Family saga

{{Short description|Genre of literature}}

{{See also|Category:Family saga novels}}

{{refimprove|date=September 2020}}

The family saga is a genre of literature which chronicles the lives and doings of a family or a number of related or interconnected families over a period of time. In novels (or sometimes sequences of novels) with a serious intent, this is often a thematic device used to portray particular historical events, changes of social circumstances, or the ebb and flow of fortunes from a multitude of perspectives.

The word saga comes from Old Norse, where it meant "what is said, utterance, oral account, notification" and "(structured) narrative, story (about somebody)",Dictionary of Old Norse Prose/Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog (Copenhagen: [Arnamagnæan Commission/Arnamagnæanske kommission], 1983–), s.v. '[https://onp.ku.dk/onp/onp.php?o66076 1 saga sb. f.']. and was originally borrowed into English from Old Norse by scholars in the eighteenth century to refer to the Old Norse prose narratives known as sagas."[https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/171505 saw, n.2.]", OED Online, 1st edn (Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2019)."[https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/169714 saga, n.1.]", OED Online, 1st edn (Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2019).

The typical family saga follows generations of a family through a period of history in a series of novels. A number of subgenres of the form exist such as the AGA saga.

Successful writers of popular family sagas include Susan Howatch, R. F. Delderfield and Philippa Carr.