ABSTRACT
Attempts to group novelists together, unavoidable in any survey, are inevitably misleading. They tend to draw attention to what a writer has in common with other writers rather than to any unique quality. Moreover, concentration on themes - that is to say, on the extractable and discussible elements o f a novel - may obscure the reality that a novel is composed o f words arranged in a certain order to provoke certain feelings. Ultimately a novel is more a m atter o f sensibility than o f sense, the prose rhythms determining the author’s success more than any message he may have. The attachment o f labels to a writer cannot fail to diminish; Fay Weldon, for example, may legitimately be discussed in terms o f feminist politics, such discussion being possible without any note being taken o f the wit and vivacity which make her novels delightful. It is as well to remember that if novelists wanted to write tracts, they would not go to the greater trouble o f writing novels.
