Charts the vicissitudes of a distinctly modern and peculiarly human vulnerabilityour intimate dependence on the fragile timebound cultural framework that we inhabitin the history of the realist novel.The Blossom Which We Are traces the emergence of a distinctly modern form of human vulnerabilityour intimate dependence on the fragile and timebound cultural frameworks that we inhabitas it manifests in the realm of the novel. Nir Evron juxtaposes seminal works from diverse national literatures to demonstrate that the trope of cultural extinction offers key insights into the emotional and ideological work performed by the realist novel. With an analysis that ranges from the works of Maria Edgeworth and Walter Scott Edith Whartons Age of Innocence and Joseph Roths Radetzky March and Yaakov Shabtais Past Continuous and finally to the current state of the humanities this book seeks to recover literary criticisms humanistic mission bringing the best that has been thought and said to bear on urgent contemporary concerns.