Aside from its intellectual content, the essay provides a space for contemporary British novelists to enhance their career prospects. This takes the threefold forms of intertexual affiliation by co-publication within the same title as other writers; of creating a space in which to generate prestige-enhancing controversy; and of enabling novelists to hold academic affiliations. This chapter examines these features through a network analysis of the publications in The London Review of Books over the past two decades and then through case studies of Hilary Mantel, Will Self, Tom McCarthy, and Zadie Smith.

This essay analyses the reception of W.G. Sebald during his lifetime based on his track record of literary prizes awarded to him inside and outside Germany. His increasing recognition, both in Germany and in the anglophone world, is reflected in the literary prizes he received. Likewise, the literary prizes reveal significant differences in Sebald’s domestic and foreign reception, which result from the fact that in Germany his aggressive critical essays, attacking major literary figures, resulted in reservations of many juries awarding prizes and other recognitions.