Q.1. What Is a novel ? Mention any two features of novel.
Ans. Novel is a modern form of literature that describes fictional characters and events, usually in the form of sequential story. Features:-
(I) Novels began to be written from the 17th century, but really flowered from the 18th century.
(ii) Most of the novels were written on social issues such as marriage relationship, the proper conduct of men and women etc.

Q.2. Explain the themes and issues of the novels of Thomas Hardy. [CBSE 2011]
Ans. (i) Thomas Hardy was a British novelist of the 19th century. He wrote about traditional rural communities of England.
(ii) This was actually a time when large farmers fenced off land, bought machines and employed labourers to produce for the market. The old rural culture with its independent farmers was dying out.
(iii) In his novel Mayor of Casterbridge (1886) Thomas Hardy has exclusively written about industrialisation and rural life. The novel is about Michael Henchard, a successful grain merchant, who becomes the mayor of the farming town of Casterbridge. He is an independent-minded man who follows his own style in conducting business. He can also be both unpredictably generous and cruel with his employees. Consequently, he is no match for his manager and rival Donald Farfrae who runs his business on efficient managerial lines and is well regarded for he is smooth and even- tempered with everyone.
(iv) We can see that Hardy mourns the loss of the more personalised world that is disappearing, even as he is aware of its problems and the advantages of the new order.

Q.3. What do you mean by epistolary novel ? Give One example.
Or
State the meaning of epistolary novel. Give one example for this type of novel. [CBSE 2013]
Ans. The form of novel which used the private and personal forrri of letters to tell a story are known as epistolary. Samuel Richardson’s Pamela written in the 18th century explain much of its story through an exchange of letters between two lovers.

Q.4. Mention any three features of Pickwick Papers.
Ans. (i) Pickwick Papers were written by Charles Dickens.
(ii) These papers were serialised in a magazine in 1836.
(iii) Serialisation allowed readers to relish the suspense, discuss the characters of a novel and live for weeks with their stories like viewers of television soaps today.

Q.5- “The novels bring together many cultures”. Explain. [CBSE 2010, 11]
Or
How did the novels bring together different cultures ?
Ans. (i) Language : The novel uses the vernacular, the language that is spoken by common people. By coming closer to the different spoken languages of the people, the novel produces the sense of a shared world between diverse people in a nation. Novels also draw from different styles of language. A novel may take a classical language and combine it with the language of the streets and make them all a part of the vernacular that it uses.
(ii) Bridging the gap between rural and urban culture : Many novelist like that of Thomas Hardy write exclusively about vanishing rural communities.
(iiI) New culture : Under colonial rule, many of the English educated class found new Western ways of living and thinking attractive. So many Indian novelists started writing about this new culture developing in India.

Q.6. Who is the writer of the novel Germinal ? What was the theme of the novel ?
Ans. Emile Zola, the French novelist wrote Germinal (1885). The novel is on the life of a young coalminer. In the novel, the writer tried his best to explain the harsh conditions under which the miners worked. It ends on a note of despair : The strike the hero leads fails, his co-workers turn against him, and his hopes are shattered.

Q.7. How most of the novels of the 19th century represented the true picture of the community and the society ?
Ans. (i) In the 19th century, Europe entered the industrial age. Novelists such as Charles Dickens and Emile Zola wrote about the terrible effects of industrialisation on people’s lives and character.
(ii) British novelist Thomas Hardy wrote about the traditional rural communities of England that were fast vanishing.
(iii) In ‘Pride and Prejudice’ novelist Jane Austen has written about the social status of women.

Q-8. What did G.A. Henty write about in his novel ? [CBSE Sept. 2010]
Or
How did the novels for the young boys idealise a new type of man ? Explain. [CBSE Sept. 2010, 2011]
Ans. (i) He wrote about strange lands being conquered by the young Englishmen.
(ii) He wrote novels for young boys idealising a new type of man; someone who was powerful, assertive, independent and daring.
(iii) He represented the colonisers heroic and honourable.
(iv) His novels were about young boys who witness grand historical events, get involved in some military action and show what they called English courage.

Q.9. Who was Charlotte Bronte ? How has she presented the picture of a woman in her novels ?
Or
Describe the depiction of women in the novels of Charlotte Bronte. [CBSE 2013]
Or
In which way was women depicted in Charlotte Bronte’s novel ‘Jane Eyre’? [CBSE 2011]
Ans. Charlotte Bronte was an English novelist. Her novels dealt with women who broke the established norms of the society before adjusting to them. Such stories allowed women readers to sympathise with rebellious actions. In Charlotte Bronte’s, Jane Eyre, published in 1874, young Jane is shown as independent and assertive woman or girl. While girls of her time were expected to be quiet and well behaved, Jane at the age of ten protests , against the hypocrisy of her elders with startling bluntness. She tells her aunt, who is always unkind to Jane: “People think you a good woman, but you are bad You are
deceitful ! I will never call you aunt as long as I live.”

Q.10. How did the early novels contribute to colonialism ?
Or
With the help of an example show how the early novels in Europe contributed to colonialism? [CBSE Sept. 2010, 2011]
Ans. (i) The early novels contributed to colonialism making the readers feel that they were a part of a superior community of fellow colonialists.
(ii) The hero of Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe is an adventurer and a slave trader, who treated the coloured people as sub-humans.
(iii) Most of the writers of that time saw colonialism as natural.
(iv) Colonised people were seen as primitive and barbaric, and colonial rule was considered necessary to civilize them.

Q.11. How were the poor people, for a long time, excluded in the publishing market in eighteenth century Europe ? Explain any two reasons. [CBSE 2010 (D)]
Ans. (i) For a long time the publishing market excluded the poor. Initially, novels did not come cheap. Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones (1749) was issued in six volumes priced at three shillings each-which was more than what a labourer earned in a week.
(ii) Literacy level of the poor was very low due
to non-availability of schools for poor.

Q.12. Why did the readership of novel begin to include poorer people? Give any three reasons. [CBSE 2013]
Or
“For a long time the publishing market excluded the poor.” Give reasons for such an exclusion. [CBSE 2015]
Ans. (i) Introduction of libraries : But soon, people had easier access to books with the introduction of circulating libraries in 1740.
(ii) Cheap novels : Technological improvements in printing brought down the price of books and innovations in marketing led to expanded sales.
(iii) Hiring out novels : In France, publishers found that they could make super profits by hiring out novels by the hour. The novel was one of the first mass-produced items to be sold.

Q.13. “Social changes in Britain led to an increase in women readers”. Explain.
Or
Explain the factors that led to women writing novels in Europe. [CBSE 2012]
Ans. (I) Industrialisation: Industrialisation provided an opportunity to the women to work in factories. This provided them economic freedom.
(ii) Urbanisation: Industrialisation led to urbanisation. The urban families started provided equal opportunities both to men and women.
(iii) Increase in income : The eighteenth century saw the middle classes become more prosperous. Women got more leisure to read as well as write novels. And novels began exploring the world of women – their emotions and identities, their experiences and problems. Many novels were about domestic life – a theme about which women were allowed to speak with authority. They drew upon their experience, wrote about family life and earned public recognition.

Q.14. Mention some important characteristics of novels which increased their popularity among the readers.
Ans. (i) The most important characteristics of the novels were that they were about ordinary people, and were read by ordinary people. They were about the everyday life of the common people.
(ii) Most of the novels focused on the lives of the common people.
(iii) In the 19th century, Europe entered into the industrial age. This changed the social and economic structure of the society. Most of the novelists showed the terrible effects of industrialisation on people’s lives.
(iv) The novel uses the vernacular language that is spoken by the common people.

Q.15. Explain the contribution of Devaki Nandan Khatri in Hindi novels. [CBSE 2014]
Or
Name the first Hindi modem novel which became a best seller. Who was its writer ? Why was it so popular ? [CBSE Sept. 2010]
Ans. Devaki Nandan Khatri was the first author of mystery novels in India. His writings created a novel-reading public in Hindi. His best-seller, Chandrakanta – a romance with dazzling elements of make-believe fantasy is believed to have contributed immensely in popularising the Hindi language. It also promoted the Nagari script among the educated classes of those times. Although, it was apparently written purely for the ‘pleasure of reading’, this .novel also gives some interesting insights into the fears and desires of its reading public.

Q.16. Trace the history of novels of South India.
Ans. (i) Novels began appearing in South Indian languages during the period of colonial India.
(ii) O. Chandu Menon tried to translate an English novel, but as his readers were not familiar with the ways in which the character in English novel lived, so he wrote, Indulekha in Malayalam in 1889.
(iii) Kandukuri Viresalingam also started translating Oliver Goldsmith’s Vicar of Wakefield, but finished up in writing a Telugu novel called Rajasekhara Caritamu in 1878.

Q.17. Explain any three features of early Bengali novels . [CBSE 2010 (D)]
Or
Describe two kinds of novels that came to be written in Bengali in the 19th century. Name any two famous novelists of Bengal. [CBSE Sept. 2010]
Ans. (i) In the nineteenth century, the early Bengali novels lived in two worlds. Many of these novels were located in the past, their characters, events and love stories were based on historical events. Another group of novels depicted the inner world of domestic life in contemporary settings. Domestic novels frequently dealt with the social problems and romantic relationships between men and women.
(ii) Besides the ingenious twists and turns of the plot and the suspense, the novel was also relished for its language. The prose style became a new object of enjoyment.
(iii) Initially the Bengali novel used a colloquial style associated with urban life. It also used meyeli, the language associated with the women’s speech. This style was quickly replaced by Bankim’s prose which was Sanskritised but also contained a more vernacular style.
(iv) Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay and Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay were the two most popular novelists of Bengal.

Q.18. What were the issues raised by the novel Indulekha written in Malayalam ? [CBSE Sept. 2010]
Or
What led Chandu Menon to write Indulekha ? [CBSE Sept. 2011,2014]
Ans. (i) The writer has written about the marriage practices of upper caste Hindus in Kerala.
(ii) The writer has raised the issue of wedge between landlords and tenants.
(iii) The writer has raised the issues of marriage and property.
(iu) Chandu Menon clearly wants his readers to appreciate the new values of his hero and heroine and criticise the ignorance and immorality of Suri Nambuthire.
Q.19. How did novels depict the lives of peasants and low castes ? Explain with examples from India.
[CBSE Sept. 2010, 2011] Ans. (i) Advaita Malla Burman’s (1914-51) Titash Ekti Nadir Naam (1956) is an epic about the Mallas, a community of fisherfolk who live off fishing in the river Titash.
(ii) The novel describes the community life of the Mallas in great detail, their Holi and Kali Puja festivals, boat races, bhatiali songs, their relationships of friendship and animosity with the peasants and the oppression of the upper castes.
(iii) Godan (The Gift of Cow), published in 1936, remains Premchand’s best-known work. It is an epic of the Indian peasantry. The novel tells the moving story of Hori and his wife Dhania, a peasant couple. Landlords, moneylenders, priests and colonial bureaucrats – all those who hold power in society-form a network of oppression, rob their land and make them into landless labourers.

Q.20. Explain the role of novelists in the field of social reforms in India with the help of any three examples. [CBSE Sept. 2010]
Ans. (i) The novel Saraswativijayam stresses the importance of education for the upliftment of the lower castes.
(ii) The writer of novel Indulekha wanted his readers to appreciate the new values of education and criticise the ignorance.
(iii) Novelist like Munshi Premchand wrote about the poor conditions of peasants and how they were being exploited by the landlords.