We all learned about the various sorts of PoV in middle school. Yet third person omniscient stood out as odd and unachievable without the genius of God. Our teachers assuaged doubt with some abstract definition. The search through the genealogy of the novel begs the question, “where is today’s omniscience-seeking reader to turn?” Has anyone really written omnisciently, or were our teachers only tricking us?
Henriette Lazaridis Power takes a genealogical look at the 3rd person omniscient PoV.