An event, defined as the decisive turn, the surprising point in the plot of a narrative, constitutes its tellability, the motivation for reading it. The book describes a framework for a narratological definition of eventfulness and its dependence on the historical, socio-cultural and literary context. The detailed analyses of 15 British novels or tales, from early modern times to the late 20th century, demonstrate how this concept can be put into practice for a new, specifically contextual interpretation of the central relevance of these texts.