The publication of this Companion reflects the pleasing fact that the study of the ancient novel remains on a steady upward trend, as shown by the twin Oxford Readings in the Greek and Roman novels (both 1999, ed. S. Swain and S. Harrison respectively) and the 2008 Cambridge Companion to the Ancient Novel (ed. T. Whitmarsh). This book in some ways is a fine addition to this trend, providing a wealth of topics and a variety of perspectives on a rich field of study. In other ways, however, the volume undercuts itself by a frustrating lack of overall cohesion or focus. This is epitomised by the fact that while nine of the ten pages of the introduction are dedicated to summarising the following chapters, only two paragraphs situate the volume within a scholarly context and explain its aims. This lack of self-reflection unfortunately weakens its overall value, as while it claims to offer an introduction for the reader new to the genre, as well as insight for the experienced novel reader (p. 1), there is not enough engagement with some of the most fundamental issues of novelistic scholarship, such as the size of the canon and the very definition of an ancient novel.
The volume is divided into four sections, of which the first, ‘Novels and Authors’, is devoted to summaries and analyses of the texts which comprise the novelistic corpus, including all canonical Greek and Latin novels, as well as Historia Apollonii Regis Tyri, the Apocolocyntosis, novelistic fragments and Christian narratives. The focus of each chapter varies according to the author under discussion, so while some focus on composition (O'Sullivan on Xenophon) or textual problems (Hofmann on Petronius), others look at parodies of novelistic convention (Chew on Achilles Tatius), narrative technique (Futre Pinheiro on Heliodorus), literary models (Konstan and Ramelli on Christian narratives), or modes of reading (James on Apuleius). This approach highlights the idiosyncrasies and challenges particular to that novel and each chapter provides a solid and valuable introduction to its topic.
The second section, ‘Genre and Approaches’, contains one of the most thought-provoking chapters of the volume, M. Futre Pinheiro's on Genre, which implicitly raises many of the questions which the volume as a whole does not deal with directly. Her conclusions that the novelistic genre is defined by narrative structure, verisimilitude and an erotic element are more than open to challenge (as the Companion's inclusion of the Apocolocyntosis as a ‘related’ novel already does, let alone the fragmentary and fantastical The Wonders Beyond Thule), and this chapter would be most usefully read in conjunction with S. Goldhill's divergent approach in his similarly-themed chapter in Whitmarsh's Cambridge Companion. None the less, in raising questions about the connection between applying the modern label of novel to ancient texts and the novel's relationship to ancient literary theory, this chapter reveals some of the most fundamental questions for novelistic scholarship. The chapters on dialogue (Anderson) and characterisation (De Temmerman) demonstrate interesting approaches to the novels as a group, while those on epistolary novels (Glaser) and the Life of Aesop (Ruiz-Montero) challenge a too-narrow view of the novelistic genre by looking at some of its most peripheral elements. It is unfortunate, however, that none of the chapters interact with each other, as it would have given the section as a whole a stronger self-awareness and coherency.
Section 3, ‘Influences and Intertextuality’, contains some of the volume's most useful contributions, as many of the chapters cover broadly-accepted, but often not accessibly-discussed topics, such as the relationships between the Greek novel and archaic poetry (Zanetto), Roman novel and elegy (Hallett and Hindermann), the various Ass narratives (Slater), Greek theatre in the novel (Létoublon and Genre) and epic models for heroes (Graverini). Even ekphrasis, a well-covered topic in recent scholarship, is given a new approach by the suggestion that it can be read as a novelistic character (Holzmeister). While some chapters feel rather thin owing to the constraints of space and the richness of the subjects, many none the less offer up provocative suggestions that will be of interest to experts as well as novices.
The final section, ‘Themes and Topics’, is the least cohesive of the four, as it covers topics from myth and religion (Bierl) to education (Lalanne) to Christian communities (Perkins) to the novel and Hitchcock (Winkler). Several chapters seem misplaced, such as Miscellanea Petroniana (Baldwin), an unfocused collection of personal thoughts on Petronian scholarship and reception, and Moreschini on Latin culture in the second century, which is richly informative but as Apuleius’ Metamorphoses is not discussed, its significance for the volume as a whole is left unclear. Plenty of the other chapters are extremely valuable to both novices and experienced scholars, such as von Möllendorf on paideia in Lucian's Vera Historia and Finkelpearl on gender in the novels, but this section would have benefited most from a greater unity of purpose amongst the chapters.
One of the volume's strengths is it that its broad approach to the topic generates a scholarly polyphony which reflects the nebulous and ill-defined limits of the novelistic genre and the idiosyncrasy inherent even between the canonical texts. Many of the chapters offer original analysis which is valuable for scholars and opens up new avenues of exploration. In addition, the plentiful references and further reading sections in each chapter provide the reader with a solid bibliographic framework in which to situate the topic. Yet, the counter-argument to this breadth is that it may overwhelm a reader new to the topic, and can be best navigated by a more experienced scholar with an awareness of some of the pitfalls and broader problems within the scholarship. For example, while the ill-defined nature of the novelistic genre is reflected in the scope of the volume, it is never actively raised as an issue, so while the Apocolocyntosis is placed in the section on ‘Novels and Authors’, the Vera Historia is not but is still discussed as a novel in a later chapter. While such decisions are potentially justifiable, they are by no means self-evident, and it would have greatly elevated the utility of the volume to have some kind of discussion about what is at stake in including or excluding texts from the novelistic canon.
At the same time, however, experienced scholars may find several chapters mildly redundant, as they have already been discussed in detail elsewhere. For example, O'Sullivan's chapter on Xenophon contains much of his work from his 1995 monograph, and De Temmerman and Lalanne both retread ground from Crafting Characterisation: Heroes and Heroines in the Ancient Greek Novel (2014) and Une éducation grecque: Rites de passage et construction des genres dans le roman grec ancien (2006) respectively. This problem of audience is inherent to Companion volumes, as they have both to introduce novices to the topic and to engage seasoned scholars, but this volume has an additional problem in that the limits of the novelistic genre are so up for debate. By indulging breadth of topic over a closer look at the problems of defining the field, the Companion struggles to unite all its disparate parts and reads more like a collection of eclectic conference papers than a comprehensive overview of the field. Considering, however, that such volumes are often consulted for individual chapters rather than read cover-to-cover, this is perhaps a minor point, but it feels like a missed opportunity to take a deeper look at this issue.
There are a number of chapters in this Companion which will be interesting and thought-provoking to readers, but greater self-awareness and engagement with these problems of novelistic scholarship would have elevated the volume and made it a more useful resource for both novices and experienced scholars.
