OMNISCIENT NARRATION

This term is used of the method of a novelist who remains the author and does not take the point of view of a character. He or she is all-knowing and can describe everything and everyone in the story using the third-person pronouns: he, she, it and they. The advantage is the freedom to relate all events without restriction although the effect can sometimes be to distance the figures so that the reader does not relate closely to them. The narrator may slide into the mind of a character without this being very obvious and this brings the person nearer. A good example is Jane Austen's Emma.