How to Read a Novel: a user's guide John Sutherland Profile Books, 192pp, £9.99 ISBN 1861979460

Prominent literary critics seem to find it almost obligatory to show their eminence by publishing serious and learned works about the novel and, by extension, their own relationship to literature. As with E M Forster's Aspects of the Novel, John Sutherland's witty study has its roots in his career as an academic, and the frequently irreverent tone is presumably influenced by the "clever young minds" he thanks in his acknowledgements. But Sutherland is not merely interested in great literature: Dan Brown and Frederick Forsyth rub shoulders with Austen and Fielding, giving the book a welcome feeling of egalitarianism.

Sutherland's intention is not to patronise, but to offer a fascinating brief sociological history of the literary industry, exploring, among other things, the incestuous triangular relationship between booksellers, authors and publishers. If the book has a flaw, it is that it feels more like a series of brilliant fleeting insights than a coherent whole, but the unifying thread is Sutherland's obvious passion for his subject, and the conviction with which he conveys his belief that literature is a matchless human endeavour. There is also, incidentally, an excellent joke on the back cover.

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