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Glite Dictionary
roman fleuve

roman fleuve

9.9
A long series of novels that follow a family across generations
  • noun
  • /roʊˈmɑːn flɜːv/
  • Literature
translation icon : novela en serie
  • Marcel Proust's 'In Search of Lost Time' is a classic example of a roman fleuve.

Examples

  • Each volume in the roman fleuve vividly chronicles the evolution of a family's struggles and triumphs over generations.

  • The author aspired to create a roman fleuve that would depict every aspect of modern life.

  • Each volume in the roman fleuve adds depth to the family's saga.

  • This is a great roman fleuve!

  • What a wonderful roman fleuve!

  • Marcel Proust's 'In Search of Lost Time' is a classic example of a roman fleuve that captures the complexities of time and memory.

  • The author's ambitious roman fleuve tells the story of a community's transformation through multiple perspectives across decades.

Surface Forms

roman fleuve singular
roman fleuves plural

Morphology

roman + fleuve

Even if a learner knows the constituents (roman = novel; fleuve = large river), the meaning 'a long series of novels chronicling a family or social group' relies on a language-specific literary metaphor rather than straightforward composition. This is a borrowed French literary term whose extended, technical sense (a ‘river’ as a long-flowing sequence of novels) is not transparently predictable from the parts and would be hard for a B1 learner to infer without prior exposure.

Etymology

Roman fleuve comes from the French words roman meaning 'novel' and fleuve meaning 'river'. The picture of a river that keeps flowing helps explain the meaning: a roman fleuve is a long series of novels that 'follow' a family or group across many years.