author : Timothy Spurgin

This is the course guidebook that accompanies the 24 lecture “Great Course” of the same name. It is essentially an abbreviated transcript of each lecture, some essential reading, and some questions to consider. (I watched the lectures, which is what I am reviewing here, and am using the book simply as an aide-memoire.)

Spurgin starts off by defining what makes a novel an English one, as opposed to say, a French one. In particular, they have a comedic plot (he never explains what this technical term means: not specifically funny as such, but rather having a happy ending, usually a marriage, as opposed to a tragic one, typically a death). He then takes an historical route from the early novels of the 18th Century, up to the 1920s, showing the development of the novel, and, along the way, how soon it diverges from happy endings, or even ‘endings’ at all.

One striking development is the move from writing novels popular with the masses, to writing novels mostly of interest to other writers. However, given that the popular novels are dissected as being carefully constructed and written, there seems to be no reason why great novels of today couldn’t also be popular, rather than, dare I say it, pretentious.

Another thing I found fascinating, on a more personal level, is that whenever Spurgin starts talking about the obvious questions to ask of a particular plot, they are never the questions I’m asking: he’s asking about the inner lives of the characters; I’m asking about the world building. So, there is a lot of material here I found interesting, but nothing made me want to read any of the books he was talking about (except Jane Austen, obviously, and I’ve already read all of her).