Roman à clef (,
Anglicized as ), 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. This "key" may be produced separately by the
author, or implied through the use of
epigraphs or other
literary techniques.