You’ve just published The 100 Best Novels in English.

That has varied over time. If you asked that question in 1680, it would have a different answer than in 1980. Originally, for someone like me.—which is not really a novel but more of an allegory—it was a book written almost in desperation. It’s a passionate statement about something important to the novelist and designed to move the reader. It’s very, very specific. Later on, by the middle of the eighteenth century, the point of a novel was really entertainment. It was a bourgeois form. Only over a period of time did it acquire the characteristic which it has now which is that it should be something which encourages empathy. Novels encourage readers to see different points of view within humanity. This is a very important role.