William Lyon Phelps 
The Advance of the English Novel (Barnes & Noble Digital Library) 

A scholarly review of the beginning, development, and current status of fiction, this conversational 1916 book spans two centuries of literary development. Defoe, Richardson, Fielding, Smollett, Sterne, the eighteenth century, and the Romantic Revival are all discussed here, as well as the Victorians—with emphasis on contemporary artists such as Meredith, Conrad, Hardy, Galsworthy, Henry James, and other twentieth-century British and American novelists.

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