Reading the Times

Reviews / Votes

Think there's nothing left to be said about time in the twentieth-century novel? Read Randall Stevenson's Reading the Times, and think again. Stevenson gives us a new history of narrative form that is at the same time a compact cultural history of the century. * Brian McHale, The Ohio State University * This book's particular achievement lies in the comprehensive approach to combine a social history of chronometry with literary negotiations between "chronos" and "kairos" (in Frank Kermode's sense, in brief: clock time and experiential time, respectively). -- Heike Polster University of Memphis * Kronoscope 19 (2019) * A rich and enjoyable narrative of fictions various experiments with time over the course of the twentieth century. -- David Shackleton * Oxford University Press Journals * The impressively wide scope of the study is facilitated by Stevenson's great talents as a storyteller, Not only is Reading the Times a study of narrative, but it also deploys narrative in a highly skilful manner itself . . .light-footed summary . . . able to guide the reader through vast tracts of literary history . . . breathtakingA rich and enjoyable narrative of fiction's various experiments with time over the course of?the twentieth centurygreat explanatory power . . great strengths . . . relates temporal experiments in fiction to a wide range of material and historical conditions . . . -- David Shackleton * The Review of English Studies *