novel

A novel (from French nouvelle Italian "novella", "new") is an extended fictional narrative in prose. Until the eighteenth century, the word referred specifically to short fictions of love and intrigue as opposed to romances, which were epic-length works about love and adventures. Since its appearance, the novel has become one of the major literary genres, and today it is the object of discussions demanding artistic merit, a specific literary style and a deeper meaning than a true story of the same content could claim to have.