This widely acclaimed book offers an introduction to the ancient novel and presents the latest research findings in the field. For this English translation, Professor Holzberg has substantially updated and expanded the German edition of 1986.

Niklas Holzberg considers the ancient novel as encompassing idealistic and comic realistic narratives with the central themes of love and adventure. He develops his definition of the genre and offers explanations for why this literary form was so popular during the Hellenistic period. He goes on to examine the individual texts in chronological order, providing a summary of the contents of each, relevant background information and interpretative pointers.