The so-called cliffhanger, that is, the narrative technique of interrupting a serial narration at a suspenseful moment, is at the center of this study. Vincent Fröhlich's analyses range from »Arabian Nights« via the Victorian serial novel, the French Feuilleton, cinema series, radio soaps, and new TV series, all the way to today's web series. This volume not only offers an overdue historical perspective of the cliffhanger, serial narration, and their conditions of origin, but also elaborates how rich the forms and how diverse the characteristics of these research topics previously underestimated with regards to their cultural and narrative significance are.