ABSTRACT
T. S. Eliot argues in his Introduction that it is perfectly justifi able to classify Nightwood as a novel, defi ning the genre as one that creates living characters and shows them engaged in signifi cant relationships, adding that this is not to suggest that the book is written in the style of ‘poetic prose’.3 After proceeding with the criticism of ‘contemporary novels’, he further explains that Nightwood is such a good novel that only those readers who are accustomed to reading poetry will be able to grasp its meaning fully.4
