Author: Cheryl L. Nixon

Publisher: Broadview Press

Published: 2008-12-30

Total Pages: 438

ISBN-13: 1460401492

Novel Definitions captures the lively critical debate surrounding the invention of the English novel, showing how the rise of the novel is accompanied by a rise in popular literary criticism. The over 135 pieces here, many newly-discovered, include essays, prefaces, reviews, and sermons written by authors ranging from Aphra Behn to Walter Scott. Novel Definitions brings together authors' commentary on their work; debates concerning the novel’s formal qualities and cultural position, including who should read novels; reviewers' definitions of the qualities that make a novel successful; and literary historians' first attempts to write the history of the novel.