A Book History of the Novel

Abstract This essay retrofits prevailing theories of the novel by fundamentally expanding their empirical bases. It emerges from the observation that a small handful of novels, comprising a very small handful of forms, from among an even smaller handful of places, has determined both the history and the theory of the novel even as the novel today enjoys a thriving global presence. Against this set of assumptions, this essay asks if a different theory of the novel is possible that incorporates common readers and markets and, on this basis, understands the novel's geographical expansion in the twenty-first century. In expanding the kinds of novels from which to develop theories, this essay begins the work of decolonizing novel theory. Its purpose is to sketch what a book history of the novel, focused on common readers, might look like.