Ian Watt (1917-99) was a Professor of Humanities at Stanford University. During the Second World War he worked as a prisoner on the construction of the notorious Burma Railway before turning to the study of English literature. The Rise of the Novel (1957) was the first of a dozen books he wrote and is widely regarded as the seminal work in the study of the novel. His other books include Conrad in the Nineteenth Century (1979), Conrad: Nostromo (1988) and Myths of Individualism: Faust, Don Quixote, Don Juan and Robinson Crusoe (1998).

"A major contribution to the subject, in some respects the most brilliant that has appeared ... as enlivening and enriching as the works themselves" Times Educational Supplement "An important, compendious work of inquiring scholarship...alive with ideas" -- V S Pritchett New Statesman

Ian Watt (1917-99) was a Professor of Humanities at Stanford University. During the Second World War he worked as a prisoner on the construction of the notorious Burma Railway before turning to the study of English literature. The Rise of the Novel (1957) was the first of a dozen books he wrote and is widely regarded as the seminal work in the study of the novel. His other books include Conrad in the Nineteenth Century (1979), Conrad: Nostromo (1988) and Myths of Individualism: Faust, Don Quixote, Don Juan and Robinson Crusoe (1998).

"A major contribution to the subject, in some respects the most brilliant that has appeared ... as enlivening and enriching as the works themselves" Times Educational Supplement "An important, compendious work of inquiring scholarship...alive with ideas" -- V S Pritchett New Statesman