"A superb book. . . . A scintillating, continuously rewarding reflection on authorship and its place in the modern world. This is a study in the great tradition of Ian Watt's The Rise of the Novel: both a brilliant work of literary scholarship and an invigorating report on modernity itself."--Terry Castle, author of The Apparitional Lesbian "An exemplary instance of what many have been clamoring for: a rigorous cultural study of literature."--William B. Warner, author of Reading Clarissa