Some dialogue in winter time, as well as preceding period in US novel (7,3,4)
I believe the answer is:
decline and fall
'novel' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'some dialogue in winter time as well as preceding period in us' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'some' could be 'a' and 'a' is located in the answer.
'in' is present in the answer.
'period' could be 'fall' (fall is a kind of period) and 'fall' is located in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for decline and fall that I've seen before include "Evelyn Waugh novel" , "Book" , "work!" .)