Aspects of the Novel · Chapters
Chapters explained
Chapter companions for Aspects of the Novel by E. M. Forster.
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Chapter 1
Dedication
The chapter is a brief dedication to Charles Mauron.
Chapter 2
Aspects of the Novel
Forster introduces the Clark Lectureship and sets the stage for his exploration of the novel as an art form. He defines story as a narrative of events arranged in time sequence, using Scheherazade's suspense as a key example. He distinguishes between story and plot, where plot adds causality, and introduces the concepts of flat and round characters, fantasy, prophecy, pattern, and rhythm. The chapter concludes with a reflection on the relationship between art and history, asserting that art stands still while history develops.
Chapter 3
Introductory
Forster introduces his lectures on the English novel by rejecting chronological and historical approaches in favor of a spatial metaphor: all novelists writing simultaneously in a circular room. He defines the novel minimally as 'a fiction in prose of a certain extent' (over 50,000 words), warns against pseudo-scholarship, and acknowledges the superiority of foreign novelists like Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and Proust. He pairs Richardson and James to illustrate timeless affinities, and emphasizes that criticism must avoid provincialism.
Chapter 4
II: The Story
Forster defines the story as the lowest and simplest literary organism, yet the highest factor common to all novels: a narrative of events arranged in time sequence. He contrasts the life in time with the life by values, arguing that while daily life may transcend chronology, the novel must always cling to the thread of story. He critiques Gertrude Stein's attempt to abolish time, deems it doomed, and illustrates the story's primitive power through Sir Walter Scott's The Antiquary, paraphrasing its opening to show how suspense and curiosity drive narrative.
Chapter 5
People
Forster shifts focus from story to character, exploring how novelists create people who differ from real humans. He contrasts the novelist's access to the hidden life with the historian's reliance on external evidence, and discusses how characters are born, die, eat, sleep, and love in fiction. Using Moll Flanders as a key example, he argues that characters feel real when the novelist knows everything about them, offering a completeness impossible in daily life.
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