How fiction works / James Wood.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wood, James, 1965- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Fiction--Authorship.

Fiction.

Fiction--Technique.

Fiction--History and criticism.

Physical Description:

xxxi, 269 pages ; 18 cm

Edition:

Second Picador edition.

Tenth anniversary edition, updated and expanded.

Place of Publication:

New York : Picador/Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2018.

Summary:

"In the tradition of E. M. Forster's Aspects of the Novel and Milan Kundera's The Art of the Novel, How Fiction Works is a scintillating study of the magic of fiction--an analysis of its main elements and a celebration of its lasting power. Here one of the most prominent and stylish critics of our time looks into the machinery of storytelling to ask some fundamental questions: What do we mean when we say we "know" a fictional character? What constitutes a telling detail? When is a metaphor successful? Is Realism realistic? Why do some literary conventions become dated while others stay fresh? James Wood ranges widely, from Homer to Make Way for Ducklings, from the Bible to John le Carr�e, and his book is both a study of the techniques of fiction-making and an alternative history of the novel. Playful and profound, How Fiction Works will be enlightening to writers, readers, and anyone else interested in what happens on the page"-- Book jacket.

Contents:

Narrating

Flaubert and modern narrative

Flaubert and the rise of the Flaneur

Detail

Character

A brief history of consciousness

Form

Sympathy and complexity

Language

Dialogue

Truth, convention, realism.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 251-254) and index.

First published in the United States by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

ISBN:

9781250183927

1250183928

OCLC:

1000367017