First published in 1969, this book asserts that two concepts, structure and praxis, make it impractical for scholars to ignore the necessity of a theory of the novel -- with the term 'classical novel' used to cover western fiction. The author argues that the novel is fundamentally an 'enterprise' -- an aspect of the praxis of a particular social class -- and that the ways of orthodox scholarship are also a praxis. The investigator must enquire...