First published in 1984, The English Novel in the Twentieth Century discusses six authors whom Dr Green saw as the most interesting fiction writers of twentieth century Britain: Kipling, Lawrence, Joyce, Waugh, Amis, and Lessing. The author asks how these novelists responded to and expressed in their work the pressure exerted upon all English people by their possession and subsequent loss of the Empire. The intrinsic literary interest of each writer turns out to have something to do with their response to England's plight as an imperialist and post-imperialist power.
Dr Green begins with Kipling, who not only talks about the Empire but also expresses the Empire in several indirect ways. He points out that Kipling is a much more pervasive and powerful presence in English literature after 1918 than has been recognized and goes on to show that D.H. Lawrence reacted against Kipling in his major work – speaking against Empire, and for women and the private life. Dr Green then turns to Joyce and discusses both the overt and the implicit anti-imperialism of his work. In each case, he has something to say about another novelist who can be associated with the principal subject of the chapter – for example, Forster with Lawrence, Wells with Joyce. He continues with chapters on Evelyn Waugh and Kingsley Amis, who begin their careers by mocking Kipling and the ruling class of the Empire, but who gradually turn into their defenders – and who eventually take on some of Kipling's own characteristics. The book concludes with a discussion of Doris Lessing, the most committed of anti-imperialists.