Roman à clef

Roman à clef (French pronunciation: [ʁɔmɑ̃ a kle], anglicised as /roʊˌmɒn ə ˈkleɪ/), French for novel with a key, is a novel about real life, overlaid with a façade of fiction. The fictitious names in the novel represent real people, and the "key" is the relationship between the nonfiction and the fiction. The "key" may be produced separately by the author or implied through the use of epigraphs or other literary techniques.

Created by Madeleine de Scudéry in the 17th century to provide a forum for her thinly veiled fiction featuring political and public figures, the roman à clef has since been used by writers as diverse as Sylvia Plath, Truman Capote, Ernest Hemingway, George Orwell, Jack Kerouac, Victor Hugo, Blaise Cendrars, Philip K. Dick, Bret Easton Ellis, Naguib Mahfouz, Charles Bukowski and Malachi Martin.