Please explain for me what you think James meant when he wrote in “The Art of Fiction,” “A novel is a living thing, all one and continuous, like any other organism, and in proportion as it lives will it be found, that in each of the parts there is something of each of the other parts.

Learning Goal: I’m working on a literature discussion question and need an explanation and answer to help me learn.

Please explain for me what you think James meant when he wrote in “The Art of Fiction,” “A novel is a living thing, all one and continuous, like any other organism, and in proportion as it lives will it be found, that in each of the parts there is something of each of the other parts.”

For a full-text version of “The Art of Fiction,” http://virgil.org/dswo/courses/novel/james-fiction.pdf

Links to an external site.

and p. 411 in the 10th edition: 10th edition of the Norton Anthology textbook

For this essay, as with all essays in this class, you are required to write an essay that is

5-7 paragraphs

Includes an Introduction with a clear thesis that foreshadows the main ideas of the body paragraphs

3-5 body paragraphs based on the paragraph plan discussed in the Module, but as a reminder, that format is:

main idea

quote

analysis of how main idea and quote from literature fit together

Conclusion, then

MLA Works Cited..and note that in-text citations are required in the essay to connect the reader to where quotes and facts come from.

You are not required to use sources outside the book, and if you cite a version of the story or text other than the book or the link provided in the question, that’s fine–just cite it in MLA format.

For more on MLA citation, link to MLA sample paper to use for citation