# Autobiographical novel

An autobiographical novel, also known as a autobiographical fiction, fictional autobiography, or autobiographical fiction novel, is a type of novel which uses autofiction techniques, or the merging of autobiographical and fictive elements. The literary technique is distinguished from a typical autobiography or memoir by being a work of fiction presented in the same fashion as a typical non-fiction autobiography by "imitating the conventions of an autobiography."
Because an autobiographical novel is partially fiction, the author does not ask the reader to expect the text to fulfill the "autobiographical pact". Names and locations are often changed and events are recreated to make them more dramatic but the story still bears a close resemblance to that of the author's life. While the events of the author's life are recounted, there is no pretense of exact truth. Events may be exaggerated or altered for artistic or thematic purposes.
A distinguish between fully autobiographical novels explained above, and semi-autobiographical novels can be made. The latter, also known as a roman à clef, are fictional works based on the author's own life. Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar is often considered to be an example of a semi-autobiographical novel.

## Notable autobiographical novels

| Author | Title | Year |
| James Agee | A Death in the Family | 1957 |
| Louisa May Alcott | Little Women | 1868 |
| Sherman Alexie | The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian | 2007 |
| Maya Angelou | I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings | 1969 |
| James Baldwin | Go Tell It on the Mountain | 1953 |
| J. G. Ballard | Empire of the Sun | 1984 |
| John Barth | Once Upon a Time: A Floating Opera | 1994 |
| Saul Bellow | The Adventures of Augie March | 1953 |
| George Borrow | Lavengro: The Scholar, the Gypsy, the Priest | 1851 |
| Charlotte Brontë | Villette | 1853 |
| Rita Mae Brown | Rubyfruit Jungle | 1973 |
| Charles Bukowski | Post Office | 1971 |
| William S. Burroughs | Junkie | 1953 |
| Samuel Butler | The Way of All Flesh | 1903 |
| Louis Ferdinand Céline | Journey to the End of the Night | 1932 |
| J. M. Coetzee | Boyhood: Scenes from Provincial Life | 1997 |
| J. M. Coetzee | Youth: Scenes from Provincial Life II | 2002 |
| J. M. Coetzee | Summertime | 2009 |
| Charles Dickens | David Copperfield | 1850 |
| Charles Dickens | Great Expectations | 1861 |
| Nodar Dumbadze | Granny, Iliko, Illarion, and I | 1960 |
| Nodar Dumbadze | The Sunny Night | 1967 |
| Marguerite Duras | The Lover | 1984 |
| George Eliot | The Mill on the Floss | 1860 |
| Ralph Ellison | Invisible Man | 1952 |
| Annie Ernaux | Happening | 2000 |
| Annie Ernaux | The Years | 2008 |
| Frederick Exley | A Fan's Notes | 1967 |
| F. Scott Fitzgerald | This Side of Paradise | 1920 |
| James Frey | A Million Little Pieces | 2003 |
| James Frey | My Friend Leonard | 2005 |
| Jean Genet | The Thief's Journal | 1949 |
| Jean Genet | Our Lady of the Flowers | 1943 |
| John Green | Looking for Alaska | 2005 |
| Graham Greene | The End of the Affair | 1951 |
| Ernest Hemingway | A Farewell to Arms | 1929 |
| Homer Hickam | October Sky | 1998 |
| Thomas Hughes | Tom Brown's School Days | 1857 |
| James Joyce | A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man | 1916 |
| Jack Kerouac | On the Road | 1957 |
| Jack Kerouac | The Dharma Bums | 1958 |
| Imre Kertész | Fatelessness | 1975 |
| Karl Ove Knausgård | My Struggle series | 2009–2011 |
| D. H. Lawrence | Sons and Lovers | 1913 |
| Tao Lin | Richard Yates | 2010 |
| Jack London | John Barleycorn | 1913 |
| Fitz Hugh Ludlow | The Hasheesh Eater | 1857 |
| Norman Maclean | A River Runs Through It and Other Stories | 1976 |
| Harry Martinson | Flowering Nettle | 1934 |
| W. Somerset Maugham | Of Human Bondage | 1915 |
| Henry Miller | Tropic of Cancer | 1934 |
| Henry Miller | Tropic of Capricorn | 1939 |
| Davis Miller | The Tao of Muhammad Ali | 1996 |
| Sandy Mitchell | Ciaphas Cain | 2003 |
| Tim O'Brien | The Things They Carried | 1990 |
| Kenzaburō Ōe | A Personal Matter | 1964 |
| Robert M. Pirsig | Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance | 1973 |
| Sylvia Plath | The Bell Jar | 1963 |
| Marcel Proust | In Search of Lost Time | 1927 |
| Gregory David Roberts | Shantaram | 2003 |
| Mona Simpson | Anywhere but Here | 1986 |
| Gertrude Stein | The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas | 1933 |
| Hunter S. Thompson | Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas | 1971 |
| Leo Tolstoy | Childhood | 1852 |
| Leo Tolstoy | Boyhood | 1854 |
| Leo Tolstoy | Youth | 1856 |
| Denton Welch | A Voice Through a Cloud | 1950 |
| Denton Welch | Maiden Voyage | 1943 |
| Elie Wiesel | Night | 1958 |
| Jeanette Winterson | Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit | 1985 |
| Thomas Wolfe | Of Time and the River | 1935 |
| Thomas Wolfe | Look Homeward, Angel | 1929 |
| Tobias Wolff | Old School | 2003 |