an invented prose narrative that is usu long and complex and deals esp with human experience and social behaviour
‘Novel’ describes an extended prose narrative, usually realistic, structured, multiply storied, strong in characters. The modern novel is commonly dated from Cervantes’ Don Quixote (1605), though prose narratives existed before. It became a popular form across Europe in the 18th cent. and, with Balzac, Dickens, Tolstoy, and Dostoevsky, a great social and moral record of the 19th cent. In the 20th cent. it acquired greater experimental complexity and psychological depth. As a popular commercial product and a form of art, it is now the dominant genre — Professor Malcolm Bradbury
(the novel) the literary class or genre represented by novels
[Italian novella, short for novella storia new story, from Latin novellus, dimin. of novus new]