Synopses & Reviews
Encyclopedic in scope and heroically audacious,
The Novel: An Alternative History is the first attempt in over a century to tell the complete story of our most popular literary form. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the novel did not originate in 18th-century England, nor even with Don Quixote, but is coeval with civilization itself.
After a pugnacious introduction, in which Moore defends innovative, demanding novelists against their conservative critics, the book relaxes into a world tour of the premodern novel, beginning in ancient Egypt and ending in 16th-century China, with many exotic ports-of-call: Greek romances; Roman satires; medieval Sanskrit novels narrated by parrots; Byzantine erotic thrillers; 5000-page Arabian adventure novels; Icelandic sagas; delicate Persian novels in verse; Japanese war stories; even Mayan graphic novels. Throughout, Moore celebrates the innovators in fiction, tracing a continuum between these premodern experimentalists and their postmodern progeny.
Irreverent, iconoclastic, informative, entertaining — The Novel: An Alternative History is a landmark in literary criticism that will encourage readers to rethink the novel.
Review
"Moore identifies and discusses novels from the ancient, medieval, Renaissance, Eastern, and Far Eastern worlds. He writes authoritatively and enthusiastically about 'the various forms and permutations of the novel' and seeks to 'demonstrate the genre's age and infinite variety.' [...] Moore is serious in his effort to produce a useful work for the general reader. Recommended especially for literature students as well as curious laypersons seeking information and entertainment." Library Journal
Review
"Good humour to be found in every paragraph. If he’s not careful, this man could give scholarship a good name." South Belfast News
Review
"You might expect a heavily footnoted 700-page history of the novel up to 1600 to be anything but readable, gripping, and enjoyable, but The Novel is all of those things — immensely so. After suggesting and rejecting definitions for 'novel' (including his own, 'the novel is essentially a delivery system for aesthetic bliss'), Moore finally concedes that he'd 'rather let authors show me what a novel can be than to impose a definition on them.'" Scott Bryan Wilson, Rain Taxi (Read the entire )
Synopsis
A comprehensive history and controversial reappraisal of the world's most popular and innovative literary form.
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About the Author
Steven Moore (Ph.D. Rutgers, 1988) is the author of several books and essays on modern literature. From 1988 to 1996 he was managing editor of the Review of Contemporary Fiction/Dalkey Archive Press, and for decades has reviewed books for a variety of journals and newspapers, principally the Washington Post. He lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where is he is working on the next installment of this history.
Table of Contents
Introduction: The Novel NovelChapter 1: The Ancient Novel Egyptian Mesopotamian Hebrew Greek Roman ChristianChapter 2: The Medieval Novel Irish Icelandic Byzantine Jewish ArthurianChapter 3: The Renaissance Novel Italian Spanish French EnglishBridge: The Mesoamerican NovelChapter 4: The Eastern Novel Indian Tibetan Arabic PersianChapter 5: The Far Eastern Novel Japanese ChineseBibliographyChronological Index of Novels DiscussedGeneral Index