‘the Narrative Voice Is an Important Element in the Use of Realist and Non-Realist Techniques and Conventions.’

It is not always easy to categorise literary forms into a particular genre or style of writing. Therefore to classify the realist novel, which became the foremost form of writing in the early nineteenth century, we can perhaps best describe it as a body of prose that is interested and concerned with everyday life. This of course leads us to assume, as readers of twenty-first century novels, that a non-realist novel would therefore offer the reader an escape into an alternative world where settings and events are far from what would be expected in everyday life. Two examples of this that would immediately spring to mind nowadays would be perhaps the science fiction or horror genres. However, during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, novelists thought of their works as realist if they were simply not recognised as ‘romantic’ writings, which had been the dominant literary form for centuries, ‘…realism meant writing fiction based on observation of the world of ordinary men and women in society, using the simplest language to reach the widest audience. It also meant avoiding ‘the torments of soul of young men with too much imagination’, tortured phraseology and ideas’ and ‘romantic psychology’ (The Realist Novel, p.26.).

A realist novel can also then be categorised as having a certain ‘voice’ and narrative structure. If, as a reader, we are to connect with the characters and believe in the realistic world that the author has created, then certain narrative techniques and language are to be expected.

This being said, there are of course novels that cleverly combine both literary forms; offering the reader the chance to connect with the characters in a recognisable setting or family group but also creating an atmosphere or sequence of events that would not be expected in real life.

One such sub-genre as this is the Gothic novel. The Old English Baron: A Gothick Story, written by Clara Reeve in 1778 ‘…was, in fact, one of the first examples of a sub-genre of