In the half century before Walter Scott's Waverley , dozens of popular novelists produced historical fictions for circulating libraries. This book examines eighty-five popular historical novels published between 1762 and 1813, looking at how the conventions of the genre developed through a process of imitation and experimentation.

ANNE H. STEVENS is an assistant professor in the department of English at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA.

List of Tables Acknowledgements The Formation of a Genre Historical Novels, 1762-1783 The Historical Novel in the Circulating Library Historical Novels, 1784-1813 The Historical Novel in the Reviews Epilogue: Ivanhoe and Historical Fiction Works Cited Index