# Unknown Narrator — Aspects of the Novel character guide

> Unknown Narrator in Aspects of the Novel by E. M. Forster.

**Role:** major

**Also known as:** myself, mine

**First appearance:** 0003-i-introductory

## Snapshot

A wry, self-deprecating lecturer who confesses he wishes the novel were melody or truth rather than a story, yet admits he is the drooping third voice who knows it must be one.

## Who they are

He opens by sorting his listeners into three voices — the placid bus driver, the aggressive golfer, and himself, the regretful one — and sides, uneasily, with the last. His confession that the story is a 'low atavistic form,' a tapeworm rather than a spine, sets the book's central tension: he loves the novel enough to distrust its oldest engine. That ambivalence is the current running under every chapter that follows, and it is why his voice matters more than any single argument he makes.

## Relationships

### [Henry James](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/aspects_of_the_novel_se/characters/henry_james)

_professional_

Henry James is the author whose narrative voice is represented by the Unknown Narrator in his works.

### [Herman Melville](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/aspects_of_the_novel_se/characters/herman_melville)

_professional_

Herman Melville is the author whose narrative voice is represented by the Unknown Narrator in his works.

### [Sir Walter Scott](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/aspects_of_the_novel_se/characters/sir_walter_scott)

_professional_

Sir Walter Scott is the author whose narrative voice is represented by the Unknown Narrator in his works.

### [The Heroine](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/aspects_of_the_novel_se/characters/the_heroine)

_psychological_

The Heroine is often the subject of the narrator's moral and psychological analysis in Defoe's novels.

### [Moll Flanders](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/aspects_of_the_novel_se/characters/moll_flanders)

_psychological_

Moll Flanders is the protagonist whose life and thoughts are closely examined by the narrator.

### [George Meredith](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/aspects_of_the_novel_se/characters/george_meredith)

_professional_

George Meredith is the author whose narrative voice is represented by the Unknown Narrator in his works.

### [Mr. Percy Lubbock](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/aspects_of_the_novel_se/characters/mr_percy_lubbock)

_professional_

Mr. Percy Lubbock is a critic and author whose analytical voice interacts with the Unknown Narrator in discussions of novel technique.

### [Moll Flanders](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/aspects_of_the_novel_se/characters/moll_flanders)

_psychological_

Moll Flanders is the protagonist whose life and thoughts are closely examined by the narrator.

### [Mr. Percy Lubbock](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/aspects_of_the_novel_se/characters/mr_percy_lubbock)

_professional_

Mr. Percy Lubbock is a critic and author whose analytical voice interacts with the Unknown Narrator in discussions of novel technique.

### [Mr. Percy Lubbock](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/aspects_of_the_novel_se/characters/mr_percy_lubbock)

_professional_

Mr. Percy Lubbock is a critic and author whose analytical voice interacts with the Unknown Narrator in discussions of novel technique.

### [Herman Melville](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/aspects_of_the_novel_se/characters/herman_melville)

_professional_

Herman Melville is the author whose narrative voice is represented by the Unknown Narrator in his works.

## In the story

### [Aspects of the Novel](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/aspects_of_the_novel_se/chapters/aspects-of-the-novel)

The narrator and lecturer, reflecting on the nature of the novel and its criticism.

### [Conclusion](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/aspects_of_the_novel_se/chapters/ix-conclusion)

The narrator reflects on the future of the novel and human nature.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/aspects_of_the_novel_se/characters/unknown_narrator
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/aspects_of_the_novel_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/aspects_of_the_novel_se/characters