Atlas of the European Novel

In this pioneering study Franco Moretti presents a fresh and exciting perspective by mapping the often unexpected relations between literature and geography.“With intellectual elegance, Moretti invites us to use maps, not as all-encompassing solutions, but as generators of ideas.”—Umberto Eco

“Moretti ... is a seductive, stylish guide. One has the powerful sense of reading the results of concentrated thought: every page contains an aphoristic insight ... The reader is smuggled across borders that flash by in the dark ... The Atlas of the European Novel is a wonderful achievement: a visual pleasure as much as a textual one; a work in the vanguard of a new critical school that marries grand theory with a punctuating wit.”—Steven Poole, The Guardian

“A genuine and useful and inspired work of aesthetic investigation ... it will have a massive importance, not only to critics, but more importantly, to writers.”—New York Press

“. . . a frequently brilliant and almost always eye-opening book.”—Washington City PaperFranco Moretti teaches English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. He is the author of Signs Taken for Wonders, The Way of the World and Modern Epic, all from Verso.