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Lukács’s essays about the novel have been over-commented, their arguments and coherence scrutinized. Their Marxist or Marxian orientations have often been re-expressed or denounced. Their relevance to current studies in the novel has been overstressed or called into question. Whatever the assessment of Lukács’s criticism is, many of his arguments are useful to reframe the questioning of the status of the novel. The seven essays in this Revue internationale de philosophie issue presuppose that Lukács’s reflection about the novel allows a flexible reading because its categories and arguments reject any closed demonstration. They consequently aim to define the minimal principles which commanded Lukács’s criticism and to suggest how they can be used today, while the Marxian perspectives are evoked with no specific emphasis.