Law and literature have been two of the most powerful discourses in the construction of social reality. The relationship between the two has emerged as a vital new area of study, as literature has influenced popular understanding of law. Utilizing legal and literary theory, Kieran Dolin examines the interplay between legal discourse and the novel in the century between Walter Scott and E. M. Forster. This comprehensive study draws on legal and literary theory to trace this important convergence of disciplines in a series of canonical Victorian and Modernist texts.