On Mon, 28 Jun 2004, David Dyer-Bennet wrote: > Jerry Friedman <jerry_friedman at yahoo.com> writes: > > >> Someone's definition of "novel" is "long prose work with something wrong > >> with it", > > > > That's a good one! And I take the liberty to agree with the author: > > the voice is fine. > > And doesn't show up in google. I like it too, but want an > attribution. >From google: Randall Jarrell once defined a novel as "a long stretch of prose with something wrong with it". "a prose narrative of substantial length with something wrong with it. "Randall Jarrell said a novel is sixty thousand words of discursive prose with something wrong with it." "A prose work of some length that has something wrong with it." "Randall Jarrell's famous line is: The novel is a very long piece of writing that's got something wrong with it." But this looks definitive: I'm always reminded of my favorite definition of the novel, from Randall Jarrell in his introduction to Christina Stead's The Man Who Loved Children. "A novel is a long prose narrative that has something wrong with it." http://www.readerville.com/webx?50@192.eM42appErIo.0@.ef4927d