An Atlas of the European Novel 1800-1900 explores the fascinating connections between literature and space. In this pioneering study, Franco Moretti presents a fresh and exciting perspective en the European novel.

In a series of one hundred maps, Moretti illuminates the geographical assumptions of nineteenth-century novels and the geographical reach of particular authors and genres across the continent. A good map, he discovers, can be worth a thousand words in posing new questions and allowing us to see connections that have so far escaped us. Reading his Atlas, we become aware of the secret structure of Dickens's and Conan Doyle's London, and see how the fictional settings of Austen's Britain, or picaresque Spain, or the France of the Comédie humaine imagine national identity in different ways. In a final chapter on “narrative markets,” Moretti tells us which books were most popular in the provincial libraries of Victorian Britain, and charts the European diffusion of Don Quixote, Buddenbrooks, and the great nineteenth-century bestsellers.

In Franco Moretti's Atlas, maps are net ornaments, but analytical tools which, in making connections explicit and visible, allow us to “see” literature in a completely new way. This path-breaking study suggests that space may well be the secret protagonist of cultural history.

Read an excerpt...

“With intellectual elegance, Moretti invites us to use maps not as all-encompassing solutions, but as generatons of ideas.” – Umberto Eco

Praise for Franco Moretti's previous book, Modern Epic:

“Brimful of brilliant perceptions... In a period when space is rapidly becoming one of the sexiest of critical notions, Moretti is busily pioneering what is likely to prove the coming current of literary theory: a geographical criticism. The way is paved for a 'literary geography' in the future, which Moretti, of all critics, is surely best equipped to yield us.” – Terry Eagleton, Times Literary Supplement

“This book casts a new beam of light on the nature of modernism... and that is no mean feat.” – Brian McKenna, Times Higher Education Supplement

“A witty literary analysis... Mr. Moretti is a playful and brilliant writer.” — Economist

Franco Moretti teaches English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. He is the author of Signs Taken for Wonders, The Way of the World and Modern Epic, all from Verso.

192 pages
100 b/w maps

Cloth
1 85984 883 4
£16/ US$25 / CAN$37

Paper
1 85984 224 0
£12 / US$17 / CAN$26