Definition of "novel" []

• A fictional prose narrative of considerable length, typically having a plot that is unfolded by the actions, speech, and thoughts of the characters. (noun)
• The literary genre represented by novels. (noun)
• Strikingly new, unusual, or different. See Synonyms at new. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "We need only augment the theory to include variables for the precise structural conditions in which the novel phenomena occur, and then draw up more complex functional laws of dynamical evolution that specify the ˜ordinary™ behavior when the new variables are not satisfied and the ˜novel™ behavior when the variables are satisfied."
• "In literature, while the traditional novel continued to thrive, the “new novel” of French writers like Alain Robbe-Grillet (b. 1922) and Natalie Sarraute challenged this form by concentrating on concrete details without plot or character development."
• "Its preface features a history of the novel and Sade’s theories on the ‘modern novel‘:"