Examines the bicycle as a literary device and a cultural phenomenon at the turn of the century in Britain and FranceOffers close readings and contextualisation of novels by canonical cross-channel authors including H.G. Wells, Grant Allen, Maurice Leblanc, Dorothy Richardson and Marcel ProustProvides an examination of lesser-known or neglected novels by authors such as Mary Kennard, Matthias Mc Donnell Bodkin and LT MeadeIncludes strong theoretical framework, drawing on the work of mobility theorists such as Wolfgang Schivelbusch, John Urry, Paul Virilio, cultural theorists Raymond Williams, Michel de Certeau, Michel Foucault, Marc AugŽPresents a cultural studies approach which considers the work of literature in its context and mobilises literature as a lens through which to examine the social impact of the bicycleThis book engages with the long-overlooked bicycle as a crucial literary and cultural object. In a selection of turn-of-the-century fiction, travel writing and non-fiction, cycling is revealed to be a favoured literary device, allowing writers to structure their narratives in new ways or depict a fresh sensory and aesthetic experience. Moreover, this study reveals that from its earliest days, the bicycle played a compelling counter-cultural role, proposing an alternative modernity that directly challenged bourgeois, patriarchal, capitalist society. From blurring gender and class divisions, to offering a more empowering interaction with the machine and allowing an embodied and social experience of space, the bicycle pointed a human-powered route to progress amidst increasingly mechanised visions of the future.