Novel article close to capturing big guns (3,5,6)
I believe the answer is:
the great gatsby
'novel' is the definition.
(novel by F Scott Fitzgerald)
'article close to capturing big guns' is the wordplay.
'article close' becomes 'theby' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'to capturing' indicates putting letters inside.
'big' becomes 'great' (similar in meaning).
'guns' becomes 'gats' (gat is a kind of gun).
'great'+'gats'='greatgats'
'theby' placed around 'greatgats' is 'THE GREAT GATSBY'.
(Other definitions for the great gatsby that I've seen before include "classic work" , "Book" , "F Scott Fitzgerald novel" .)