Narrative Time -- How much time passes (for the protagonist) in famous books

[Cthulhu.Science]

I've been thinking about narrative time. How much time occurs (for the protagonist) is great books?

The Hobbit occurs over just more than a year.
Catcher in the Rye occurs over 4 days. If you discount the epilogue.
Ulysses by James Joyce occurs in a single day.
Foundation trilogy covers thousands of years. But what about the various chapters within it?
Even in Time travel books, say HG Wells Time Machine, the protagonist only experiences a few weeks of time though he's covered many, many millennia.
Moby Dick only covers a couple months.

What are some of the shortest (Narrative Time) books?
Are there any great books with a single protagonist with a long narrative time?
What are the various thoughts about having the action of a story take place over a very short time or a longer time?


(I assume that the Narrative Time research has been done and that there is a list somewhere. My google skills failed me.)

 

[Toby Frost]

I vaguely remember that a literary author with a name like Nicholson Davis wrote a novel entirely set in an office worker's lunch break, but I can't find his actual name. Saturday by Ian McEwan takes place on one day. There must be a lot of novels that cover the life of a "great man": King Arthur retellings would probably count.

 

[Venusian Broon]

This book doesn't have a protagonist, but Olaf Stapledon's Last and First Men last about 2 billion years from the 20th Century.

His 'follow up' Star Maker summaries LaFM on one page and technically lasts the age of our universe. And lots of other universes.

 

[Yozh]

It is fairly common for a book to span some decades of a person’s life, but that action is not usually evenly distributed across time.

I recently re-read Twain’s The Tragedy of Pudd’n’head Wilson, which starts prior to the birth of one main character, and ends when that character is 23.Even Tolkein’s Fellowship of the Ring actually spans decades, though much of that is elided time.

An example with a single protagonist would be Mary Stewart’s The Crystal Cave, which begins with Merlin as a young child and ends in his adulthood. Fairly common, I think, for any Bildungsroman.

Short time frame lends itself to fast-paced adventure without much character development. Thrillers often take place in short time.

 

[Cthulhu.Science]

When I reflect on books I've read I'm having trouble remembering how much total time - and thus "down time" - the characters have. And I'm having trouble coming up with google search terms to find the answer, even for individual books.

Tom Sawyer -- If I recall it is about a month. An quick set of examples of Tom trying to Impress Becky Thatcher for about a month and then off to be pirates with Huckleberry Finn and fast paced action over a weekend finding hidden treasure.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn -- Is that weeks? But it is pretty fast paced. Event, float, Event, float, Event.

Enders Game - while there is reference back to childhood. How much time occurs before battle school while Ender and his sister are solving the worlds problems by blogging on the internet? How long is he in Battle school before he quits? When he returns and put in charge of the military fight is the fight days, weeks, months???

The Harry Potter books are neatly setup as each book covering a year. A few sentences to pass time and now we are at the next important event and set of troubles. Who will Harry invite to the dance?

Since I haven't thought of books in this way until now, I am wondering how understanding this might change perspective on each story.

 

[Cthulhu.Science]

This book doesn't have a protagonist, but Olaf Stapledon's Last and First Men last about 2 billion years from the 20th Century.

His 'follow up' Star Maker summaries LaFM on one page and technically lasts the age of our universe. And lots of other universes.

This book doesn't have a protagonist, but Olaf Stapledon's Last and First Men last about 2 billion years from the 20th Century.

Yes and no. The point is that the narrative time or the action is not 2 billion years. Time travel books (and timescape books) "cover" a lot of time but the narrative events are bits and pieces along the way.

The Dune series of books covers 80,000 years or so but the narration is less time. Dune, however is still a fairly long time span, years.

 

[Cthulhu.Science]

Another example is Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut which explicitly takes place over exactly 1 million years.

But, the part where people actually have conversation with one another only covers a few months.

Frankly I was hoping to have a conversation about how authors construct story timelines, and how they manage time and time between events.
I think that I am not good at writing Top Posts.

 

[Venusian Broon]

Yes and no. The point is that the narrative time or the action is not 2 billion years. Time travel books (and timescape books) "cover" a lot of time but the narrative events are bits and pieces along the way.

The Dune series of books covers 80,000 years or so but the narration is less time. Dune, however is still a fairly long time span, years.

The book doesn't really do narrative in the sense you are talking about. As I said, no protagonist in the first book. It just tells the story of the next 2 billion years.

 

[Swank]

Proust!

 

[Astro Pen]

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning Alan Sillitoe
Nominally short, (I think there is a metaphorical contrast element to the title too. At least as I see it.)

 

[ArnoldPettibone]

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August. Harry dies, and is "reset" to his birth to live again with full memories of his previous lives.

 

[Toby Frost]

Found it! The author is called Nicholson Baker, and his novel The Mezzanine takes place during an office worker's escalator ride in his lunch hour. Baker has also written Room Temperature, which occurs during the few minutes it takes for a man to feed his baby.

 

[Cthulhu.Science]

Other than essentially every autobiography written, what are some good fiction that covers a significant part of a person's life?

I'm hoping to find some good examples to use as models to understand pacing and organization of a book.

 

[hitmouse]

Other than essentially every autobiography written, what are some good fiction that covers a significant part of a person's life?

I'm hoping to find some good examples to use as models to understand pacing and organization of a book.

In SF, try The Earth Abides by George R Stewart

 

[Yozh]

Virginia Woolf’s Orlando covers a lifespan of several centuries.

 

[Ray Zdybrow]

Russell Hoban's "Riddley Walker" - as I remember it, most of the book covers the events of a single day, although it does stretch out towards the end of the story. "On my naming day when I come 12 I gone front spear and kilt a wyld boar..."

 

[scidata]

Another example is Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut which explicitly takes place over exactly 1 million years.

But, the part where people actually have conversation with one another only covers a few months.

Frankly I was hoping to have a conversation about how authors construct story timelines, and how they manage time and time between events.
I think that I am not good at writing Top Posts.

Time is very subjective. What really matters is the protagonist's perspective. For example, in David Brin's "Foundation's Triumph", Hari Seldon has an alternately disjointed, stretched, condensed, and open-ended view.