"In the landscape of the early modern European comic novel the inn often features as a monument to digression - the perfect setting for chance encounters with strangers who always have a story to tell. This wide-ranging comparative study explores the special part played by the inn, tracing the progress of a succession of wayward heroes and narrators in five canonical texts: Cervantes's ""Don Quijote"", Scarron's ""Roman comique"", Fielding's ""Joseph Andrews"" and ""Tom Jones"", Sterne's ""Tristram Shandy"" and Diderot's ""Jacques le fataliste"". As this celebration of digressive fiction unfolds, a very different picture emerges of the novel's rise and development."

Will McMorran

Introduction; 1: Before Palomeque: Hospitality and Storytelling; 2: Don Quijote The Inn and the Castle; 3: Le Roman comique Town, Country and the Provincial Inn; 4: Fielding I The Topography of Travel; 5: Fielding II The Topology of Travel; 6: Tristram Shandy Narrative as Travelogue; 7: Jacques le Fataliste et son maître Travelogue as Narrative; Conclusion