by Irving Howe
First published 1992
Irving Howe examines how revolutionary ideas shape fiction and defines what makes a political novel work. He traces this literary form from its origins through the twentieth century, analyzing classics like Stendhal's The Red and the Black, Dostoevsky's The Possessed, Conrad's The Secret Agent, and Turgenev's Fathers and Sons. Howe argues that American novelists struggled to weave ideology into their narratives, studying works like DeForest's Playing the Mischief, Adams' Democracy, James' The Bostonians, and Hawthorne's The Blithedale Romance. He extends his analysis to post-World War II fiction, examining how writers like Kundera, Naipaul, and Solzhenitsyn handled political themes. The book offers readers a framework for understanding how successful novels balance artistic merit with ideological content.
Genres: literary-criticism, literary-fiction, american-fiction, 20th-century, political-science, academic
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: literary-analysis, social-commentary
Period: 20th-Century
272 pages · Hardcover · Columbia University Press