the imaginary county of Barsetshire...
's Chronicles of BarsetshireChronicles of BarsetshireThe Chronicles of Barsetshire is a series of six novels by the English author Anthony Trollope, set in the fictitious cathedral town of Barchester...
and Palliser novelsPalliser novelsThe Palliser novels are six novels by Anthony Trollope.The common thread is the wealthy aristocrat and politician Plantagenet Palliser and his wife Lady Glencora... - Harry TurtledoveHarry TurtledoveHarry Norman Turtledove is an American novelist, who has produced works in several genres including alternate history, historical fiction, fantasy and science fiction.- Life :...
's Southern Victory Series - John UpdikeJohn UpdikeJohn Hoyer Updike was an American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic....
's "Rabbit Angstrom" books - Henry WilliamsonHenry WilliamsonHenry William Williamson was an English naturalist, farmer and prolific author known for his natural and social history novels. He won the Hawthornden Prize for literature in 1928 with his book Tarka the Otter....
's Chronicles of Ancient Sunlight - A. N. WilsonA. N. WilsonAndrew Norman Wilson is an English writer and newspaper columnist, known for his critical biographies, novels, works of popular history and religious views...
's Lampitt Papers - Richard ZimlerRichard ZimlerRichard Zimler is a best-selling author of fiction. His books, which have earned him a 1994 National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship in Fiction and the 1998 Herodotus Award, have been published in many countries and translated into more than 20 languages...
's Sephardic Cycle, a series of four historical novels that includes The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon - Naguib MahfouzNaguib MahfouzNaguib Mahfouz was an Egyptian writer who won the 1988 Nobel Prize for Literature. He is regarded as one of the first contemporary writers of Arabic literature, along with Tawfiq el-Hakim, to explore themes of existentialism. He published over 50 novels, over 350 short stories, dozens of movie...
's The Cairo TrilogyCairo TrilogyThe Cairo Trilogy or ) is a trilogy of novels written by the Egyptian novelist and Nobel Prize winner Naguib Mahfouz.The three novels are, in order:* Palace Walk...