关于小说这一文体,美国文学批评家艾布拉姆斯曾经给出过这样的一种理解:“‘小说’现在用来表示种类繁多的作品,其唯一的共同特性是它们都是延伸了的,用散文体写成的虚构故事。作为延伸的叙事文,小说既不同于‘短篇小说’,也相异于篇幅适中的‘中篇小说’。它的庞大篇幅使它比那些短小精悍的文学形式要有更多的人物,更复杂的情节,更宽阔的环境和对人物性格的更持续、更细微的探究。作为散文体叙事文,小说不同于乔叟、斯宾塞和弥尔顿用韵文体写成的长篇 With regard to this novel, American literary critic Abrams once gave the understanding that ”the novel" is now used to denote a great variety of works whose only common characteristic is that they are all extended , A fictional story written in prose style.As an extended narrative novel, the novel is different from ’short story’ but also different from the ’lengthy novel’ of moderate length.Its huge space makes it shorter than those short and pithy literary forms More characters, more complex plots, broader environment, and more sustained and subtle exploration of the character’s personality are required.As a narrative essay, novels differ from Chaucer, Spencer, and Milton Written long