姚雪垠的长篇历史小说《李自成》被评论界和读者公认为史诗.严家炎称《李自成》为“农民革命战争的史诗”,这未必就是确论,但是,说它具有史诗的规模、气势和内在机制,是符合客观实际的.史诗或英雄史诗这个概念,本来指的是欧洲古典文学中的一种叙事诗的体裁样式.法国启蒙主义者伏尔泰曾说:“就史诗本身来看,它是一种用诗体写成的关于英雄冒险事迹的叙述.”我们把长篇小说称之为史诗或英雄史诗,是一种借代.也就是说,指的是具备史诗或英雄史诗要素和价值的长篇小 YAO Xue-long’s historical novel Li Zicheng is widely regarded as an epic by the critics and readers, who says that “Li Zicheng” is “an epic of the peasant revolutionary war.” This is not necessarily conclusive, but it is said to have epic scale, momentum and The internal mechanism is in line with objective reality.The concept of epic or heroic epic refers to the genre style of a kind of narrative poem in European classical literature.The French enlightened Voltaire once said: “In terms of the epic itself, it Is a poetic narrative of heroic deeds of adventure. ”We call the novel an epic or a heroic epic, a metonymy, that is to say a long epic with epic or heroic epic elements and values small