The Art of Fiction: Illustrated from Classic and Modern Texts

Explore the depth and diversity of British and American fiction with this collection from David Lodge

The articles that entertained and enlightened readers of The Independent and The Washington Post are now revised, expanded and collected together in book form in The Art of Fiction.

Passages from classic and modern fiction illustrate a range of topics, including the Intrusive Author, Suspense, the Epistolary Novel, Time-shift, Magical Realism and Symbolism. Drawing on writers as diverse as Henry James and Martin Amis, Jane Austen and Fay Weldon and Henry Fielding and James Joyce, Lodge makes accessible to the general reader the richness and variety of British and American fiction. Technical terms, such as Interior Monologue, Metafiction, Intertextuality and the Unreliable Narrator, are clearly explained and demonstrated.

Bringing to criticism the verve and humor of his own novels, Lodge provides essential reading for students of literature, aspirant writers, and anyone who wishes to understand how literature works.