The novel of circulation, otherwise known as the it-narrative, or object narrative, is a genre of

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

common at one time in

British literature British literature is literature from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands. This article covers British literature in the English language. Anglo-Saxon (Old English) literature is inc ...

, and follows the fortunes of an object, for example a coin, that is passed around between different owners. Sometimes, instead, it involves a pet or other domestic animal, as for example in

Francis Coventry Francis Coventry (1725–1759) was an English cleric and novelist, best known for ''The History of Pompey the Little''. Life A native of Cambridgeshire, he was educated at Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he proceeded B.A. 1748 and M.A. 1752. ...

's ''The History of Pompey the Little'' (1751). This and other such works blended satire with the interest for contemporary readers of a ''

roman à clef ''Roman à clef'' (, anglicised as ), French for ''novel with a key'', is a novel about real-life events that is overlaid with a façade of fiction. The fictitious names in the novel represent real people, and the "key" is the relationship ...

''. They also use objects such as hackney-carriages and bank-notes to interrogate what it meant to live in an increasingly mobile society, and to consider the effect of circulation on human relations.

Examples

*1709

Charles Gildon Charles Gildon (c. 1665 – 1 January 1724), was an English hack writer who was, by turns, a translator, biographer, essayist, playwright, poet, author of fictional letters, fabulist, short story author, and critic. He provided the source for ma ...

, ''The Golden Spy'' has been regarded by modern scholars as "the first, fully-fledged it-narrative in English". But for his contemporaries, it tends to be read as "a Menippean satire, a re-adaptation of Apuleius's ''The Golden Ass'' and a sequel to ''The New Metamorphosis'' .e. Gildon's adaptation of ''The Golden Ass'' in 1708. Later, an episodic structure in which objects "spied" on people became established. Other generic terms used are "object tales" or "spy novels". *1734 Anonymous, ''The Secret History of an Old Shoe'' *1742 Claude Crébillon, ''The Sopha, a Moral Tale'' *1751

''The History of Pompey the Little'' *1753 Susan Smythies, ''The Stage-coach: containing the character of Mr. Manly, and the history of his fellow-travellers'' *1754 Anonymous, ''History and Adventures of a Lady's Slippers and Shoes'' *1760 Edward Phillips, ''The Adventures of a Black Coat'' *1760–5

Charles Johnstone Charles Johnstone (–1800) was an Irish novelist. Prevented by deafness from practising at the Irish Bar, he went to India, where he was proprietor of a newspaper. He wrote one successful book, ''Chrysal, or the Adventures of a Guinea'', a ...

, ''Chrysal; or, The Adventures of a Golden Guinea'' *1767 Charles Perronet, ''Dialogue between the Pulpit and Reading-Desk'' *1769

Tobias Smollett Tobias George Smollett (baptised 19 March 1721 – 17 September 1771) was a Scottish poet and author. He was best known for picaresque novels such as ''The Adventures of Roderick Random'' (1748), ''The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle'' (1751) a ...

, ''

The History and Adventures of an Atom ''The History and Adventures of an Atom'' is a novel by Tobias Smollett, first published in 1769. The novel satirises English politics during the Seven Years' War. Summary The novel is an it-narrative, narrated by an atom in the body of a Lon ...

'' *1771 Thomas Bridges, ''The Adventures of a Bank-Note'' *1783 Theophilus Johnson, ''Phantoms: or, The Adventures of a Gold-Headed Cane'' *1790 Helenus Scott, ''The Adventures of a Rupee'' *1799

Edward Augustus Kendall Edward Augustus Kendall (c. 1776 – 1842) was a British translator, social campaigner and miscellaneous writer. Biography Kendall was born about 1776. Though Americans remember him for his ''Travels through the Northern Parts of the United St ...

, ''The Crested Wren'' *1813

Mary Pilkington Mary Pilkington (born Mary Susanna Hopkins, 1761–1839) was an English novelist and poet. Many of her over forty novels were written for children. Biography Pilkington was born in Cambridge, England. Her father died when she was 15 years old an ...

, ''The Sorrows of Caesar, or, The Adventures of a Foundling Dog'' *1816 Mary Mister, ''The Adventures of a Doll'' *1873 Annie Carey, '' The History of a Book'' *1880 Nellie Hellis, ''The Story He was told; or, The Adventures of a Teacup'' *1897,

John William Fortescue The Honourable Sir John William Fortescue (28 December 1859 – 22 October 1933) was a British military historian. He was a historian of the British Army and served as Royal Librarian and Archivist at Windsor Castle from 1905 until 1926. E ...

, ''The Story of a Red Deer'' Twentieth-century examples include

Ilya Ehrenburg Ilya Grigoryevich Ehrenburg (russian: link=no, Илья́ Григо́рьевич Эренбу́рг, ; – August 31, 1967) was a Soviet writer, revolutionary, journalist and historian. Ehrenburg was among the most prolific and notable autho ...

's ''The Life of the Automobile'' (1929) and E. Annie Proulx's ''

Accordion Crimes ''Accordion Crimes'' is a 1996 novel by American writer E. Annie Proulx. It followed her Pulitzer Prize-winning 1993 work ''The Shipping News'' and was shortlisted for the 1997 Orange Prize for Fiction, Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction. ...

'' (1996).

Relationship to other genres

With works of

Mary Ann Kilner Mary Ann Kilner ( Maze; 1753–1831) was a prolific English writer of children's books in the late 18th century. The most famous was ''The Adventures of a Pincushion'' (c. 1780–1783). Together, she and her sister-in-law, Dorothy Kilner, publi ...

of the 1780s, ''Adventures of a Pincushion'' and ''Memoirs of a Peg-Top'', it-novels became part of

children's literature Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader. Children's ...

. One offshoot was a style of satirical children's verse made popular by

Catherine Ann Dorset Catherine Ann Dorset (1752 – 1834) was a British author of poems for children. She had a successful career as a writer. Dorset anonymously collaborated on several works with her sister, Charlotte, which were Catherine Ann's first publications. ...

, based on a poem by

William Roscoe William Roscoe (8 March 175330 June 1831) was an English banker, lawyer, and briefly a Member of Parliament. He is best known as one of England's first abolitionists, and as the author of the poem for children '' The Butterfly's Ball, and the ...

, '' The Butterfly's Ball and The Grasshopper's Feast''. Quite generally, it-narrative in the 19th century is typified by an animal narrator. It has been remarked that the

slave narrative The slave narrative is a type of literary genre involving the (written) autobiographical accounts of enslaved Africans, particularly in the Americas. Over six thousand such narratives are estimated to exist; about 150 narratives were published as s ...

genre of the 18th century avoided being confused with the it-narrative, being thought of as a type of biography. The plot of ''

Middlemarch ''Middlemarch, A Study of Provincial Life'' is a novel by the English author Mary Anne Evans, who wrote as George Eliot. It first appeared in eight installments (volumes) in 1871 and 1872. Set in Middlemarch, a fictional English Midland town, ...

'' has been seen to be structured, initially, by a circulation; but to end in a contrasting "subject narrative".

Alberto Toscano Alberto Toscano (born 1 January 1977) is an Italian cultural critic, social theorist, philosopher, and translator. He has translated the work of Alain Badiou, including Badiou's ''The Century'' and ''Logics of Worlds''. He served as both editor ...

and Jeff Kinkle have argued that one popular form of

hyperlink cinema Hyperlink cinema is a style of filmmaking characterised by complex or multilinear narrative structures with multiple characters under one unifying theme. History The term was coined by author Alissa Quart, who used the term in her review of the f ...

, a genre of film characterized by intersecting and multilinear plots, constitutes a contemporary form of it-narrative. In these films, they argue, "the narrative link is the characters' relation to the film's product of choice, whether it be guns, cocaine, oil, or Nile perch."

Notes

{{reflist Literary genres Children's literature