| A Romance is not a Novel | | | | Herman Melville wrote his short story or |
| Sir Walter Scott in his "Essay on Romance," | | | | novelette, "Bartleby, the Scrivener," which he set |
| established a basic difference between romance | | | | in Wall Street, he knew he was writing a romance. |
| and novel. While he considered the former a | | | | In this work we find both an atmosphere that is |
| narrative that consisted of marvelous and | | | | eerie, ghostly, and characters that cannot be |
| uncommon incidents, he saw the novel as a work | | | | expected to be real. In particular, one can make |
| that reflected society; which explains why he | | | | the argument that the protagonist Bartleby more |
| wrote so many historical novels. | | | | resembles an otherworldly being (ghost or spirit), |
| Literary Romances | | | | than a real person. |
| Nathaniel Hawthorne in his preface to The House | | | | The Canadian critic Northrop Frye in his Anatomy |
| of the Seven Gables writes: "When a writer calls | | | | of Criticism writes: "The essential difference |
| his work a Romance, it need hardly be observed | | | | between novel and romance lies in the conception |
| that he wishes to claim certain latitude, both as to | | | | of characterization. The romance does not |
| its fashion and material, which he would not have | | | | attempt to create "real people" so much as |
| felt himself entitled to assume, had he professed | | | | stylized figures which expand into psychological |
| to be writing a Novel." | | | | archetypes (304)." |
| By latitude Hawthorne means that the author | | | | Besides Bartleby, Melville wrote Billy Budd, another |
| takes liberties to manage his "atmospherical | | | | novelette in which the characters are 'stylized |
| medium" and also to inject the marvelous. While in | | | | figures' with which Melville explores the depths of |
| a romance, the writer can create an atmosphere | | | | the human psyche. |
| of enchantment, of magic, or even an eerie or | | | | Formula and Trashy Romances |
| uncanny ambience that has little resemblance to | | | | When we read "formula romances" or trashy |
| reality, in novel that is almost impossible--unless | | | | romances we know that the characters -in |
| the genre permits such liberties. Novels like Garcia | | | | particular the lovers- push credulity as they deal |
| Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude or even | | | | with the insurmountable barriers they encounter |
| J. K. Rowlings' Harry Potter novel series are | | | | before they can discover love. Readers do not |
| fraught with such implausible events that defy the | | | | mind the speed bumps, obstacles, and other |
| suspension of disbelief. But this is allowed since the | | | | impediments; in fact they welcome them as |
| novels belong to the genre of magic realism. | | | | benign frustrations which in the end will be |
| Hawthorne goes on to add: "The latter form of | | | | overcome. |
| composition [the novel] is presumed to aim at a | | | | Yet by today's standards, artistically, the romance |
| very minute fidelity, not merely to the possible, | | | | is a few notches lower than the novel. Seldom will |
| but to the probable and ordinary course of man's | | | | readers see romances as serious artistic works-or |
| experience." | | | | as literature, unless they are the product of |
| Indeed, readers expect 'fidelity' or realism of what | | | | genius writers such as Hawthorne and Melville. And |
| we see, feel, and experience in the material world, | | | | unfortunately, contemporary romance writers |
| and this can only be rendered in a novel. When | | | | don't come close to any kind of literary genius. |