The difference between a story and a novel:

After the controversy raised by the statement of the Egyptian writer Ahmed Murad about the difference between a story and a novel, many different reactions spread that interacted with what was stated in his statement, which prompted us to write an article through which we investigate the validity of what was stated and the reasons for the cases of controversy raised by the topic. نهج البلاغة

On the concept of story and novel according to Ahmed Murad:

During an interview on one of the television programs, the Egyptian novelist who wrote the novel “The Blue Elephant” mentioned that the difference between a story and a novel is that the latter tolerates lies as well as truth, because it is narrated, and then the narrator may provide unreal details to attract the attention of the listeners, but on the contrary This means that the story is true and does not contain lies, because it is the story of a story that actually exists.

In fact, this statement contains many fallacies that cannot be relied upon, as the differences mentioned by the writer do not actually establish the characteristics of these two types of narrative literature. This is what we seek to detail in the following.

What is the difference between a story and a novel?

It may be correct to say that we said that the most important difference between the novel and the story in general is the difference between their size and the number of words, as the novel is larger in size, while the narrative style in the story does not take up a large amount of words - so to speak - as it is often no more than Thirty thousand words.

But is this enough to understand the difference between them? What about the emergence of relatively short, condensed novels? Are there special methods specific to the literary genre alone, or are there complex interactions that make the issue of resolution relative?

For this reason, it will be useful to go over the definition of both the novel and the story separately, and then separate the difference between them from a deep critical and literary perspective.

First: Definition of the novel:

The Novel is defined as a literary genre that belongs to stories, and is characterized by being a long narrative that relies on zigzagging deep details, across chapters and a relatively large size of words.

The novel also relies on a number of characters, dialogue, and interwoven events, within a period of time ranging from a few hours to many years, as required by the nature of the events and the narrative complex to address specific issues. As a result, the novel diversifies according to its topics to:

The symbolic novel: It is based on the symbolic dimension in referring to the meaning, as it does not address the topics directly or realistically, but rather presents the issues within a form of puzzles and ambiguity, so the meanings come as a mystery that requires depth from the reader and a broad culture that enables him to decipher them.

Fantasy novel: It is a fantasy novel that relies on presenting unrealistic stories and drawing miraculous events in order to present philosophical perceptions about life.

Detective novel: It is a novel that deals with human issues through the angles of crime and legal investigations, and it is often characterized by acceleration of events, mystery, and suspense. But this does not mean that it is just a superficial presentation. Rather, many crime novels raise profound topics about existence, man, moral conscience, and other fundamental issues.

Historical novel: It is a novel based on a narrative emanating from historical events and facts, through which the writer seeks to raise questions about the past and the present, and to link the causes to the issues he wishes to talk about.

The romantic novel: In general, the romantic novel presents a story about human selves and their relationships with the universe. It is not only about love stories, but romance includes human relationships in general, even those that link him to nature. But this does not deny that most of these types of novels relate to stories between two lovers and monitor their feelings and details.

The realistic novel: The realistic novel derives its plot and characters from reality, and we do not mean here that the events have actually occurred, but rather it simulates the details of society, its issues and details in depth and realistically, thus moving away from imagination, wonder, and fantasy.