Novel Reviews: Put Author’s Philosophy into Your Own Words

Jim Rohn said: “A novel is never anything, but a philosophy put into images”. If a writer puts his philosophy into images, you are to see these images with your imagination and put it into words. In novel reviews you will need evaluate critically and summarize author’s work. He/she worked at the novel for years.

You will have days to read this literary work and write a novel review. Let us see how to manage your time during writing.

1. The first precondition of successful novel review writing is reading the work carefully. Focus on two moments. Firstly, find quotations for supporting your arguments. Secondly, catch the air of the book.
2. Summarize the information about the novel in critical works, literary encyclopedias, the Web. Decide what sources you will use in your novel review. Note that you can see I to I with the critic and differ from his opinion.
3. Novel review does not mean mere rendering of the plot. It is aimed to analyze the novel. Explore different aspects of work: principle and minor characters, message, features of author’s style, epoch description, novel’s topicality, author’s background, and critics’ opinions.
4. Mind appropriateness of quotations in your novel review. Citing is not a must, but if you find an apt quote, you may include it as an illustrative example in your novel review. Do not substitute your words for author’s words. Interpretation implies uniqueness of thoughts expressed in your novel review. Author’s attitude to characters and their deeds may not coincide with modern attitude.
5. Mind formatting the quotes. Use one citation style recommended by your instructor throughout the whole novel review.
6. In a novel review you may express your personal opinion. Did you enjoy reading? Would you like to read other novels by this author or his contemporaries? Even if you are not an experienced critic, you can evaluate the literary value of the work and describe its merits and faults.