The Origins of the English Novel, 1600–1740

“This may well be the most important study of the development of prose fiction in England since Ian Watt’s classic Rise of the Novel , on which it builds.” — Library Journal The Origins of the English Novel, 1600-1740 , combines historical analysis and readings of extraordinarily diverse texts to reconceive the foundations of the dominant genre of the modern era. Now, on the fifteenth anniversary of its initial publication,  The Origins of the English Novel  stands as essential reading