Product Description

‘The Art of Fiction’ is essential, thoroughly entertaining reading for writers, students and anyone who wants to understand how literature works. The articles by David Lodge, which first appeared in the Independent on Sunday, are expanded here and consider the subject under a wide range of headings such as ‘The Intrusive Author’, ‘Suspense’ and ‘Magic Realism’. Styles and techniques are illustrated in each case by passages from classic or modern fiction. Drawing on writers as diverse as Henry James and Martin Amis, Jane Austen and Fay Weldon and Henry Fielding and James Joyce, Lodge also demonstrates the richness and variety of British and American fiction.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9238 in Books
• Published on: 1994-07-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Review
Based on a series of articles written for the Independent on Sunday, this is an entertaining and enlightening collection of some 50 short essays on the technical devices of fiction and how writers use them, under such headings as Suspense, Sense of Place, and Symbolism. Each topic is illustrated with a short excerpt from a classic or modern work, from Sterne and Dickens to Fay Weldon and Martin Amis. Lodge uses his insider's knowledge, as an award-winning novelist as well as a teacher and critic, to reveal the tricks of the trade to readers and aspiring writers. (Kirkus UK)

About the Author
David Lodge has written many bestselling novels, including THINKS and NICE WORK. His books have sold well over a million copies in Penguin. Formerly Professor of English at Birmingham University, he now writes full-time. He continues to live in Birmingham.

Customer Reviews

Interesting and enjoyable read
I found this book a very interesting and enjoyable read. The author discusses literary fiction under a number of themes and he usually has a page of fiction taken form the work of a particular author and he then spends several pages discussing aspects of this. He takes extracts from a large number of authors and their works and these range from eighteen century novelists right up to contemporary novelists. I already had the vast bulk of the works that he discussed in my collection but there were several that I hadn't either purchased or read before (not always the same things as far as I am concerned). I ordered a set of three novels in one volume by Henry Green and another one by Michael Frayn on the strength of reading this book.

Horrible
The book might be cheap but it isn't worth the amount of money asked. I thought I would get an idea how to write a novel, just some insight and advise, and instead I get nothing. The author with great care, talks about ancient books, that are probably very important books, but are of no relevance really to anyone trying to write for fun and in our current century.
I don't need to know who or why someone wrote something in 100 years ago and while Jane Astin was an excellent writer, I don't want to know about her style or what it is called.
I had been looking for some qualified advise what to do in writing a story and what not to do, what techniques to apply and how certain sentence structurs could be used, I do not care to know how ancient English worked.
Therefore, while the book is most certainly well researched and if there is an interest in how or why some writers from a long time ago chose to write in a certain way, then I would recommend it but otherwise, it is a waste of money.
No valid points I can use for myself, just grief that I have wasted my money on it.
And I never leave any comments like this but this time, I felt I really had to.

Indispensable for the novelist
Terms are bandied around for different forms of novel writing, and you dismiss them as 'jargon', or perhaps 'gobbledegook', and move on. It's only when you've actually written a novel that doesn't fit the standard genre - historical, fantasy, adventure, thriller, etc - that you wish you'd paid more attention. If you've completed writing such a book without having recourse to the Art of Fiction, you'll need it at this point, otherwise you might be excused for thinking you've ploughed a completely new literary furrow. So, before you start preparing your witty acceptance speech on winning the Booker, do read David Lodge and you'll learn that someone famous has been there before you and that, in some cases, they have been lauded and slated by the critics in equal proportions.

You'll learn about Magic Realism, Stream of Consciousness, The Reader in the Text, Teenage Skaz etc etc. There's much in the Art of Fiction for the more orthodox writer, too. His essays are beautifully written, very clear and he uses well-known illustrative texts. I can thoroughly recommend this one for the discerning writer and reader.