John Banville was born in Wexford, Ireland in (1945). He is a novelist of ambition who cherished all works of literature of high imagination as well as craft and experimentation. He turned to literature itself as a source of imagination and aspiration for his fiction.
             Banville's novels offer a difficulty to the reader, since he uses many images, metaphors, puns, indirect narration as, in other words, dramatisation with a shift in time, which tests the reader's awareness and holds his attention all through, i.e. He writes for the high-brow reader. The stream of consciousness also added to the complex style. The voices of his narrators, or the mouthpieces, that he uses, are all modern in their sense of rejection and anger at the absurdity and misery of the world.
             In this thesis, an attempt will be made to highlight on six of Banville's novels in terms of themes, characterisation and technique. The thesis will be divided into three chapters and a conclusion.
             It deals with Ireland, giving some details about the Irish history, and it is going to cast light on the social situations that prevailed in Ireland. Moreover, there will be a stress on the literary movement since it started, with no restrictions on any field of literature; bearing in mind Banville's predecessors and novelists along the trend. The social background will also represent to the reader the idea of the Big House and its relation to the literary movement. Accurate discussion of this idea will be represented through the thesis in another chapter.
             It also introduces Banville, showing his own intellectual background, philosophy, motives, and attitude in writing. It also shows the influence of other writers and works on his own achievements. Banville has declared that he detaches himself from any conception of 'national' literature; yet, this chapter will attempt to prove that his Irish background has played an important role in his ficti...