1st Edition

The Ancient Novel An Introduction

By Niklas Holzberg Copyright 1995
    140 Pages
    by Routledge

    144 Pages
    by Routledge

    This widely acclaimed book offers an introduction to the ancient novel and presents the latest research findings in the field. For this English translation, Professor Holzberg has substantially updated and expanded the German edition of 1986.
    Niklas Holzberg considers the ancient novel as encompassing idealistic and comic realistic narrative with central themes of love and adventure. He develops his definition of the genre and offers explanations of why this literary form was so popular during the Hellenistic period. He goes on to examine the individual texts in chronological order, providing a summary of the contents of each, relevant background information and interpretative pointers.

    1. The genre 2. The rise of the genre 3. The idelistic novel in early Imperial times 4. The comic-realistic novel 5. The idealistic novel in the age of the Second Sophistic Select bibliography

    Biography

    Niklas Holzberg