Book series

Last updated

A book series is a sequence of books having certain characteristics in common that are formally identified together as a group. Book series can be organized in different ways, such as written by the same author, or marketed as a group by their publisher.

Contents

Publishers' reprint series

Collection of the Penguin Books series Little Black Classics Penguin Little Black Classics.jpg
Collection of the Penguin Books series Little Black Classics

Reprint series of public domain fiction (and sometimes nonfiction) books appeared as early as the 18th century, with the series The Poets of Great Britain Complete from Chaucer to Churchill (founded by British publisher John Bell in 1777). [1]

In 1841 the German Tauchnitz publishing firm launched the Collection of British and American Authors, a reprint series of inexpensive paperbound editions of both public domain and copyrighted fiction and nonfiction works. [2] This book series was unique for paying living authors of the works published even though copyright protection did not exist between nations in the 19th century.

Later British reprint series were to include the Routledge's Railway Library (George Routledge, 1848–99), the Oxford World's Classics (Oxford University Press, from 1901), the Everyman's Library (J. M. Dent, from 1906), the Penguin Classics (Penguin Books, from 1945) and the Penguin English Library (from 1963).

Reprint series were also published in the United States, including the Modern Library (Boni & Liveright, from 1917), in Germany, including the Universal-Bibliothek (Reclam, from 1867), [3] and in most other countries of the world.

Fiction books

A novel sequence is a set or series of novels which share common themes, characters, or settings, but where each novel has its own title and free-standing storyline, and can thus be read independently or out of sequence. A novel sequence contains story arcs or themes that cross over several books, rather than simply sharing one or more characters.

Fictional series typically share a common setting, story arc, set of characters or timeline. They are common in genre fiction, particularly crime fiction, adventure fiction, and speculative fiction, as well as in children's literature.

Some works in a series can stand alone—they can be read in any order, as each book makes few, if any, reference to past events, and the characters seldom, if ever, change. Many of these series books may be published in a numbered series. Examples of such series are works like The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and Nick Carter.

Collection of the seven books in the Harry Potter series Harry Potter british books.jpg
Collection of the seven books in the Harry Potter series

Some series do have their characters go through changes, and make references to past events. Typically such series are published in the order of their internal chronology, so that the next book published follows the previous book. How much these changes matter will vary from series to series (and reader to reader). For some, it may be minor—characters might get engaged, change jobs, etc., but it does not affect the main storyline. Examples of this type include Tony Hillerman's Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn books. In other series, the changes are major and the books must be read in order to be fully enjoyed. Examples of this type include the Harry Potter series.

There are some book series that are not really proper series, but more of a single work so large that it must be published over two or more books. Examples of this type include The Lord of the Rings volumes or the Dark Tower series by Stephen King.

Some authors make it difficult to list their books in a numerical order when they do not release each work in its 'proper' order by the story's internal chronology. They might 'jump' back in time to early adventures of the characters, writing works that must be placed before or between previously published works. Thus, the books in a series are sometimes enumerated according to the internal chronology rather than in publication order, depending on the intended purpose for the list. Examples of this series include works from the Chronicles of Narnia , where the fifth book published, The Horse and His Boy , is actually set during the time of the first book, and the sixth book published, The Magician's Nephew is actually set long before the first book. This was done intentionally by C. S. Lewis, a scholar of medieval literature. Medieval literature did not always tell a story chronologically.

Definitions

There is no useful, formal demarcation between novel sequences and multi-part novels. Novels that are related may or may not fall into a clear sequence. It is also debatable whether a trilogy is long enough and whether its parts are discrete enough to qualify as a novel sequence.[ citation needed ]

For example, the Barchester novels of Anthony Trollope are only loosely related, although they contain a recurring cast of characters; his political novels about the Pallisers have a tighter connection and dynamic. [4] A strict definition might exclude both.

History

With precedents such as Madeleine de Scudéry's magnum opus, Artamène, the novel sequence was a product of the nineteenth century, with James Fenimore Cooper's works appearing in the 1820s, and Anthony Trollope's Barchester books in the 1850s. In French literature, Honoré de Balzac's ambitious La Comédie humaine, a set of nearly 100 novels, novellas and short stories with some recurring characters, started to come together during the 1830s. Émile Zola's Rougon-Macquart cycle is a family saga, a format that later became a popular fictional form, going beyond the conventional three-volume novel.

A roman-fleuve (French, literally "river-novel") is an extended sequence of novels of which the whole acts as a commentary for a society or an epoch, and which continually deals with a central character, community or a saga within a family. The river metaphor implies a steady, broad dynamic lending itself to a perspective. Each volume makes up a complete novel by itself, but the entire cycle exhibits unifying characteristics. [5]

The metaphor of the roman-fleuve was coined by Romain Rolland to describe his 10-volume cycle Jean-Christophe . In the preface to the seventh volume, Dans la maison (1908/1909) he wrote: "When you see a man, do you ask yourself whether he is a novel or a poem? ... Jean-Christophe has always seemed to me to flow like a river; I have said as much from the first pages."

The term has subsequently been applied to other French novel sequences, particularly of the years between the world wars, notably:

The 19th-century predecessors may be distinguished as being rather "family sagas", as their stories are from the perspective of a single family, rather than society as a whole.

Marcel Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu has come to be regarded as a definitive roman fleuve. Today, however, its seven volumes are generally considered to be a single novel. [6]

Proust's work was immensely influential, particularly on British novelists of the middle of the twentieth century who did not favour modernism. Some of those follow the example of Anthony Powell, [7] a Proust disciple, but consciously adapting the technique to depict social change, rather than change in high society. This was a step beyond the realist novels of Arnold Bennett (the Clayhanger books) or John Galsworthy.

Twentieth century

The twenty-novel Aubrey-Maturin series by the English author Patrick O'Brian has been called perhaps the best-loved roman fleuve of the twentieth century: "[an] epic of two heroic yet believably realistic men that would in some ways define a generation". [8]

Development of the novel sequence

Although sequences of genre fiction are sometimes not considered to be romans-fleuves, novel sequences are particularly common in science fiction and epic fantasy genres.[ citation needed ]

The introduction of the preconstructed novel sequence is often attributed to E. E. Doc Smith, with his Lensman books.[ citation needed ] Such sequences, from contemporary authors, tend to be more clearly defined than earlier examples. Authors are now more likely to announce an overall series title, or write in round numbers such as 12 volumes. These characteristics are not those of the classical model forms, and become more like the franchises of the film industry.[ citation needed ]

Other examples

Publishers' nonfiction series

Notable nonfiction book series for the general public have included:

Academic and scholarly publications

In scholarly and academic publishing, scientific and non-fiction books that are released serially (in successive parts) once a year, or less often, are also called a series. (Publications that are released more often than once a year are known as periodicals.) The connection among books belonging to such a series can be by discipline, focus, approach, type of work, or geographic location. Examples of such series include the "Antwerp Working Papers in Linguistics", "Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile", "Garland Reference Library", "Canterbury Tales Project", "Early English Text Society", and "Cambridge Companions to Music".

Compared with editorial collection

Book series can be compared with editorial collection, a type of serial publication which is common in the Romance-speaking world, especially in France. Although the two are similar in many ways, book series and editorial collection differ because books in a series generally have a common subject, character, or universe; in other words, a set of volumes that are related to each other by certain thematic elements. While books in a collection do not necessarily have a common subject, or a specific order, but with a certain affinity in the content of books (collections on art, on religion, on science...), as well as in the format, spine and page layout, even grammage, number of pages and style of typeface. [13] [14]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">August Derleth</span> American writer

August William Derleth was an American writer and anthologist. He was the first book publisher of the writings of H. P. Lovecraft. He made contributions to the Cthulhu Mythos and the cosmic horror genre and helped found the publisher Arkham House. Derleth was also a leading American regional writer of his day, as well as prolific in several other genres, including historical fiction, poetry, detective fiction, science fiction, and biography. Notably, he created the fictional detective Solar Pons, a pastiche of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Moorcock</span> English writer, editor, critic (born 1939)

Michael John Moorcock is an English–American writer, particularly of science fiction and fantasy, who has published a number of well-received literary novels as well as comic thrillers, graphic novels and non-fiction. He has worked as an editor and is also a successful musician. He is best known for his novels about the character Elric of Melniboné, which were a seminal influence on the field of fantasy in the 1960s and 1970s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marcel Proust</span> French novelist, literary critic, and essayist (1871–1922)

Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust was a French novelist, literary critic, and essayist who wrote the monumental novel À la recherche du temps perdu which was published in seven volumes between 1913 and 1927. He is considered by critics and writers to be one of the most influential authors of the 20th century.

<i>In Search of Lost Time</i> 1913–1927 novel in seven volumes by Marcel Proust

In Search of Lost Time, first translated into English as Remembrance of Things Past, and sometimes referred to in French as La Recherche, is a novel in seven volumes by French author Marcel Proust. This early 20th-century work is his most prominent, known both for its length and its theme of involuntary memory. The most famous example of this is the "episode of the madeleine", which occurs early in the first volume.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crime fiction</span> Genre of fiction focusing on crime

Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a crime, often a murder. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as historical fiction or science fiction, but the boundaries are indistinct. Crime fiction has several subgenres, including detective fiction, courtroom drama, hard-boiled fiction, and legal thrillers. Most crime drama focuses on crime investigation and does not feature the courtroom. Suspense and mystery are key elements that are nearly ubiquitous to the genre.

In literary criticism, stream of consciousness is a narrative mode or method that attempts "to depict the multitudinous thoughts and feelings which pass through the mind" of a narrator. It is usually in the form of an interior monologue which is disjointed or has irregular punctuation. The term was first used in 1855 and was first applied to a literary technique in 1918. While critics have pointed to various literary precursors, it was not until the 20th century that this technique was fully developed by modernist writers such as Marcel Proust, James Joyce, Dorothy Richardson and Virginia Woolf.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">English novel</span> Novel as a concept in English-language literature

The English novel is an important part of English literature. This article mainly concerns novels, written in English, by novelists who were born or have spent a significant part of their lives in England, Scotland, Wales, or Northern Ireland. However, given the nature of the subject, this guideline has been applied with common sense, and reference is made to novels in other languages or novelists who are not primarily British, where appropriate.

<i>Phineas Finn</i> 1869 novel by Anthony Trollope

Phineas Finn is a novel by Anthony Trollope and the name of its leading character. The novel was first published as a monthly serial from 1867 to 1868 and issued in book form in 1869. It is the second of the "Palliser" series of novels. Its sequel, Phineas Redux, is the fourth novel in the series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paperback</span> Book with a paper or paperboard cover

A paperback book is one with a thick paper or paperboard cover, and often held together with glue rather than stitches or staples. In contrast, hardback (hardcover) books are bound with cardboard covered with cloth, leather, paper, or plastic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lin Carter</span> American fantasy writer, editor, poet and critic

Linwood Vrooman Carter was an American author of science fiction and fantasy, as well as an editor, poet and critic. He usually wrote as Lin Carter; known pseudonyms include H. P. Lowcraft and Grail Undwin. He is best known for his work in the 1970s as editor of the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series, which introduced readers to many overlooked classics of the fantasy genre.

A Dance to the Music of Time is a 12-volume roman-fleuve by English writer Anthony Powell, published between 1951 and 1975 to critical acclaim. The story is an often comic examination of movements and manners, power and passivity in English political, cultural and military life in the mid-20th century. The books were inspired by the painting of the same name by French artist Nicolas Poussin.

Young adult literature (YA) is typically written for readers aged 12 to 18 and includes most of the themes found in adult fiction, such as friendship, substance abuse, alcoholism, and sexuality. Stories that focus on the challenges of youth may be further categorized as social or coming-of-age novels.

<i>The Baroque Cycle</i> Novel series by Neal Stephenson

The Baroque Cycle is a series of novels by American writer Neal Stephenson. It was published in three volumes containing eight books in 2003 and 2004. The story follows the adventures of a sizable cast of characters living amidst some of the central events of the late 17th and early 18th centuries in Europe, Africa, Asia, and Central America. Despite featuring a literary treatment consistent with historical fiction, Stephenson has characterized the work as science fiction, because of the presence of some anomalous occurrences and the work's particular emphasis on themes relating to science and technology. The sciences of cryptology and numismatics feature heavily in the series, as they do in some of Stephenson's other works.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frances Milton Trollope</span> English novelist

Frances Milton Trollope, also known as Fanny Trollope, was an English novelist who wrote as Mrs. Trollope or Mrs. Frances Trollope. Her book, Domestic Manners of the Americans (1832), observations from a trip to the United States, is the best known.

<i>Lucky Starr</i> series Juvenile science fiction book series by Isaac Asimov

Lucky Starr is the hero of a series of science fiction books by Isaac Asimov, using the pen name "Paul French" and intended for children.

Leslie Barringer (1895–1968) was an English editor and author of historical novels and historical fantasy novels, best known for the latter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Three-volume novel</span> Form of publishing a novel/series in 3 volumes

The three-volume novel was a standard form of publishing for British fiction during the nineteenth century. It was a significant stage in the development of the modern novel as a form of popular literature in Western culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Novel</span> Substantial work of narrative fiction

A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The English word to describe such a work derives from the Italian: novella for "new", "news", or "short story ", itself from the Latin: novella, a singular noun use of the neuter plural of novellus, diminutive of novus, meaning "new". According to Margaret Doody, the novel has "a continuous and comprehensive history of about two thousand years", with its origins in the Ancient Greek and Roman novel, Medieval Chivalric romance, and in the tradition of the Italian Renaissance novella. The ancient romance form was revived by Romanticism, in the historical romances of Walter Scott and the Gothic novel. Some novelists, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Ann Radcliffe, and John Cowper Powys, preferred the term "romance". M. H. Abrams and Walter Scott have argued that a novel is a fiction narrative that displays a realistic depiction of the state of a society, while the romance encompasses any fictitious narrative that emphasizes marvellous or uncommon incidents. Works of fiction that include marvellous or uncommon incidents are also novels, including Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, and Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. Such "romances" should not be confused with the genre fiction romance novel, which focuses on romantic love.

Éditions Grasset is a French publishing house founded in 1907 by Bernard Grasset (1881–1955). Grasset publishes French and foreign literature, essays, novels and children's books, among others.

<i>Men of Good Will</i> Roman-fleuve by Jules Romains

Les Hommes de bonne volonté is an epic roman-fleuve by French writer Jules Romains, published in 27 volumes between 1932 and 1946. It has been classified both as a novel cycle and a novel and, at two million words and 7,892 pages, has been cited as one of the longest novels ever written.

References

  1. John Feather, A History of British Publishing, London: Croom Helm, 1988, p. 117.
  2. Michael S. Suarez and H. R. Woudhuysen, eds., The Oxford Companion to the Book. Oxford University Press, 2010. Vol. 2. p. 1194.
  3. Reclams Universal-Bibliothek (Philipp Reclam jun) - Book Series List (Buchreihe), publishinghistory.com. Retrieved 9 July 2019.
  4. Felber, Lynette (1995). Gender and Genre in Novels Without End: The British Roman-fleuve. University Press of Florida. p. 33. ISBN   978-0-8130-1402-9.
  5. Encyclopaedia Britannica
  6. Douglas-Fairhurst, Robert. "In Search of Marcel Proust". The Observer , 17 November 2002.
  7. Powell was an anti-modernist modernist, according to Christopher Hitchens; see Unacknowledged Legislation (2000) p. 197, Powell's Way, first published in the New York Review of Books 28 May 1998.
  8. King, Dean (2000). Patrick O'Brian: A life revealed. London: Hodder & Stoughton. p. 207. ISBN   0-340-792558.
  9. Prawer, Siegbert Salomon (2009). A Cultural Citizen of the World: Sigmund Freud's Knowledge and Use of British and American Writings. MHRA. p. 105. ISBN   978-1-906540-42-5.
  10. 1 2 3 Scanlan, Margaret (14 July 2014). Traces of Another Time: History and Politics in Postwar British Fiction. Princeton University Press. p. 158. ISBN   978-1-4008-6093-7.
  11. Great Lives (Gerald Duckworth & Co., Ltd), seriesofseries.com. Retrieved 9 July 2019.
  12. Teach Yourself (E.U.P./Hodder & Stoughton; Teach Yourself Books) - Book Series List, publishinghistory.com. Retrieved 9 July 2019.
  13. "Collection, série et numéro". commission-fel-clil.org (in French). Retrieved 13 December 2021.
  14. García Oliva, José (27 May 2008). "Colecciones y series: diferenciamos". diariodejerez.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 13 December 2021.

Further reading