{"product_id":"novel-an-alternative-history-book-steven-moore-9781441145475","title":"The Novel: An Alternative History","description":"This title tells a comprehensive history - and controversial reappraisal - of the world's most popular and innovative literary form. 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.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":50742803202321,"sku":"NGR9781441145475","price":53.59,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51026295587089,"sku":"NIN9781441145475","price":46.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51750192546065,"sku":"GOR008827766","price":27.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51757584089361,"sku":"CIN1441145478G","price":34.21,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52143878865169,"sku":"NLS9781441145475","price":57.19,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1441145478.jpg?v=1751457639","url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/products\/novel-an-alternative-history-book-steven-moore-9781441145475","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}