Philosophical novel one ends eg with hint of realism (8)
I believe the answer is:
resigned
'philosophical' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'novel one ends eg with hint of realism' is the wordplay.
'novel' is an anagram indicator.
'one' becomes 'i' (roman numeral).
'with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'hint of' suggests taking the first letters.
The first letter of 'realism' is 'r'.
'i'+'ends'+'eg'='iendseg'
'iendseg' with letters rearranged gives 'esigned'.
'esigned' put after 'r' is 'RESIGNED'.
(Other definitions for resigned that I've seen before include "Packed it in!" , "without complaining" , "without hope of change" , "Stopped working" , "Abdicated" .)