About this book; 1. Why the novel matters; Interchapter: Don Quixote; 2. Origins of the novel; Interchapter: Tristram Shandy; 3. Narrating the novel; Interchapter: Justified Sinner; 4. Character and the novel; Interchapter: The Scarlet Letter; 5. Plotting the novel; Interchapter: Madame Bovary; 6. Setting the novel; Interchapter: Bleak House; 7. Time and history; Interchapter: To the Lighthouse; 8. Genre and subgenre; Interchapter: The Ministry of Fear; 9. Novel and anti-novel; Interchapter: The Crying of Lot 49; 10. Novel, nation, community; Interchapter: Midnight's Children; 11. Concluding; Glossary; Further reading.