Why a history of the novel in ants? It makes perfect sense because ants live in an almost exclusively female society. And as Ian Watt noted in THE RISE OF THE NOVEL, the majority of eighteenth century novels were written by -- as well as read by - women. The prevalence of women as readers and authors of fiction has continued to the present day. Within their all-female society, ants have conflicts, ants have ambitions and disappointments, ants have victories and defeats. Inhabiting an underground fortress of winding, labyrinthine galleries, ants can be gothic or postmodernist as the plot...