A novel is a long prose narrative that describes fictional
characters and events in the form of a sequential story, usually. The genre has
historical roots in the fields of medieval and early modern romance and in the
tradition of the novella. The latter, an Italian word used to describe short
stories, supplied the present generic English term in the 18th century. Further
definition of the genre is historically difficult. The construction of the
narrative, the plot, the relation to reality, the characterization, and the use
of language are usually discussed to show a novel's artistic merits. Most of
these requirements were introduced to literary prose in the 16th and 17th
centuries, in order to give fiction a justification outside the field of factual
history.
