The novel : an alternative history : beginnings to 1600
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The novel : an alternative history : beginnings to 1600
Continuum, 2011, c2010
- : pbk
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Note
First published in 2010, paperback edition in 2011
Includes bibliographical references (p. 653-679) and indexes
Description and Table of Contents
Description
This title tells a comprehensive history - and controversial reappraisal - of the world's most popular and innovative literary form. 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.
Table of Contents
- Introduction: The Novel Novel
- Chapter 1: The Ancient Novel
- Egyptian
- Mesopotamian
- Hebrew
- Greek
- Roman
- Christian
- Chapter 2: The Medieval Novel
- Irish
- Icelandic
- Byzantine
- Jewish
- Arthurian
- Chapter 3: The Renaissance Novel
- Italian
- Spanish
- French
- English
- Bridge: The Mesoamerican Novel. Chapter 4: The Eastern Novel
- Indian
- Tibetan
- Arabic
- Persian
- Chapter 5: The Far Eastern Novel
- Japanese
- Chinese
- Bibliography
- Chronological Index of Novels Discussed
- General Index.
by "Nielsen BookData"