Form of narration combining the features of reported and direct speech. Typically, the thoughts of a fictional character are expressed, but without any introductory formula (‘She thought …’) and in the imperfect tense. The narrator can thus move unobtrusively between objective and subjective narration, often suggesting an ironic view of the thoughts expressed. The form occurs in the 18th and early 19th c., but was used most powerfully by Flaubert, and has become an essential feature of the modern novel.
[Peter France]
