The Handbook systematically charts the trajectory of the English novel from its emergence as the foremost literary genre in the early twentieth century to its early twenty-first century status of eccentric eminence in new media environments. Systematic chapters address The English Novel as a Distinctly Modern Genre, The Novel in the Economy, Genres, Gender (performativity, masculinities, feminism, queer), and The Burden of Representation (class and ethnicity). Extended contextualized close readings of more than twenty key texts from Joseph Conrads Heart of Darkness (1899) to Tom McCarthys Satin Island (2015) supplement the systematic approach and encourage future research by providing overviews of reception and theoretical perspectives.

Christoph Reinfandt, University of Tübingen, Germany.