Realist Novel: Key Features and Characteristics

Characteristics of the Realist Novel

European realist novels showcase a great variety, yet share common features reflecting new literary principles.

• Bourgeois Movement: Realism is a bourgeois literary movement, rooted in practicality and progress. Unlike romantic authors, realist novelists are ordinary citizens committed to reflecting their society's everyday problems and conflicts.
• Focus on Contemporary Reality: The story centers on contemporary life, aiming to provide a comprehensive picture of social life, customs, and ideas. Realistic novels depict scenes from streets, markets, factories, gatherings, cafes, and casinos. Protagonists are ordinary people, not heroes.
• Striving for Objectivity: Writers aim to be reporters, photographers, and faithful observers of events. They document and report facts, leading to detailed descriptions of landscapes, environments, characters' gestures, and social activities.
• Moral, Social, or Political Purpose: Novels often serve as a means to advance ideas or offer a critical view of society. Thesis novels, where authors advocate a preconceived idea, are common.
• Objective Narrator: The narrator seeks objectivity, telling the story from an external perspective. They act as a painter of characters' bodies and souls, often using an omniscient point of view. While the narrator may occasionally guide the reader with irony or kindness, the overall tone remains objective.
• Realistic Language and Style: The language is sober and accurate when the narrator speaks. When portraying characters' speech, the language is tailored to the speaker, reflecting popular or vulgar registers, slang, dialects, and foreign languages. The style is vivid and expressive.