The Rise of the Novel, Updated Edition

by Ian P. Watt, W.B. Carnochan (Afterword)

The Rise of the Novel is Ian Watt's classic description of the interworkings of social conditions, changing attitudes, and literary practices during the period when the novel emerged as the dominant literary form of the individualist era.

In a new foreword, W. B. Carnochan accounts for the increasing interest in the English novel, including the contributions that Ian Watt's study made to literary studies: his introduction of sociology and philosophy to traditional criticism.

Genres: Nonfiction, Literary Criticism, Criticism, Theory, History, Literature, Academic

339 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1957

About the author

Ian Watt was a literary critic, literary historian and professor of English at Stanford University. His The Rise of the Novel: Studies in Defoe, Richardson and Fielding is an important work in the history of the genre.