Periodicals, Fiction and the Novel, 1700–1760

The essay-periodical and the novel both emerged as new literary genres in the eighteenth century. Yet there has been no full-length study of the formative role each genre played in the development of the other. This book uses the lens of periodical studies to reassess what we know about the history of prose fiction, examining how periodicals shaped fictionality and how they were influenced by it in return. It moves the dial on studies of the English novel, arguing that the vibrant interchange be