The debut of the nouveau roman in France in the 1950s was a literary event surrounded by energetic and sometimes virulent debate. The French literary establishment did not greet these new novelists as the heirs to the great writers of France. In this study, Arthur E. Babcock moves the debate from polemic to sound historical analysis. The New Novel in France seeks to determine what place the new novel holds in the literary history of the twentieth century.

Babcock tells the story of the movement as a whole while examining the individual work of its most prominent writers. He also provides an overview of the theoretical context that is so intricately linked with the development and understanding of the new novel.

Babcock separates the myth from the history of a movement that began in the 1950s and persisted through the 1970s, providing a fair and dispassionate account of its chief representatives. While Babcock does look at these writers as participants in a movement, he does not force a false unity on the group. Through an examination of their exemplary novels, Babcock gives a balanced view of their common concerns as well as their differences.

As the nouveau roman reaches its fiftieth year, The New Novel in France offers the first major historical study of a literary form that continues to capture scholarly interest and to excite intense debate.