The following alphabetical lists of novels are categorized by the narrator's point of view.
The intent of this article is not to be comprehensive, but to compare at a glance various points of view by providing well known examples.
First person[]
Main article: First-person narrative
First person present-tense[]
Everything happens in the character's 'now'.
- Atwood, Cat's Eye
- Dubus, House of Sand and Fog
- Ellis, American Psycho
- Ford, "Independence Day"
- Frey, A Million Little Pieces
- Hornby, High Fidelity
- Palahniuk, Fight Club
- Wong, The Pacific Between
First person protagonist[]
Where the narrator is the protagonist of the novel
- Dinesen, Out of Africa
- Salinger, Catcher in the Rye
- Sebold, The Lovely Bones
First person ancillary[]
Where the narrator observes action, but is an ancillary character
- Doyle, Sherlock Holmes
- Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
- Fournier, Le Grand Meaulnes
- Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
- Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
- Mann, Doktor Faustus
Multiple first person[]
Where multiple characters individually narrate from first-person POV
- Bronte, Wuthering Heights
- Irving, Setting Free the Bears
- Korman, No More Dead Dogs
- William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying
- Graham Swift, Last Orders
- Julian Barnes, Talking it Over
- Ana Castillo, The Guardians
- Charles Baxter, The Feast of Love
- Ann Brashares, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
- Barbara Kingsolver, The Poisonwood Bible
Second person[]
Main article: Second-person narrative
Present tense[]
- Calvino, If on a Winter's Night a Traveler (odd-numbered chapters)
- McInerney, Bright Lights, Big City
- Robbins, Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas
- Camus, The Fall
- Murakami, After Dark
Past tense[]
- Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh, ch. 1
Third person[]
Main article: Third-person narrative
Third person, limited[]
Main article: Third person limited omniscient
- Card, Ender's Game. The parallel novel Ender's Shadow is told from the same limited perspective following a different character.
- Kelman, how late it was, how late.
Third person, omniscient or dramatic[]
- McCullough, The Thornbirds
- Mitchell, Gone with the Wind
- Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
Third person, objective[]
- Wolfe, The Right Stuff
Multiple points of view[]
- Faulkner, The Sound and The Fury
- Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
- Wharton, Ethan Frome
- Franzen, The Corrections
- Winterson, Art & Lies
Alternate point of view[]
See also[]
- Literature
- Point of view
- Literary terms
Template:Inc-lit
Template:Narrative modes