A History of English Prose Fiction

One of the earliest comprehensive histories of English prose fiction, written when the novel itself was still a young and contested form. Tuckerman traces the arc from medieval chivalric romances through the picaresque tradition, examining how fiction both reflected and shaped the social values of each era. He pays particular attention to the cultural conditions that gave rise to different literary modes: the feudal world that produced romance, the rising mercantile classes that fueled picaresque satire, and the emerging urban sensibility that would birth the modern novel. The work stands as a vital period document, revealing how an 18th-century mind understood the literary tradition he inherited. For readers interested in the history of the novel, or in how literary forms evolve in response to social change, this provides both substance and a fascinating window into earlier critical thinking.