The Sentiment of Reality: Truth of Feeling in the European Novel (Routledge Revivals) - Softcover

Bell, Michael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0367610663 ISBN 13: 9780367610661

Publisher: Routledge, 2023

Synopsis

Originally published in 1983, The Sentiment of Reality covers the rise and decline of the realist novel from the mid-eighteenth century to the mid-twentieth century.

The book takes the form of an extended essay on two closely related themes in the history of the novel: first, the impact and aftermath of the eighteenth-century cult of sentiment and, secondly, the supplanting of illusionism by an aesthetic of mimesis. This forms the basis of an exploration of the emotional impact that fiction has on the reader. Using this analysis, the book defends the realist tradition against common contemporary criticism.

The Sentiment of Reality combines a close reading of key moments in European fiction with a wide-ranging speculative treatment of historical and formal questions.

About this title

About the Author

Michael Bell Department of English, University of Warwick, UK

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0367610663
• ISBN 13: 9780367610661
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 226