The Novel and Neuroscience from Dostoevsky to Ishiguro explores how affective neuroscience illuminates the emotional and ethical impact of eight novels written between 1864 and 2018, indicating how Freud’s provisional ideas in psychology are now being placed on an organic foundation. An emerging new language describes the brain and body’s primary-process powers now influencing the practices of literary theory, verifying the novel’s importance for self and cultural understanding.