Question

roman à clef noun "Unlock the fiction, open the door and see the very real people behind it," wrote Jeff Simon in The Buffalo News (March 19, 1998). That can be easily done when a roman à clef uses fictitious names to present thinly veiled depictions of well-known people or events. But what if only a few insiders know the real people or incidents? In the 1800s, such romans a clef sometimes included a key, a list matching fictional characters with their real-life counterparts, that helped readers recognize the players. Such keys made "roman a clef" (from a French phrase meaning "a novel with a key") an apt term for such works. Nowadays, there are no published keys in a roman à clef -- merely veiled (or sometimes blatant) references that connect fact with fiction. : a novel in which real persons or actual events figure under disguise

Accepted Answer

June 27, 2009 roh-mahn-ah-KLAY Critics quickly identified the ex-press secretary’s new novel as a roman a clef with characters closely resembling figures from the current presidential administration.

Word	roman à clef
Date	June 27, 2009
Type	noun
Syllables	roh-mahn-ah-KLAY
Etymology	"Unlock the fiction, open the door and see the very real people behind it," wrote Jeff Simon in The Buffalo News (March 19, 1998). That can be easily done when a roman à clef uses fictitious names to present thinly veiled depictions of well-known people or events. But what if only a few insiders know the real people or incidents? In the 1800s, such romans a clef sometimes included a key, a list matching fictional characters with their real-life counterparts, that helped readers recognize the players. Such keys made "roman a clef" (from a French phrase meaning "a novel with a key") an apt term for such works. Nowadays, there are no published keys in a roman à clef -- merely veiled (or sometimes blatant) references that connect fact with fiction.
Examples	Critics quickly identified the ex-press secretary’s new novel as a roman a clef with characters closely resembling figures from the current presidential administration.
Definition	: a novel in which real persons or actual events figure under disguise

Clef Roman à Real People Veiled Characters Keys