CLEP Humanities › Answering Other Questions About Nineteenth-Century Fiction
A "serialized" novel refers to a novel that was originally published __________.
in successive editions of a magazine or newspaper
in a limited run
as a shorter piece
in a heavily redacted format
under a pseudonym
Serialized publication was the most common form of initial publication for many novels in the nineteenth century, particularly the works of Charles Dickens. Typically, magazines would publish short sections, usually just a chapter at a time, in each edition of the publication. This form of publication would allow readers to see a novel in small chunks, and eagerly buy up the next edition of the magazine.
What is the novel that begins with the line, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times"?
A Tale of Two Cities
Great Expectations
Les Miserables
Middlemarch
Sense and Sensibility
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times," the opening line from A Tale of Two Cities, is one of the most famous opening lines in literature. It also explains the themes of the novel: Charles Dickens' story of the French Revolution contrasts what the revolutionaries wanted as being noble with the savagery and anarchy caused by this desire.
A bildungsroman refers to a novel in which __________.
a character grows from an adolescent to an adult
the characters are slightly fictionalized versions of real life people
the story is told from multiple perspectives
the narrator has a limited perspective on the story
the characters in the story all have a larger symbolic purpose
A "bildungsroman," which is German for a "coming of age novel," is a novel whose story concerns the development and growth of the main character. Typically, the novel will feature a main character who grows from adolescence to adulthood throughout the story. Classic examples of the genre are David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, and The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger.