The novel originated in the early 18th century after the Italian word "novella," which was

used for stories in the medieval period. Its identity has evolved and it is now considered
to mean a work of prose fiction over 50,000 words. Novels focus on character
development more than plot. In any genre, it is the study of the human psyche.
The Beginning

The ancestors of the novel were Elizabethan prose fiction and French heroic romances,
which were long narratives about contemporary characters who behaved nobly. The
novel came into popular awareness towards the end of the 1700s, due to a growing
middle class with more leisure time to read and money to buy books. Public interest in
the human character led to the popularity of autobiographies, biographies, journals,
diaries and memoirs.

Blazing World
is a fanciful depiction of a satirical, utopian kingdom in another world (with different
stars in the sky) that can be reached via the North Pole. It is "the only known work of
utopian fiction by a woman in the 17th century, as well as one of the earliest examples
of what we now call 'science fiction' although it is also a romance, an adventure story,
and even autobiography."A young woman enters this other world, becomes the empress
of a society composed of various species of talking animals, and organizes an invasion
back into her world complete with submarines towed by the "fish men" and the dropping

of "fire stones" by the "bird men" to confound the enemies of her homeland, the
Kingdom of Esfi.The work was republished in 1668 with Cavendish's Observations upon
Experimental Philosophy and thus functioned as an imaginative component to what was
otherwise a reasoned endeavour in 17th century science.
Cavendish's book inspired a notable sonnet by her husband, William Cavendish, 1st
Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, which celebrates her imaginative powers. The sonnet
was included in her book.
English Novels
The early English novels concerned themselves with complex, middle-class characters
struggling with their morality and circumstances. "Pamela," a series of fictional letters
written in 1741 by Samuel Richardson, is considered the first real English novel. Other
early novelists include Daniel Defoe, who wrote "Robinson Crusoe" (1719) and "Moll
Flanders" (1722), although his characters were not fully realized enough to be
considered full-fledged novels. Jane Austen is the author of "Pride and Prejudice"
(1812), and "Emma" (1816), considered the best early English novels of manners.

Example:

Pride and Prejudice- Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen tells us the heart-warming story of getting the man
of your dreams and all the troubles that are connected with it.
The Bennett family are living a calm and quiet life in Longbourn. But tempers are rising
high when news enters the house that a certain Mr. Bingley, a young man of good
fortune, is going to become their neighbour. What a chance for silly Mrs. Bennett to get

one of her five daughters married! Will it be her eldest, the beautiful and charming Jane,
who gets all of Mr. Bingleys attention? Or is it going to be her less beautiful, but very
sensible and witty sister Elizabeth, who will make the big match?
With the arrival of Mr. Bingley, his proud and mysterious friend Mr. Darcy, and, later in
the story, clergyman Mr. Collins and Officer Mr. Wickham, Mrs. Bennett finds herself
surrounded by possible matches for her daughters. With embarrassing simplemindedness and not exactly subtle advances she tries her best to get those mens
attention for her daughters. And except Mr. Collins, she succeeds in having each of
them married to one of her daughters by the end of the story: Mr. Bingley finds himself
attached to Jane, while Mr. Darcy turns out to be the perfect husband for Elizabeth, and
Mr. Wickham, the villain of the story, finally has to settle for Lydia, the youngest of the
girls.
Mr. Collins, an unintentionally funny pastor and a cousin of Mr. Bennetts, who is to
inherit the Bennett estate after the death of Mr. Bennett, firstly sees it as his duty to
propose to one of the Bennett girls. But after being rejected by Elizabeth, he finally turns
his eyes on her good friend Charlotte Lucas, and marries her instead.
Looking at Jane, it seems predictable that she is going to have the least trouble with her
man, because Mr. Bingley immediately falls in love with her, and she, too, is very fond of
him. But due to her mothers silliness and stupidity, and unfortunately also to Janes
reservation, Mr. Darcy gets the impression that his dear friend is only being liked for his
money, and that Janes only interest is to be married to a wealthy man. For this reason,
he gives his friend the advice to leave her. Mr. Bingley follows this advice, and Jane
remains heartbroken. But due to fortunate circumstances and the intervention of Mr.
Darcy himself, they finally get together.
Talking about Mr. Darcy, there seems to be nothing that he and Elizabeth have in
common at the beginning of the story: She has an uncomplicated, funny and witty
nature; he is rather snobbish, proud and reserved. Almost each time they meet, things
end up in a quarrel, and Elizabeth hates and teases him frankly. But her eyes open
when Mr. Wickham, the former centre of her admiration, turns out to be a liar, and she
has to admit that she had done injustice to Mr. Darcy, who is willing to forgive her. They
finally get married and live happily ever after.

Novels in the 19th Century

Romantic novels
The first half of the 19th century was influenced by the romanticism of the previous era.
The focus was now on nature and imagination rather than intellect and emotion. Gothic
is a strain of the romantic novel with its emphasis on the supernatural. Famous romantic
novels include "Jane Eyre" (1847) by Charlotte Bronte, the prototype of many
succeeding novels about governesses and mystery men; "Wuthering Heights" (1847) a
Gothic romance by Emily Bronte; "The Scarlet Letter" (1850), and "The House of Seven
Gables" (1851), gothic, romantic tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne about puritanism and
guilt; and "Moby Dick," (1851) Herman Melville's work on the nature of good and evil.

Bram Stolkers Dracula

The story is told in epistolary format, as a series of letters, diary entries, and ships' log
entries, whose narrators are the novel's protagonists, and occasionally supplemented
with newspaper clippings relating events not directly witnessed. The events portrayed in
the novel take place largely in England and Transylvania during 1893.
The tale begins with Jonathan Harker, a newly qualified English solicitor, visiting Count
Dracula in the Carpathian Mountains on the border ofTransylvania, Bukovina,
and Moldavia, to provide legal support for a real estate transaction overseen by
Harker's employer. At first enticed by Dracula's gracious manners, Harker soon realizes
that he is Dracula's prisoner. Wandering the Count's castle against Dracula's
admonition, Harker encounters three female vampires, called "the sisters", from whom
he is rescued by Dracula. After the preparations are made, Dracula leaves Transylvania
and abandons Harker to the sisters. Harker barely escapes from the castle with his life.

Not long afterward, a Russian ship, the Demeter, having weighed anchor at Varna, runs
aground on the shores of Whitby. The captain's lognarrates the gradual disappearance
of the entire crew, until the captain alone remained, himself bound to the helm to
maintain course. An animal resembling "a large dog" is seen leaping ashore. The ship's
cargo is described as silver sand and boxes of "mould", or earth, from Transylvania.
Soon Dracula is tracking Harker's fiance, Wilhelmina "Mina" Murray, and her
friend, Lucy Westenra. Lucy receives three marriage proposals from Dr. John
Seward, Quincey Morris, and the Hon. Arthur Holmwood (later Lord Godalming). Lucy
accepts Holmwood's proposal while turning down Seward and Morris, but all remain
friends. Dracula communicates with Seward's patient Renfield, an insane man who
wishes to consume insects, spiders, birds, and rats to absorb their "life force", and
therefore assimilated to Dracula himself. Renfield is able to detect Dracula's presence
and supplies clues accordingly.
When Lucy begins to waste away suspiciously, Seward invites his old teacher, Abraham
Van Helsing, who immediately determines the cause of Lucy's condition but refuses to
disclose it. While both doctors are absent, Lucy and her mother are attacked by a wolf;
Mrs.Westenra, who has a heart condition, dies of fright, and Lucy dies soon after.
Following Lucy's death, the newspapers report children being stalked in the night by, in
their words, a "bloofer lady" (i.e., "beautiful lady"). [2] Van Helsing, knowing Lucy has
become a vampire, confides in Seward, Lord Godalming, and Morris. The suitors and
Van Helsing track her down and, after a confrontation with her, stake her
heart, behead her, and fill her mouth with garlic. Around the same time, Jonathan
Harker arrives from Budapest, where Mina marries him after his escape, and he and
Mina join the coalition against Dracula.
After Dracula learns of Van Helsing's plot against him, he attacks Mina on three
occasions, and feeds Mina his own blood to control her. Under his influence, Mina
oscillates from consciousness to a semi-trance during which she perceives Dracula's
surroundings and actions. After the protagonists sterilize all of his lairs in London by
putting pieces of consecrated host in each box of Transylvanian earth, Dracula flees to
Transylvania, pursued by Van Helsing and the others under the guidance of Mina. In
Transylvania, Van Helsing repulses and later destroys the vampire "sisters". Upon
discovering Dracula being transported by Gypsies, Harker shears Dracula through the
throat with a kukri while the mortally wounded Quincey stabs the Count in the heart with
a Bowie knife. Dracula crumbles to dust, and Mina is restored to health.
The book closes with a note on Mina's and Jonathan's married life and the birth of their
son, whom they name after all four members of the party, but address as "Quincey".

Victorian Novels
The novel became established as the dominant literary form during the reign of Queen
Victoria of England (1837-1901). Victorian novelists portrayed middle-class, virtuous
heroes responding to society and learning wrong from right through a series of human
errors. Sir Walter Scott published three-volume novels and ingeniously made them
affordable to the general public by making them available for purchase in monthly
instalments. This marketing tactic leads to the writing innovation of sub-climaxes as a
way to leave readers wanting more each month. Notable Victorian authors include
Charles Dickens, considered the best English Victorian novelist, who wrote "A
Christmas Carol" (1843) and Lewis Carroll, (Charles Ludwidge Dodgson), who wrote
"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" (1864) and "Through the Looking-Glass" (1871).

Alices Adventures in Wonderland

Alice is sitting with her sister outdoors when she spies a White Rabbit with a pocket
watch. Fascinated by the sight, she follows the rabbit down the hole. She falls for a long
time, and finds herself in a long hallway full of doors. There is also a key on the table,
which unlocks a tiny door; through this door, she spies a beautiful garden. She longs to
get there, but the door is too small. Soon, she finds a drink with a note that asks her to
drink it. There is later a cake with a note that tells her to eat; Alice uses both, but she
cannot seem to get a handle on things, and is always either too large to get through the
door or too small to reach the key.
While she is tiny, she slips and falls into a pool of water. She realizes that this little sea
is made of tears she cried while a giant. She swims to shore with a number of animals,
most notably a sensitive mouse, but manages to offend everyone by talking about her

cat's ability to catch birds and mice. Left alone, she goes on through the wood and runs
into the White Rabbit. He mistakes her for his maid and sends her to fetch some things
from his house. While in the White Rabbit's home, she drinks another potion and
becomes too huge to get out through the door. She eventually finds a little cake which,
when eaten, makes her small again.
In the wood again, she comes across a Caterpillar sitting on a mushroom. He gives her
some valuable advice, as well as a valuable tool: the two sides of the mushroom, which
can make Alice grow larger and smaller as she wishes. The first time she uses them,
she stretches her body out tremendously. While stretched out, she pokes her head into
the branches of a tree and meets a Pigeon. The Pigeon is convinced that Alice is a
serpent, and though Alice tries to reason with her the Pigeon tells her to be off.
Alice gets herself down to normal proportions and continues her trek through the woods.
In a clearing she comes across a little house and shrinks herself down enough to get
inside. It is the house of the Duchess; the Duchess and the Cook are battling fiercely,
and they seem unconcerned about the safety of the baby that the Duchess is nursing.
Alice takes the baby with her, but the child turns into a pig and trots off into the woods.
Alice next meets the Cheshire cat (who was sitting in the Duchess's house, but said
nothing). The Cheshire cat helps her to find her way through the woods, but he warns
her that everyone she meets will be mad.
Alice goes to the March Hare's house, where she is treated to a Mad Tea Party. Present
are the March Hare, the Hatter, and the Dormouse. Ever since Time stopped working
for the Hatter, it has always been six o'clock; it is therefore always teatime. The
creatures of the Mad Tea Party are some of the must argumentative in all of
Wonderland. Alice leaves them and finds a tree with a door in it: when she looks
through the door, she spies the door-lined hallway from the beginning of her adventures.
This time, she is prepared, and she manages to get to the lovely garden that she saw
earlier. She walks on through, and finds herself in the garden of the Queen of Hearts.
There, three gardeners (with bodies shaped like playing cards) are painting the roses
red. If the Queen finds out that they planted white roses, she'll have them beheaded.
The Queen herself soon arrives, and she does order their execution; Alice helps to hide
them in a large flowerpot.
The Queen invites Alice to play croquet, which is a very difficult game in Wonderland, as
the balls and mallets are live animals. The game is interrupted by the appearance of the
Cheshire cat, whom the King of Hearts immediately dislikes.
The Queen takes Alice to the Gryphon, who in turn takes Alice to the Mock Turtle. The
Gryphon and the Mock Turtle tell Alice bizarre stories about their school under the sea.

The Mock Turtles sings a melancholy song about turtle soup, and soon afterward the
Gryphon drags Alice off to see the trial of the Knave of Hearts.
The Knave of Hearts has been accused of stealing the tarts of the Queen of Hearts, but
the evidence against him is very bad. Alice is appalled by the ridiculous proceedings.
She also begins to grow larger. She is soon called to the witness stand; by this time she
has grown to giant size. She refuses to be intimidated by the bad logic of the court and
the bluster of the King and Queen of Hearts. Suddenly, the cards all rise up and attack
her, at which point she wakes up. Her adventures in Wonderland have all been a
fantastic dream.

Realism and Naturalism

Industrialisation spawns naturalism
The rise of industrialization in the 19th century precipitated a trend toward writing that
depicted realism. Novels began to depict characters who were not entirely good or bad,
rejecting the idealism and romanticism of the previous genre. Realism evolved quickly
into naturalism which portrayed harsher circumstances and pessimistic characters
rendered powerless by the forces of their environment. Naturalist novels include "Uncle
Tom's Cabin" (1852) by Harriet Beecher Stowe, which was a major catalyst for the
American Civil War; "Tom Sawyer" (1876) and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn"
(1885), the latter of which is considered the great American novel written by Mark Twain
(Samuel Langhorne Clemens).
Example:

120 Days of Sodom by Donatien Alphonse Franois

The novel is set out to a strict timetable. For each of the first four months, November to
February, the prostitutes take turns to tell five stories each day, relating to the fetishes of
their most interesting clients, and thus totalling 150 stories for each month (in theory at
least; Sade made a few mistakes as he was apparently unable to go back and review
his work as he went along). These passions are separated into four categories simple,
complex, criminal and murderous escalating in complexity and savagery.
November: the simple passions these anecdotes are the only ones written in detail.
They are only considered 'simple' in terms of them not including actual sexual
penetration. The anecdotes include men who like to masturbate in the faces of sevenyear-old girls, and indulge in urine drinking and coprophagia/scatology. As they do
throughout the story-telling sections, the four libertines Blangis, the Bishop, Curval
and Durcet indulge in activities similar to those they've heard with their daughters and
the kidnapped children.
December: the complex passions these anecdotes involve more extravagant
perversions, such as men who vaginally rape female children, indulge
in incest and flagellation. Tales of men who indulge in sacrilegious activities are also
recounted, such as a man who enjoyed having sex with nuns whilst
watching Mass being performed. The female children are deflowered vaginally during
the evening orgies with other elements of that month's stories such as whipping
occasionally thrown in.
January: the criminal passions tales are told of perverts who indulge in criminal
activities, albeit stopping short of murder. They include men who sodomise girls as
young as three, men who prostitute their own daughters to other perverts and watch the
proceedings, and others who mutilate women by tearing off fingers or burning them with
red-hot pokers. During the month, the four libertines begin having anal sex with the
sixteen male and female children who, along with the other victims, are treated more
brutally as time goes on, with regular beatings and whippings.
February: the murderous passions the final 150 anecdotes are those involving murder.
They include perverts who skin children alive, disembowel pregnant women, burn alive
entire families, and kill newborn babies in front of their mothers. The final tale is the only
one since the simple passions of November written in detail. It features the 'Hell
Libertine' who masturbates whilst watching fifteen teenage girls being simultaneously
tortured to death. During this month, the libertines brutally kill three of the four daughters
they have between them, along with four of the female children and two of the male
ones. The murder of one of the girls, 15-year-old Augustine, is described in great detail,
with the tortures she is subjected to including having flesh stripped from her limbs, her

vagina being mutilated and her intestines being pulled out of her sliced-open belly and
burned.
March this is the shortest of the segments, Sade summarising things even more by
this final point in the novel. He lists the days on which the surviving children and many
of the other characters are disposed of, although he does not give any details. Instead
he leaves a footnote to himself pointing out his intention on detailing things more in a
future revision.
It is perhaps significant that Sade was interested in the manner in which sexual fetishes
are developed, as are his primary characters, who urge the storytellers to remind them,
in later stages, as to what the client in that particular anecdote enjoyed doing in their
younger years. There are therefore a number of recurring figures, such as a man who,
in the early tales, enjoys pricking women's breasts with pins and, at his reappearance in
the tales in the 'murderous passions' category, delights in killing women by raping them
atop a bed of nails. At the end of the novel, Sade draws up a list of the characters with a
note of those who were killed and when, and also those who survived.
Modern Novels
The 20th century is divided into two phases of literature--modern literature (1900-1945)
and contemporary literature (1945 to the present), also referred to as postmodern. The
characters in modern and contemporary novels questioned the existence of God, the
supremacy of the human reason, and the nature of reality. Novels from this era reflected
great events such as The Great Depression, World War II, Hiroshima, the cold war and
communism. Famous modern novels include "To The Lighthouse" (1927) by English
novelist and essayist Virginia Woolf; "Ulysses" (1921), by Irish novelist and short story
writer James Joyce; "All Quiet on the Western Front" (1929), the most famous World
War I anti-war novel by German novelist and journalist Erich Maria Remarque and "The
Sound and the Fury" (1929) by American novelist and short story writer William
Faulkner, which depicts the decline of the South after the Civil War.

Modern Literature (1900-1945)

Example:

To the Lighthouse Summary

Mrs. Ramsay, Mr. Ramsay (a philosopher), their eight children, and several guests are
staying at the family's summer home in the Hebrides, on the Isle of Skye, just before the
start of World War I. Just across the bay is a lighthouse, which becomes a prominent
presence in the family's life. James Ramsay, the youngest child, wants to go to the
Lighthouse the next day, but Mr. Ramsay crushes his hopes, saying that the weather
will not be pleasant enough for the trip. James resents his father for his insensitivity as
well as for his emotional demands on Mrs. Ramsay, and this resentment persists
throughout the novel.
The houseguests include Lily Briscoe, an unmarried painter who begins a portrait of
Mrs. Ramsay; Charles Tansley, who is not very well liked; William Bankes, whom Mrs.
Ramsay wants Lily to marry, but Lily never does; and Paul Rayley and Minta Doyle, who
become engaged during their visit.
Mrs. Ramsay spends the afternoon reading to James as Lily watches her from the lawn,
attempting to paint her portrait. Mr. Ramsay also watches her as he walks and worries
about his intellectual shortcomings, afraid that he will never achieve greatness. Andrew
Ramsay,Nancy Ramsay, Paul Rayley, and Minta Doyle take a walk on the beach, where
Paul proposes to Minta.
For the evening, Mrs. Ramsay has planned a dinner for fifteen guests
including Augustus Carmichael, a friend and poet. The dinner gets off to a shaky start
as Mr. Ramsay becomes angry with Mr. Carmichael for requesting more soup and no
one seems to be enjoying the conversation. However, at a certain magical moment,

everyone in the room seems to connect, and Mrs. Ramsay hopes that something
permanent will result from this connection. Following dinner, Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay sit
together in the parlor, and Mrs. Ramsay finds that she unable to tell her husband that
she loves him. Nevertheless, though their unspoken communication she is sure that he
knows. The Ramsays and their guests go to sleep.
In the second section of the novel, "Time Passes," the house is abandoned for ten
years, suffering the ravages of time, neglect, and decay. Mrs. Ramsay unexpectedly
dies one night, as does Prue in an illness related to childbirth. Andrew is the third
Ramsay to die when he is killed instantaneously in battle. Mrs.McNab goes to the house
occasionally to tidy it up and restore it, but it is not until she hears word that the
remaining Ramsays will be returning for the summer that she gets everything in order.
In "The Lighthouse," all of the living Ramsays, as well as other guests (including Lily
Briscoe), return to the summer home.Mr. Ramsay decides that he, James, and Cam
Ramsay will finally take the trip to the Lighthouse, but the children are resentful of his
domineering manner. He is angry about delays on the morning of the trip, and he
approaches Lily for sympathy, but she is unable to feel any sympathy for him until he
has already set off on the journey, when it is too late. Just as Mr. Ramsay decides to
finally take this journey, Lily Briscoe decides to finally finish the painting that she started
ten years ago.
On the boat, the children continue to resent their father's self-pity, yet as the ship
approaches the Lighthouse, they find a new tenderness for and connection to him. As
the boat reaches its destination, Lily paints the final stroke on her canvas and finally
achieves her vision.

Contemporary Literature (1945- present)

The Notebook:

A man with a faded, well-worn notebook open in his lap. A woman experiencing a
morning ritual she doesn't understand. Until he begins to read to her. The Notebook is
an achingly tender story about the enduring power of love, a story of miracles that will
stay with you forever.
Set amid the austere beauty of coastal North Carolina in 1946, The Notebook begins
with the story of Noah Calhoun, a rural Southerner returned home from World War II.
Noah, thirty-one, is restoring a plantation home to its former glory, and he is haunted by
images of the beautiful girl he met fourteen years earlier, a girl he loved like no other.
Unable to find her, yet unwilling to forget the summer they spent together, Noah is
content to live with only memories...until she unexpectedly returns to his town to see
him once again.
Allie Nelson, twenty-nine, is now engaged to another man, but realizes that the original
passion she felt for Noah has not dimmed with the passage of time. Still, the obstacles
that once ended their previous relationship remain, and the gulf between their worlds is
too vast to ignore. With her impending marriage only weeks away, Allie is forced to
confront her hopes and dreams for the future, a future that only she can shape.
Like a puzzle within a puzzle, the story of Noah and Allie is just the beginning. As it
unfolds, their tale miraculously becomes something different, with much higher stakes.
The result is a deeply moving portrait of love itself, the tender moments and the
fundamental changes that affect us all. Shining with a beauty that is rarely found in
current literature, The Notebook establishes Nicholas Sparks as a classic storyteller
with a unique insight into the only emotion that really matters.

"I am nothing special, of this I am sure. I am a common man with common thoughts and
I've led a common life. There are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will
soon be forgotten, but I've loved another with all my heart and soul, and to me, this has
always been enough."
And so begins one of the most poignant and compelling love stories you will ever
read...The Notebook

Postmodern Novels
Realism and naturalism paved the way into postmodern surrealistic novels with
characters that were more reflective. The postmodern novel includes magical realism,
metafiction, and the graphic novel. It asserts that man is ruled by a higher power and
that the universe cannot be explained by reason alone. Modern novels exhibit a
playfulness of language, less reliance on traditional values, and experimentation with
how time is conveyed in the story. Postmodern novels include: "The Color Purple"
(1982) by Alice Walker; "In Cold Blood" (1966) by Truman Capote; the non-fiction novel
"Roots" (1976) by Alex Haley; "Fear of Flying" (1973) by Erica Jong; and the leading
magical realist novel, "A Hundred Years of Solitude" (1967) by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Alice Walker's The Color Purple weaves an intricate mosaic of women joined by their
love for each other, the men who abuse them, and the children they care for.
In the first few letters, Celie tells God that she has been raped by her father and that
she is pregnant for the second time with his child. Celie's mother is quite ill and after

cursing Celie, dies, leaving Celie alone to face her father. Celie then turns her attention
to protecting her sister, Nettie, from her father's sexual advances. Celie soon marries
Mr. _______ (later called Albert) after her father strikes a bargain with the older
widower, and Celie finds herself in a loveless marriage, caring for her husband's four
children and being regularly raped and beaten. Celie becomes fixated on Shug Avery, a
glamorous blues singer who is her husband's mistress. Several years later, Celie
eagerly accepts the responsibility of nursing Shug back to health, thus beginning a
lifetime of friendship and love between the two women.
The oldest of Celie's stepchildren, Harpo, marries an independent young women, Sofia,
and soon after, Celie encourages Harpo to beat her into submission, just as all men
have beaten Celie. Sofia later confronts Celie about this betrayal, but that confrontation
leads to a deep and enduring sisterhood, and Sofia remains an independent, strong
woman throughout the novel. The two women create a "Sister's Choice" quilt together
the symbolism of quilts permeates much of the novel. Just as scraps of cloth come
together to form a new, strong, useful product, so, too, can black women come together
to forge a similar strong and useful bond.
Sofia later punches the town's white mayor, an act that lands her in prison and snatches
the independence she so values. By this time, she and Harpo have split up and taken
other lovers, so the women in Sofia's life take on the responsibility of releasing her from
jail. An alliance forms between Celie, Shug, Sofia's sisters, and Squeak, Harpo's
mistress. When trying to help Sofia, Squeak is raped by her uncle, the prison warden,
but in telling her friends about the rape, she becomes stronger, insisting that she will no
longer be called by her nickname and beginning to compose her own blues music. Sofia
is able to leave prison, but she finds herself caged nonetheless, working as a maid in a
white household.
Meanwhile, Nettie has become a missionary in Africa and has written countless letters
to Celie, all of which Albert has hidden. Nettie, in spite of her upbringing, is a selfconfident, strong, faith-filled woman. When Celie discovers Nettie's letters, she not only
catches up on her sister's life, she also discovers that her own two children are alive
and living with a missionary couple with whom Nettie works. Nettie's letters about their
shared African heritage are a tonic to Celie, who becomes stronger and more selfassured every day. That confidence soon turns to furyover her rapes, her beatings,
and the love and affection the men in her life have kept from her. Nettie's letters also
demonstrate parallels between Celie's world and the African world, including the bond
that can develop among the multiple wives of African men, the deep friendship and love
that exists between two women, the deep love of a man for a woman, and the
unrelenting structure of sex roles.

With her new-found strength, Celie confronts her father, whom she has just learned is
her stepfather and not a blood relative, and this brings great relief to Celie, who now
know that her children are not her brother and sister. She also confronts Albert, leaves
him, and moves to Memphis to live with Shug, a move that stuns and pains Albert. In
Memphis, Celie, who started wearing pants when she gained her strength and selfconfidence, opens a business as a pantsmaker. Later, after Shug has taken on a male
lover, Celie visits Albert, and they develop a new bond that eventually grows into love
and respect.
Nettie, still living in Africa, marries the now-widowed man who had adopted her sister's
children, thus becoming a mother to her niece and nephew. Later, when Celie's father
dies, she and Nettie inherit his home, creating financial freedom for the two women. At
the novel's end, the two sisters are reunited, while Albert and Harpo have learned to
take on new roles in the household and in their relationships.
Note that the novel's title is alluded to in Letter 12, when Celie associates the color
purple with royalty and longs for a purple dress. But the title undoubtedly comes from a
passage near the end of the novel, in which Shug says that she believes that it "pisses
God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it."