---

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.

---

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

---

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

---