Eric Bulson's overall aim in this book is to examine how readers, novelists, and critics (though at a later stage) have used maps and guidebooks to make novelistic space intelligible from the mid nineteenth century to the end of the twentieth century'. Within this premise, Bulson suggests that maps and guidebooks enable the literary critic to see the 'shift' in spatial representation between realism and modernism, a 'shift' centering on the tension between orienting and disorienting readers within the novel’s setting.

REVIEWS

  • "Novels, Maps, Modernity is a remarkable book that promises to transform our knowledge of the representation of space in modern fiction."

    - Brian Richardson, University of Maryland

  • "Bulson has written a volume…that provides lucid and imaginative observations on the novelistic representation of place from the mid-nineteenth century works of Charles Dickens and Herman Melville to late twentieth-century fiction by Thomas Pynchon and W.G. Sebald. Bulson’s point of departure is the seldom acknowledged importance that documents of geographical orientation—most notably maps and guide books—have played in the writing, reading, and criticism of fiction. As a work of literary criticism, Novels, Maps, Modernity is well researched, provocative, and highly readable. Not only does it offer fresh readings of three of the most widely studied novels in the Anglo-American canon, but it provides new ways of looking at any novelistic representation of geographical place."

    –Jon Hegglund, Washington State University, Modern Philology

  • "Bulson’s informative book maps out the territory and points the way to further research and discovery."

    - Ian Pindar, Times Literary Supplement

  • The volume is well produced and includes numerous reproductions of maps in order to exemplify Bulson's argu ments. Although it is sometimes difficult to 'read' these reproductions, they generally assist Bulson's astute ana lyses. As a work of scholarship, the book is clearly well researched and written. The 'Notes' section highlights the depth and breadth of Bulson's research, providing addi tional information to support his claims. Novels, Maps, Modernity offers researchers working on the history of car tography an alternative view of spatial representation.Combining literary criticism and Marxist critical geogra phy, Bulson concentrates on the 'effects' (rather than 'techniques') of spatial representation in novels, demon strating 'that technological advances in cartography and their place in particular national pasts have influenced how novelists themselves understand the ethical, political.

    - Lucy Le-Guilche

    University of Cambrige

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