The novel : an alternative history : beginnings to 1600 / Steven Moore.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 653-679) and indexes.

TOC The ancient novel. Egyptian ; Mesopotamian ; Hebrew ; Greek ; Roman ; Christian --
The medieval novel. Irish ; Icelandic ; Byzantine ; Jewish ; Arthurian --
The Renaissance novel. Italian ; Spanish ; French ; English --
The Mesoamerican novel --
The Eastern novel. Indian ; Tibetan ; Arabic ; Persian --
The Far Eastern novel. Japanese ; Chinese.

Summary:
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.

English

Tahur Ahmed