Cover of The Theory of the Novel

The Theory of the Novel

by Gyorgy Lukacs · 1916

+ Want to read

Georg Lukacs wrote The Theory of the Novelin 1914-1915, a period that also saw the conception of Rosa Luxemburg's Spartacus Letters, Lenin's Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism, Spengler's Decline of the West, and Ernst Bloch's Spirit of Utopia. Like many of Lukacs's early essays, it is a radical critique of bourgeois culture and stems from a specific Central European philosophy of life and tradition of dialectical idealism whose originators include Kant, Hegel, Novalis, Marx, Kierkegaard, Simmel, Weber, and Husserl.

Read more

The Theory of the Novelmarks the transition of the Hungarian philosopher from Kant to Hegel and was Lukacs's last great work before he turned to Marxism-Leninism.

Subject
literary criticismliterary criticismMore like thisLess of thisphilosophyphilosophyMore like thisLess of thispoliticspoliticsMore like thisLess of this
Themes
writerswritersMore like thisLess of this
Setting
1910s1910sMore like thisLess of thiscollegecollegeMore like thisLess of thisGermanyGermanyMore like thisLess of this
Audience
adult
Length
short · 160 pages
Form
essaysessaysMore like thisLess of this

Click a tag to see books like this one that share it. Point at it (on a phone, tap it) for less of it instead.

Read it? Sign in to help tag it.

BuyAmazonGoogle Books

BorrowOpen LibraryA library near you

MoreCompare pricesHardcover

Liked The Theory of the Novel? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked The Theory of the Novel. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays Mikhail Bakhtin · 1975 Shares theory, philosophy, literary theory
  2. Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature Erich Auerbach · 1946 Shares literary criticism, literary theory, theory
  3. Marxism and Literature Raymond Williams · 1977 Shares theory, philosophy, literary theory
  4. Marxism and Literary Criticism Terry Eagleton · 1976 Shares literary theory, theory, philosophy
See more recommendations →

“People who read The Theory of the Novel tend to reach for these next.”

  1. The Political Unconscious Fredric Jameson · 1981
  2. Time and Narrative, Volume 1 Paul Ricoeur · 1983
  3. Anatomy of Criticism Northrop Frye · 1957
  4. Theory of Prose Victor Shklovsky · 1929

“If you want more of the same (literary criticism about writers), start with these.”

  1. Allegories of Reading: Figural Language in Rousseau, Nietzsche, Rilke, and Proust Paul De Man · 1979
  2. Tropics of Discourse: Essays in Cultural Criticism Hayden White · 1978
  3. The Pursuit of Signs: Semiotics, Literature, Deconstruction Jonathan Culler · 1981
  4. The World, the Text, and the Critic Edward Said, dwrd s`yd · 1983

“If it was the literary theory that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. Literary Theory: An Introduction Terry Eagleton · 1983
  2. The Event of Literature Terry Eagleton · 2012
  3. Signs Taken For Wonders: Essays on the Sociology of Literary Forms Franco Moretti · 1988
  4. Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction Jonathan Culler · 1997

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. Kant's 'Critique of Pure Reason' Theodor W. Adorno · 1991
  2. The Modern Intellectual Tradition: From Descartes to Derrida Lawrence Cahoone · 2010
  3. On Ideology Louis Althusser · 1984
  4. The Fate of Reason: German Philosophy from Kant to Fichte Frederick C. Beiser · 1987

Report a problem