The Novel, Who Needs It?

by Joseph Epstein

In this brief but highly engaging book Joseph Epstein argues for the primacy of fiction, and specifically of the novel, among all intellectual endeavors that seek to describe the behavior of human beings. Reading superior fiction, he holds, arouses the mind in a way that nothing else quite does. He shows how the novel at its best operates above the level of ideas in favor of taking up the truths of the heart. No other form probes so deeply into that eternal mystery of mysteries, human nature, than does the novel.  Along the way, Epstein recounts how we read fiction differently than much else we read. He sets out how memory works differently in the reading of fiction than in that of other works. He notes that certain novels are best read at certain ages, and suggests that novels, like movies, might do well to carry ratings, with some novels best read no later than one’s early twenties, others not to be read before the age of forty. The knowledge one acquires from reading novels differs from all other kinds of knowledge, for the subject of all superior fiction is human existence itself, in all its variousness and often humbling confusion. The spirit of the novel entails questioning much that others consider home truths. This is demonstrated by the fact that so many important philosophers, social scientists, jurists, and other intellectuals have been devoted readers of fiction, among them Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Michael Oakeshott, Edward Shils, and Clifford Geertz. The Novel, Who Needs It?  takes up those current elements in the culture that militate against the production of first-rate fiction. Prominent among them are the rise of online reading, the expansion of creative writing programs, the artistically discouraging effects of political correctness, and the pervasiveness of therapeutic thinking throughout contemporary culture.  As for the title,  The Novel, Who Needs It? , Joseph Epstein’s answer is that we all do.  

Genres: Nonfiction, Essays, Books About Books, Literary Criticism, Literature, Art, Writing

152 pages, Hardcover

Published July 18, 2023

About the author

Joseph Epstein is the author of, among other books, Snobbery, Friendship, and Fabulous Small Jews. He has been editor of American Scholar and has written for the New Yorker, the Atlantic, Commentary, Town and Country, and other magazines.

Reviews

[Mackenzie King · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciate the sentiment of this, but the analysis proves quite stuffy and pretentious… both adjectives the art of fiction struggles to dissociate from in search of new readers. He does pull some insightful quotes into his commentary, but I don’t think he has provided any new insights into the greater appreciation of the novel.

I do agree with most of the conclusions he makes, but I close this book curious what the basis for his need to write this was… other than to flex what his Goodreads probably looks like.

[Daniel · Rating 1 out of 5]

That's however many hours of my life wasted.

[Miles Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Without question the best extended essay on the novel I have ever read.

[Erik Fortmeyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just (with sadness) finished this worthy commentary book and can’t really think of a better review than the stock one Goodreads has for it. An unquestioned 5-star book, for certain! If you love great novels and have wondered why you love them so much, this is a book for you.

[Ally · Rating 3 out of 5]

Several good nuggets, but I struggled through a good bit of it.

[Jennifer Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Epstein's essays acknowledge the good of reading great works of fiction, namely finding yourself in another's point of view.

[J.D. Cetola · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful book--it's thought-provoking, insightful, and references many great novels for additional reading. Very highly recommended for those who love literature and wonder about its current state (and future).

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining and educational

Notes
My Encounter edition had 142 pages, not 152
7 … Nabokov .. best to identify with the novel’s author
8 … Definition of a good book: interesting, memorable, re-readable
9 … Sun Also Rises, 20 yrs later, difficult to get through … pretension and anti-semitism
10 … like movies, maybe novels should carry codes for the best age to read them
Wilder …Bridge of San Luis Rey
17 … plot vs story … difference, causality … king died then queen = story … king died then queen died from grief = plot
20 … page-stoppers, not -turners … makes one want to reread key passage, admire brilliant formulations
Believed movies would replace the novel … (then TV and today digital culture)
Movies passive … Film’s charm, it’s a great simplifier
45 … Shame part of Dreiser’s heritage … uneducated, untouched by culture, mother took in washing
48 … a fast writer (Balzac, Dostoyevsky)
50 … Updike. Harry Rabbit ... nickname for Harry Angstrom? (basketballer)
66 … Novels range from 50k words to Proust’s 1.25M
76 … short attention span a side effect of digital culture = decline of the novel
Greatest of all mixed blessings. I’m not superior. I check mail 25x/day, spell check, aide-memoire, rapid delivery of manuscripts, making revisions …
80 … since the car, surely no invention has changed the way people live as radically as the Internet
87 … political correctness, Sanctimony Literature
96 … Proust comics … likened to piano reduction to an orchestral score .. un menu degustation
Graphic novels a radical dumbing down and as such join the list of enemies of the novel.
101 … while reading Tolstoy, one cannot imagine why one would ever wish to read anyone else.
102 … Kreutzer Sonata, one never feels less than imaginatively, intellectually, spiritually engaged.
115 … Cather * ... O Pioneers! My Antonia

Read thanks to a Patrick Kurp post https://evidenceanecdotal.blogspot.co...

Dalrymple review https://www.newenglishreview.org/arti...

[Torres Firsht · Rating 5 out of 5]

In his short yet compelling book, Epstein contends that reading exceptional novels—by authors such as Austen, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Cervantes, Balzac, and Proust—stimulates the mind in a uniquely profound way. He explores various definitions of a “serious” novel and presents diverse perspectives on what constitutes a great book, emphasizing that it must be interesting, memorable, and re-readable. Epstein delves into why we read novels, the different types of readers, how our judgments of books evolve throughout our lives, and the essential tasks a novelist must undertake. Drawing on insights from some of the most thoughtful practitioners of the genre, Epstein argues that the novel's foremost goal is to create a convincing illusion of reality, allowing readers to explore the inner lives of its characters. Ultimately, the novel is about human existence—its joys and sorrows, its victories and struggles. Even if it doesn’t provide clear answers, it must implicitly pose the right questions.

We found Epstein’s analysis, along with the insights from other literary critics he quotes, to be both insightful and eye-opening. It's surprising to learn that Dickens is not included in the pantheon of the greatest authors. This exclusion is attributed to his "crude formula" of leveraging laughter and tears to achieve popular success—a tradition that has profoundly influenced Hollywood blockbusters and modern bestsellers.

As aspiring authors who initially wrote a novel without fully understanding the difference between literary and commercial/popular fiction, we found Epstein’s perspectives enlightening and engaging. His thoughts on the inclusion of sexual details (imagine what Count Vronsky might have requested of Anna if Philip Roth had written "Anna Karenina"), the influence of the Internet on reading habits (seeking knowledge and wisdom versus mere information), and political correctness (we’d all be confined to writing only memoirs) were particularly striking. He also delves into the distinction between being moral and moralistic, the impact of "workshopped" novels, the role of publishing (an arm of literature or a rejecting finger), the pitfalls of self-publishing, and the intrusion of politics in literature (like a shot in a middle of a concert, something loud and vulgar, and yet immensely seductive). Epstein excellently articulates why, after a while, we (personally) often find most popular fiction today, in Capote’s words, “balls-achingly boring.”

Epstein makes a compelling argument that great literature is about the role of destiny and moral conflict, whereas modern therapeutic culture focuses on individual happiness, with self-gratification and self-esteem supplanting the pursuit of strong character. In his conclusion, he lists the authors he would re-read and those he wouldn’t—some of his choices were quite surprising to us.

Our own novel (Tell Me Your Plans: A riveting novel of love and ambition) might not have met Epstein’s rigorous standards, but we are glad to see that we did get a few things right—particularly its title. As Epstein observes, “Indeed, ‘Want to make God smile? Tell Him your plans’ might well serve as the motto for the novelist.”

[Annabelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Back in April 2016, I sent Joseph Epstein an email with a cover photo of a graphic novel I saw at a Fully Booked in BGC, Manila. The title amused me, and Epstein was one of two people whom I knew would appreciate the irony of it. That graphic novel was Swann's Way, and my message said "I guess it was just a matter of Time," a phrase he found "very amusing to use in connection with Proust." (Yes, I am very much a fan of Mr Epstein, and no, I don't go around writing random emails to every writer I'm a fan of--ask Stephen King if I've ever written to him.) Seven years later, as I was reading this book, specifically on "the phenomenon known as 'graphic novels," I am equally amused to read his reaction of "a comic-book version of Proust--who would have thought it?" (Perversely, I now have this hankering to read that graphic novel/comic book.) In any case, like me, Epstein scoffs at this fancy labelling of what is essentially a comic book with better quality paper and binding, and shares novel and comic book writer Neil Gaiman's catty comment: I felt like someone who'd been informed that she wasn't actually a hooker; that in fact she was a lady of the evening.

That the re-labelling of the comic book as a graphic novel is one of the pet peeves I share with Epstein is new to me. What is not are his sentiments on political correctness gone awry, fostering the hybrid cultural menace that is cancel culture. But these are trivial reasons for my ceaseless pursuit of Epstein's writing. With each of his books I take away something that provokes thought and enriches my reading pleasure, even stirs the curious soul. From this, one of his of his shortest books, I have gathered that Theodore Dreiser and Willa Cather--two writers who are unlikely to be in the running at any hypothetical Cocktail Party Test Epstein somewhat optimistically brings up--are recommended reading, and Joseph Conrad, whose stories I have long been a fan since my days, much like the young Epstein, as a serial Illustrated Classics comic book reader, highly recommended rereading. It has also placed an intriguing book in my periphery, a book which may explain why the novel is in peril, however subtly. Philip Rieff's The Triumph of the Therapeutic "marks a significant shift in our culture" with the contention that we no longer live "in a culture where honor and dignity, courage and kindness, are primary, but instead in one in which self-esteem and self-gratification are the chief goals. The enemy in the new therapeutic culture is repression, and its main means of expression is confession." Novel thought, that, when you realize Rieff published this in 1966, some thirty years before the internet and social media took over our lives.

So. The novel, who needs it? For as long as readers are provoked by "the role of destiny and moral conflict" in literature, then I think the novel will continue to stay relevant.

* If this had not been such an invigorating, thought and discussion-provoking read, I would have felt terribly shortchanged. Because really, it's a tauntingly-titled lengthy essay on the novel, hardbound, with a neat dust jacket. And it cost this Philippine peso-earning reader $20.49 (exchange rate, $1=P56+). But boy was it worth it--every hard-earned peso and centavo of it.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book to help challenge my existing bias against fiction books, which has slowly been softening over time after having read some novels where I actually did feel like I learned something from them.

I don't agree with everything the book says. For example, the author states: "Perhaps no other literary form allows for such emotional engagement as does the novel." However, for me, really good biographies can do this too, perhaps even more so than any novel I have read. I feel the same about a lot of the statements he makes about novels. Really good quality biographies can give me the same experience with the added benefit of being more factual.

On the other hand, one benefit of the novel is that it allows the portrayal of a unique, deep, and enriching experience that has not been recorded in history but could have happened or that may happen in the future.

Moreover, the book makes many good points that help me better understand my own and other people's experiences of novels, including:
1. The reasons people read novels
2. The impact a novel can have on us
3. How sometimes the best novels aren't page-turners but rather page-stoppers. They make you stop, re-read the passage, and reflect on what was written.
4. And more.

Overall, after reading this, I do feel like I have a better appreciation for well-written novels and better appreciate the impact some of them have had on me in the past.

[Donn Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone who was told as I was growing up that "the only books worth buying are non-fiction books", I think I needed to read this.

Fiction, and novels in particular, have always been a little difficult for me. I have a hard time remembering names (somewhat helped by using e-readers where the history of a character I've forgotten can be brought up with a simple search), and as mentioned above I'd been indoctrinated with the idea that fiction's a waste of time.

It was only in adulthood that I started reading novels "just because". I vaguely recall having "enjoyed" the books, but ask me to provide a critical summary of the book or a good reason why I read them (or what I got out of them) and I'd be hard-pressed to tell you why.

Reading Epstein's book finally allowed me to realise I wasn't alone in this, and that it was normal to not quite be able to recall plots or characters, and that reading can be "useful" without us explicitly knowing why.

I didn't agree with all the points the author made, but even he did provide perspectives that I hadn't quite considered, or perhaps latently considered but never quite brought into consciousness (e.g. the effect political correctness might have on novel-writing and imagination).

Overall I enjoyed the discourse - albeit one that was happening in my head - and feel somewhat validated in my rather late incursion into the world of novels.

[Sherman Langford · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is a lot to recommend Epstein’s work of apologia defending the value of the novel. Epstein is a gifted writer and clear thinker, and he is uncommonly convincing in arguing on behalf of the novel as essential to human flourishing.

It helped for me that at least in some ways, he seems a kindred spirit in his reading experience. “Does my remembering little of what went on in these books mean that I have wasted my time, all those hours of reading with nothing to show for it?…I do not worry overmuch about having lost the plots of novels—even of superior novels—because I am confident that they have nonetheless left a rich deposit in my mind of a kind that, I like to believe, goes well beyond recollecting the details of their plots. This deposit is in part a considerable broadening of my experience.” Just so!

Epstein is a bit of a high brow elitist. He’s arguing mostly for “solid, serious, penetrating fiction—Cervantes, Jane Austen, Balzac, Tolstoy, Dickens, Dostoyevsky, George Eliot, Stendhal, Proust, Robert Musil, Willa Cather, and others”. But he doesn’t hesitate to skewer some of the prétentions of the highbrow set, and names names (Bellow, Roth, Nabakov, Joyce and so on). So he’s definitely heterodox and original and ambivalent enough in his views to keep his short treatise deeply interesting.

I came away with new motivation to read some of the classics (maybe Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky, and more Jane Austen) and gratified to have read and enjoyed Willa Cather.

Two final quotes that are good representations of the overall case Epstein is making:

“Good novels are always informing us that life is more various, richer, more surprising, more bizarre than we had thought.”

“What all (good novels) have in common is the attempt to grasp and cage that elusive bird known as reality..If the novel is an instrument of discovery, what it sets out to discover are bits of that still unsolvable and greatest of all great mysteries, human nature.”

[Maisie Wrubel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wow. I had so much fun hating this.

Epstein argues that "without the help of the novel we lose the hope of gaining a wider and... more complex view of life, it's mystery, its meaning, its point," and I completely agree... but that's about all I agree with him about. He is insufferably pretentious throughout the entire book and disgustingly invested in a dead white canon composed of mostly Russian men and maybe two women. He wants to think he's in an elite majority of "good" readers who read "superior fiction" and thinks most things written today are practically worthless. Most of the book's good insights are quotations of other people. I will give him credit for holding his ground with his conservatism (despite my disagreement with it), but his indictments of political correctness and "therapeutic culture" are almost comical in their exaggerations. I could go on... The title asks the question of who needs the novel, and Epstein answers "everyone," but sadly his version of "the novel" is incredibly limited and outdated. He thinks the novel gives us a "wider perspective," but his "wider perspective" must be pretty small if he's only appreciating literature written by dead white men (a stance he has no shame in defending). Ugh.

[John Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who needs the novel? Well the author basically says everyone. I would sit the Mr, Epstein is a classicist, who enjoys the writings of Dickens, Dostoyevsky, Willa Cather, Tolstoy to mention a few, but also gives some nod to John Updike, Sinclair Lewis as well.
Back to how important the novel is in the reading experience he also mentions the difference between novels and non fiction, he latter is dry facts bu the novel is generally written in it's time, and expresses the feelings of the characters of the day. which makes me wonder what he thinks of al this rewriting of novels in the past and the cancelling of authors works?

One part that I agree with is that most children and some teenagers would read the Classic Illustrated Comic series for book reports rather than reading say Moby Dick. those of us who remember picking up one of those introductions to classic literature are now thankful, steady readers today. The reading of the graphic novels today will bring forth more readers , which is good thing.

So long live the novel

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finished Joseph Epstein's THE NOVEL, WHO NEEDS IT? AN ESSAY (2023), a short (only 126 pages) exploration of what Epstein calls "the serious novel," what it is, what it does, and who it's for. It's the kind of book that would attract former English and Comparative Literature majors in college and vindicate their existence. At least, that's how I felt when I read the last page, "see, I'm not crazy." By "serious" Epstein means those long, in-depth works of fiction that explore the complexities, big questions, and nuances of what it means to be human. THE BROTHERS KARAMOZOV counts as a serious novel, the comic book HOMECOMING does not. Epstein laments the potential demise of the novel: "If we lose this, we are forced to fall back on the rather sterile concepts and ideas that current-day philosophy and social science along with pop psychology and high-flown journalism provide." So who needs The Novel? "We all need it," Epstein argues (persuasively, in my opinion), "and in this, the great age of distraction we may just need it more than ever before."

[Emily M · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book that is obviously preaching to the choir of those of us who love novels. I read this as an ebook, and it's the type of book I wish I had been able to write in. Basically a collection of mini-essays on all sorts of topics related to the novel, it's easy to pick up and put down. I enjoy Epstein's reflections on trends in literature and added a ton of books to my to-read list. Sometimes his quotes from novels illuminated the topic; when he talked about pornographic tendencies in certain novels, I didn't need to read the long passages that proved his point. I appreciate his respect for the Victorians; I've been reading two Victorian novels with different reading groups, and I have been feeling rather defensive of Trollope and Dickens when others bash them (and yet love modern novels that have the same shortcomings!). The sections on why political polemics don't work well in novels are worth a re-read. Very enjoyable.

[Sunny · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of short essays talking about what is novel, what's the function of novels, what makes certain stories good and enduring, how recent cultural changes (like internet, hype on political correctness) are changing novels.
Find pleasure reading about reading, kind of gives you a tribe feeling. I'm not very familiar with the authors and books that the author used to illustrate his points. Such description made some books into my want-do-read list others on hmm-list. It's interesting to hear about all the theories about good novels, but ultimately these critics and analyses really don't matter. Certain stories become something else only when they touch the readers, but I think the criteria to make that happen may be as many as the number of readers out there. I think that (kind of formless possibilities of such encounter) is one of the beauty of reading novels.

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Novel, We All Need It

I loved this book. Mr. Epstein has cogent points to make about the purpose of the novel and its unfortunate decline in our time. I loved that he includes Willa Cather, one of my favorites in his list of the great authors. Cather is so often overlooked.
So why only four stars? Mainly because I wanted more. I wish that Mr. Epstein, who has such many important things to say, would have said it with more depth. This needed to be a larger tome.

[Stanley Turner · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Novel, Who Needs It? Excellent question that is answered at the end, everyone. I agree everyone needs the novel. Being a history and political science major, for many years I read strictly historical or political books and articles, until encouraged to read novels by a history professor. Now, I am reading at least one novel amongst books I am reading. Epstein does an excellent job of explaining why we all need to read novels, There is something missing but I am not sure what. Highly recommended…SLT

[Jacob Brogan · Rating 1 out of 5]

I reviewed this one in The Washington Post’s Book World: https://wapo.st/46XroFo. The short version: While I admire Epstein’s attempt to offer something like a theory of the novel for the rest of us, he ends up disproving his own thesis about novels expanding our minds—or at least demonstrating that he should try reading a few more of them.

[Stuart Shiffman · Rating 2 out of 5]

As an avid Epstein readerI was disappointed in this “book.” Far more an essay than an actual book, at times this read like a term paper with numerous quote strung together. Epstein also grinds a few axes on authors he does not like. Kind of depressing when a quality writer with a shelf full of great work, phones in an effort like this one.

[Joy Schwabach · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Profound Book

This book is an antidote to the cultural slide going on all around us. It points the way to a richer experience of life. It encourages the sort of inquiry that makes us better people, by showing us how novels can aid us in our journeys. It pushes away political correctness and psychobabble in favor of matters of the heart. Bravo!

[David Rodeback · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thought-provoking, insightful, eminently readable exploration of fiction and why we read it, what it does for us that other reading and other pursuits cannot do. Granted, as a writer of fiction I have a vested interest in agreeing with Epstein, and I largely do - but this would have been little different before I took up writing fiction.

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I laughed out loud at least five times in 125 pages. And while I found Epstein’s tastes narrow and high-brow, I also found much to think about in what he’s written here.

(I guess I’ll have to read War and Peace now….)

[Julie Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is actually a series of short essays about the novel from all sorts of angles. Some I liked, about half I was disinterested in. Epstein is always a good writer but here he was talking about many authors and points of view that I just didn't care about.

[J. J.]

Utterly delightful in every way. Important ideas about the role of fiction in moral formation. Also explains how simplistic, moralistic, and unimaginative books are demoralizing, to misuse the word quite literally.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting collection of essays united around the theme of the novel. Its impact, its effect on culture and countries and readers and writers, its past, its enemies, and its future prospects. A pleasant read.

[Mark Mallah · Rating 5 out of 5]

As with everything Joseph Epstein, the words effortlessly glide along the page and without knowing it, you're ensconced. This book recharged my interest in novels and provided a plethora of great recommendations for future reading.

[Kent · Rating 1 out of 5]

A few interesting ideas that he fails to explore. Instead, he spends his words mainly complaining about novels and novelists he doesn’t like. Had it been any longer, I wouldn’t have bothered to finish it.