Description: This edited volume explores prose from the origins of printing in late fifteenth-century England to the rise of the novel as a recognized, reputable genre in the mid eighteenth century.
Review Quotes: "By tracing the early beginnings of "the novel" within an age of "prose fiction," Keymer and his authors make strides to place what is "the novel" within a larger, malleable framework of writing styles, one that can be adapted to the pressures of new media." -- Joshua J. McEvilla, University of Toronto, Renaissance and Reformation
"This first volume in the set is particularly important for current scholars because earlier theories regarding what constitutes the first "modern novel" have been questioned, and demand additional research ... It is a relief that an Oxford textbook is responding to scholarly concerns ahead of many other literary critics." -- Anna Faktorovich, Pennsylvania Literary Journal"This collection is essential reading for any scholar of prose fiction before 1750. It will be much cited in future studies." -- Mary Ellen Lamb, Southern Illinois University, Renaissance Quarterly"An inclusive and judicious account of British fiction before 1750. ... Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty." --A. W. Lee, CHOICE