This collection of essays offers a wide-ranging and provocative reassessment of the British novel's achievements after modernism. The book identifies continuities of preoccupation - with national identity, historiography and the challenge to literary form presented by public and private violence - that span the entire century.

'[MacKay and Stonebridge's] brilliant understanding of the conditions of the novel after modernism has allowed them to revive this 'distant dream'. [...] This collection [...] offers a new vision of late modernity. It effectively explains the 'filmic narrative,' the montage and pastiche techniques.' - The European English Messenger