The 120 Days of Sodom and Other Writings Chapter Summary & Analysis - Reflections on the Novel Summary

Reflections on the Novel Summary

"Reflections on the Novel" is an essay in which Sade traces the roots of the form of the novel and explains his theory on what makes a good novel. He begins by tracing the source of the novel to the first people who imagined the idea of immortal Gods. Sade believes these people are the Egyptians. It is when man began to imagine stories of these eternal beings that the novel is born, he believes. The motivation for its formation is man's two "weaknesses," as Sade calls them, "the need to pray and to love" (p. 99.) These form the basis for all novels, and being universal, Sade argues, show that the novel is not really unique to any one nation or people. Some peoples have shown themselves to be more receptive to these works of fiction, however, and Sade traces them from the Greeks up through the modern English...
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