A novel is a fairly long work of narrative fabrication, generally written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fabrication derives from the Italian tale for" new","news", or" short story of commodity new", itself from the Latin tale, a singular noun use of the neuter plural of novellus, fine of novus, meaning" new". Some novelists, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Ann Radcliffe, John Cowper Powys, preferred the term" love"to describe their novels.