Friday, January 16, 2015

word of the day: roman à clef

The word of the day is roman à clef:
a novel in which real people are depicted under fictitious names
literally: novel with a key (dictionary.com)




"Out of the Loud Hound of Darkness is, among other things, a historical roman à clef about the internecine wars that dragged on for decades among the Utrians, Humbrians, and Dinutrians - all descended from the same ragtag clutch of peasants and fishermen and kings...

"Dulac's lambent adumbration of the incipient dénouement sets the reader up for an exposé of the most trifling indiscretions and not the perfidious betrayals that actually unfurl at the end of her roman à clef Tatiana's Bear."

 - Karen Elizabeth Gordon, Out of the Loud Hound of Darkness: A Dictionarrative

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