history and criticism

Finally, a sophisticated, imaginative and substantial collection of essays on the novel for a new generation of scholars, students, and people interested in literature. Professor McKeon has done a terrific job of balancing classic founding essays, the latest contemporary thinking, and unique (even adventurous) perspectives on a genre for which he is an established expert. McKeon's scholarly home is the 18th century, where he has been celebrated for his own contribution to the theory of the novel. In this collection, he has deftly moved his choices between standards like Ian Watt, E.D. Hirsch, Joseph Frank, and Northrop Frye, modern critics like Georg Lukacs, Marthe Robert and Walter Benjamin, and contemporary theorists like Fredric Jameson, Linda Hutcheon, and Kwame Anthony Appiah. What emerges is an often fascinating look at the varied ways the novel has been understood as both literary genre and cultural product throughout its history. Not only will this be an instant hit for teachers of literature, for whom it will provide a flexible and inspiring framework, but for anyone who delights in ideas and the contemplation of culture--this will be their book to take to that desert island.