The Novel in Russia examines the Russian sensibility as it is revealed in prose fiction, the dominant mode of Russian literature. It explores how, in the work of Pushkin, Lermontov and Gogol, narrative art forsakes poetry for prose, and considers in turn six authors from the great age of prose realism: Goncharov, Turgenev, Leskov, Tolstoy, Saltykov-Shchedrin and Dostoevsky. The book provides an account of Chekhov and Gorky, appraises ‘decadent’ prose, the earlier Soviet writing, the school of Socialist Realism, and Doctor Zhivago. The theme of the writer’s contest with critical pressure and State interference runs throughout.