Introduction To The English Novel

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First published in 1951 (this edition in 1967), this book forms the first part of Arnold Kettle’s An Introduction to the English Novel. Since the novel, like every other literary form, is a product of history, the book opens with a discussion of how and why the novel developed in England in the eighteenth century, as well as the function and background of prose fiction. The third part of the book examines six great novels from Jane Austen to George Eliot. ‘A serious and rewarding study.’ The Times Literary Supplement ‘His examination of some eighteenth century writers and analysis of six famous novels- from Emma to Middlemarch- have wit, authority and a sensitivity that compel the reader’s attention.’ Dublin Magazine

Written by one of the world’s leading literary theorists, this book provides a wide-ranging, accessible and humorous introduction to the English novel from Daniel Defoe to the present day. Covers the works of major authors, including Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding, Samuel Richardson, Laurence Sterne, Walter Scott, Jane Austen, the Brontës, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, Henry James, Joseph Conrad, Virginia Woolf, D.H. Lawrence and James Joyce. Distils the essentials of the theory of the novel. Follows the model of Eagleton’s hugely popular Literary Theory: An Introduction (Second Edition, 1996).

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

First published in 1951, the two volumes of An Introduction to the English Novel discuss how and why the novel developed in England in the eighteenth century. The books look at the function and background of prose fiction, focusing its arguments around the study of carefully selected books that have had a significant impact on its development. The author examines the progress in the long struggle of the novelist to see life steadily and whole, and points out some of the problems and hazards that beset the writer still.

The novel emerged, McKeon contends, as a cultural instrument designed to engage the epistemological and social crises of the age.

First published in 1953, this book forms the second part of Arnold Kettle’s An Introduction to the English Novel. In this second part, Kettle builds a discussion of the modern English novel around the study of various books that have a more than casual significance in its development. He begins with an analysis of James, Hardy and Butler: three late Victorian writers whose work points forward to the major preoccupations of twentieth-century novelists. In his discussion of a dozen or so of these points, the author examines their progress in the long struggle of the novelist to see life steadily and whole, and points out some of the problems and hazards that beset the writer still. ‘The selection both of novelists and their work is excellent... it is both shrewd and witty...’ The Times Literary Supplement ‘Altogether this is a refreshing, challenging and original work, wholly adult in tone, and never pedantic or dull’ The Guardian