* Offers a close reading of individual texts with attention to their cultural and canonical context * Examines the history and evolution of the novel to 1900 and defines each author s aesthetic, cultural, political, and historical significance * Covers essential and frequently taught masterworks up to 1900, including Cervantes Don Quixote; Tolstoy s War and Peace and Anna Karenina; Dostoevsky s Notes from Underground, Crime and Punishment, and The Brothers Karamazov; Stendhal s The Red and the Black and The Charterhouse of Parma; Flaubert s Madame Bovary and Sentimental Education; Balzac s Pere Goriot; and Zola s Germinal * Written with students and teachers in mind, this book provides accessible and engaging discussions of each novel, along with important pedagogical tools