"The Novel in the 21st Century" -- a new history of the novel by Edwin Frank (reviewed in the Economist)

This week's Economist features an excellent review of a recent book – Stranger Than Fiction by Edwin Frank (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2024), which is pretty convincing about something most readers will acknowledge: Novels are not "as culturally central as they were in the 1900s, when they were 'the literary form of the time, prestigious, popular, taken as both mainstay of culture conversation and of democratic culture.'"

According to the review, Frank, the editor of the New York Review of Books Classic imprint, covers a lot of the history of the novel, but facts cited in the review do point out that the novel may not be "dead" but novel reading is declining:

[The] number of impassioned arguments that this book starts proves that the literary novel is not dead to everyone. Nor is it still the unquestioned king of narrative expression. Television has grown more sophisticated: “The Wire” drew justified comparisons to Charles Dickens. Millions of books are published each year, but the number of people who read daily for pleasure, as well as the amount of time they read, have been steadily declining. From 2017 to 2023 Americans aged 15 and older spent just 15-16 minutes a day reading “for personal interest”, 18% less than in 2013-15, according to America’s Bureau of Labour Statistics. Meanwhile, they watch tv for more than two and a half hours a day, on average.

I don't think the novel is dead or even doomed, but I think this line in the review feels absolutely right: "Novel-reading will become even more of a niche, worthy hobby, like going to a classical-music concert or ballet today."

Note the article is behind a paywall, and the Economist's "gift" link won't work for multiple readers. I will add that the Economist's culture-related reporting is generally superb.