Originally published in 1983, The Sentiment of Reality covers the rise and decline of the realist novel from the mid-eighteenth century to the mid-twentieth century.

The book takes the form of an extended essay on two closely related themes in the history of the novel: first, the impact and aftermath of the eighteenth-century cult of sentiment and, secondly, the supplanting of illusionism by an aesthetic of mimesis. This forms the basis of an exploration of the emotional impact that fiction has on the reader. Using this analysis, the book defends the realist tradition against common contemporary criticism.

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