Flaubert, Joyce, and Beckett: three writers who redefined the medium of the novel. Hugh Kenner, a passionate reader first and an insightful critic second, traces how each man pushed the form toward a conclusion, or an impasse. Each evolved the novel along a steady path toward interiorization. Kenner illuminates that path with precision and a rare clarity. His Stoic Comedians is a work of criticism that reads, at times, like literature itself.