Lively's novels can be classified into two general categories: social realism (works in which the realist features are more dominant than the experimental) and modernist-influenced experimentalism (works in which the experimental features are more dominant than the realist). The Road to Lichfield is the prototype for the first category, which includes six other novels: Treasures of Time (1979); Judgment Day (1980); Next to Nature, Art (1982); Perfect Happiness (1983); According to Mark (1984); and Passing On (1989). All of these portray protagonists with professional interests in the past (for example, in history, archaeology, antiquarianism, biography) who become bemused with problematic questions about the ways the past — both public and personal — is to be regarded and understood. Most of these novels are set wholly or partly in provincial villages and explore social and ethical concerns important to such communities, such as local history, historical preservation, and environmentalism versus development.

Further, in...