Theory of the Novel Kindle Edition

A very necessary book at many levels; it brings us back to the metaphysics and categories of mind the novel is capable of exploring through its use of dramatic detail and irony. It's a thinker's book, but the novel gives us so much more than thought. It gives us an inner opening to a certain kind of freedom that come only after long journeys, difficult tasks, prolonged uncertainty, deeply felt anguish, more deeply felt love.

Mazzoni takes a broad, neo-Hegelian perspective, which is fine. But his "analysis" mostly consists of banal observations: "The novel is the genre of particularity." Furthermore, he takes seriously neo-Marxists like Frederic Jameson, which can only detract from the serious study of literature.