1st Edition

The Inn and the Traveller Digressive Topographies in the Early Modern European Novel

By Will McMorran Copyright 2002

    In the landscape of the early modern European comic novel the inn often features as a monument to digression - the perfect setting for chance encounters with strangers who always have a story to tell. This wide-ranging comparative study explores the special part played by the inn, tracing the progress of a succession of wayward heroes and narrators in five canonical texts: Cervantes's "Don Quijote", Scarron's "Roman comique", Fielding's "Joseph Andrews" and "Tom Jones", Sterne's "Tristram Shandy" and Diderot's "Jacques le fataliste". As this celebration of digressive fiction unfolds, a very different picture emerges of the novel's rise and development.

    Introduction; 1: Before Palomeque: Hospitality and Storytelling; 2: Don Quijote The Inn and the Castle; 3: Le Roman comique Town, Country and the Provincial Inn; 4: Fielding I The Topography of Travel; 5: Fielding II The Topology of Travel; 6: Tristram Shandy Narrative as Travelogue; 7: Jacques le Fataliste et son maƮtre Travelogue as Narrative; Conclusion

    Biography

    Will McMorran