• Illustrations
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: Animal, Human, Art, Story

Book I: Evolution, Art, and Fiction

Part 1
Evolution and Nature
1. Evolution and Human Nature?
2. Evolution, Adaptation, and Adapted Minds
3. The Evolution of Intelligence
4. The Evolution of Cooperation
Part 2
Evolution and Art
1. Art as Adaptation?
2. Art as Cognitive Play
3. Art and Attention
4. From Tradition to Innovation
Part 3
Evolution and Fiction
1. Art, Narrative, Fiction
2. Understanding and Recalling Events
3. Narrative: Representing Events
4. Fiction: Inventing Events
5. Fiction as Adaptation
Book II: From Zeus to Seuss: Origins of Stories

Part 4
Phylogeny: The Odyssey
1. Earning Attention (1): Natural Patterns: Character and Plot
2. Earning Attention (2): Open-Ended Patterns: Ironies of Structure
3. The Evolution of Intelligence (1): In the Here and Now
4. The Evolution of Intelligence (2): Beyond the Here and Now
5. The Evolution of Cooperation (1): Expanding the Circle
6. The Evolution of Cooperation (2): Punishment
Part 5
Ontogeny: Horton Hears a Who!
1. Problems and Solutions: Working at Play
2. Levels of Explanation: Universal, Local, and Individual
3. Levels of Explanation: Individuality Again
4. Levels of Explanation: Particular
5. Meanings
• Conclusion
• Retrospect and Prospects: Evolution, Literature, Criticism
• Afterword
• Evolution, Art, Story, Purpose
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index

Brian Boyd, University Distinguished Professor in the Department of English, University of Auckland, is the world’s foremost authority on the works of Nabokov.