“Drawing on a broad range of contemporary theory—Russian formalism, Riffaterre, and deconstruction in particular—Smith proposes a conception of realism that assimilates and transforms what others have said on the subject. In the end he plumbs for a coherence theory of realism, in accord with Lotman’s precept that ‘facts’ emerge at the intersection of two semiotic systems. Those uncomfortable with this conclusion can supplement it with the theories of fictional reference provided by Thomas Pavel and Marie-Laure Ryan. Readers interested in the novels that he treats—Don Quixote, Emma, Anna Karenina, Ulysses, and Gravity’s Rainbow—will find Smith’s discussion of them perceptive, informed, theoretically sophisticated, and unforbiddingly readable.”
—Wallace Martin, University of Toledo