Character (novel)

Character (original Dutch title Karakter) is a novel by Dutch author Ferdinand Bordewijk published in 1936. Subtitled "Een roman van zoon en vader", "a novel of son and father", it is a Bildungsroman that traces the relationship between a stern father and his son. Character is Bordewijk's best-known novel, and the basis for a 1997 film of the same name.

References

Light novel

A light novel (ライトノベル, raito noberu) is a style of Japanese novel primarily targeting middle- and high-school students (young adult demographic). "Light novel" is a wasei-eigo, or a Japanese term formed from words in the English language. Such short, light novels are often called ranobe (ラノベ) or LN in the West. They are typically not more than 40,000–50,000 words long (the shorter ones being equivalent to a novella in US publishing terms), are rarely more than a few hundred pages, often have dense publishing schedules, are usually published in bunkobon size (A6, 10.5 cm × 14.8 cm), and are often illustrated. The text is often serialized in anthology magazines before collection in book form.

Details

Light novels are an evolution of pulp magazines. To please their audience, in the 1970s, most of the Japanese pulp magazines, which had already changed from the classic style to the popular anime style covers, began to put illustrations in the beginning of each story and included articles about popular anime, movies, and video games. The content also became influenced by popular movies such as Star Wars. The narrative evolved to please the new generations and became fully illustrated with the popular style. The popular serials are printed in novels.