[2][3] The book traces the rise of the modern novel to philosophical, economic and social trends and conditions that become prominent in the early 18th century.

[3][10] In his book, Watt saw the appearance of the novel as a clear-cut "literary form" in the 18th century, which was a result of five fundamental shifts that occurred in society.

Additionally, he says that three authors — Daniel Defoe, Samuel Richardson, and Henry Fielding — are the pioneers of the novel, whose works within a single generation embodied this new genre.

Other scholars — Frank Godfrey Singer (in 1933), Bruce McCullough (in 1946), Arnold Kettle (in 1951), and Diana Neill (in 1951) — also discussed how close attention to realistic depictions are central to the novel's form.

Additionally, Watt never claimed originality, pointing out that "historians of the novel have... seen `realism' as the defining characteristic which differentiates the work of the early eighteenth-century novelists from previous fiction."

[3] Significantly, Watt challenges the pervasive New Criticism literary theory, in which a work of literature functions as a self-contained, self-referential aesthetic object.

Also, Watt discuses historical and literary analysis to show how the novel's narratives are affected by the intellectual and social outlook of the 18th century.