This is a literary and philosophical study that links the idea of secularism to the form of the novel. Concentrating on five canonical French and Russian novels of the nineteenth century (StendhalOs The Red and the Black, FlaubertOs Madame Bovary, TurgenevOs A Nest of Gentry, Barbey dOAurevillyOs Bewitched, and DostoevskyOs Demons), and using the instruments of narrative theory, the book offers a groundbreaking critical foundation both for understanding the move toward a secular culture and for examining the role of the individual in modern ethical, political, and spiritual contexts.