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In literature, there are some recognisable types of novel sequence. This term, within literary fiction, is usually applied to a coherent collection of novels each having its own title, and in principle consisting of free-standing stories that can be read independently — as opposed to a multi-volume single novel.
The degree of organisation varies greatly. For example the Barchester novels of Anthony Trollope are only loosely related, although they contain a recurring cast of characters; his political novels about the Pallisers have a rather tighter connection and dynamic. A strict definition might exclude both.
Authors have been increasingly self-conscious over the years, in providing such structure, for example by announcing an overall series title, or by writing in round numbers such as 12 volumes. It might be debated whether a trilogy counts. For an early example, there are five Leatherstocking Tales in the sequence by Fenimore Cooper. In genre fiction this extension of a setting and story line has become standard.
The roman-fleuve (French, literally "river-novel") refers to an extended sequence of novels of which the whole acts as a commentary for a society or an epoch, and which continually deals with a central character, community or a saga within a family. The river metaphor implies a steady, broad dynamic lending itself to a perspective. Each volume makes up a complete novel by itself, but the entire cycle exhibits a unity.
Famous examples includes Honoré de Balzac's La Comédie humaine, Émile Zola's Rougon-Macquart cycle and Benito Pérez Galdós's Episodios nacionales series. Zola's is a family saga, a format that later became a popular fictional form, going beyond the conventional three-volume novel of the nineteenth century. It is also less diffuse than Balzac's cycle, which only came together in an architectural sense in the course of being written.
In the twentieth century Marcel Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu came to be regarded as a definitive roman fleuve, and was immensely influential, particularly on British novelists. Some of those follow the example of Anthony Powell, a Proust disciple but consciously adapting the technique to depict social change rather than change in 'society'. This was a step beyond the realist novels of Arnold Bennett (the Clayhanger books) or John Galsworthy.
Examples include:
Not many of the sequences of genre fiction could be seriously taken to be romans fleuve; the Aubrey-Maturin novels of Patrick O'Brian might qualify. | 
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