The Story | Class 11 English Notes

The Story as the Backbone of the Novel

Forster elaborates on the story as the backbone or 'tape-worm' of the novel, emphasizing its ancient and primal origins. He traces storytelling back to Neolithic or even Palaeolithic times, suggesting that early humans, such as Neanderthals, were engaged by stories told around campfires. The primitive audience, fatigued from survival struggles, was kept awake by suspense—the desire to know what happens next. Forster uses the example of Scheherazade from the 'One Thousand and One Nights' to illustrate the power of suspense in storytelling. Scheherazade cleverly uses the suspense of unfinished stories to save her life from a tyrannical king, demonstrating that the story’s ability to make the audience eager to know what happens next is its most potent tool. The story, as a narrative of events arranged in time sequence, has only one merit: to make the audience want to know what happens next, and one fault: to fail in doing so. Despite being the simplest literary organism, the story is the highest common factor in all novels.

🔗 Connection: Prepares for the discussion on the relationship between story and daily life, and the concept of time in storytelling.