ABSTRACT
The representation of speech through written language is a m ajor part of the novelist’s craft. Alice thought that a book without pictures or conversation was a dull book. W e may learn in time to do without the pictures, but we cannot well conceive of a novel without dialogue. It advances the plot by showing how the characters grow and relate to each o ther in changing circum stances, and it gives inform ation which might becom e tedious if confined to narrative. Additionally, and most im portantly, it builds up the characters themselves: it establishes them as ‘peop le’ in a way that narrative and description alone can never do.
