The Literal Imagination: Selected Essays

This volume brings together previously uncollected essays by Ian Watt, one of the major literary critics of the later 20th century, famed equally for his work on Joseph Conrad and for his pioneering investigation into the genesis of English prose fiction. In addition to the author's reassessment of "The Rise of the Novel" the essays in this volume include studies of Augustan literature, gothic and comic fiction, the prose style of Henry James and the humanistic imagination of George Orwell. A final essay contains Watt's reflections on his experience as a prisoner of the Japanese during World War II.