Product Description

John Sutherland takes the reader on a literary journey from the first English novels of three hundred years ago to the present avalanche of ten thousand a year. In a series of informed and intelligent conversations set around a variety of exemplary texts he shows that reading a novel is not a spectator sport, but an intense participatory activity. People of all ages, classes and nationalities read novels - Sutherland gives us new insights into what we read, new questions to pose and the means to pursue them.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #172297 in Books
• Published on: 2007-08-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Review
"'Engaging, intelligent.' The Times 'Sutherland takes us on a swift and entertaining tour of fiction's engine room... Passionate about his subject... he reminds us, quoting Paul Auster, "it is the reader who writes the book and not the writer".' TLS 'I can't think of anyone better qualified, anyone with quite the same combination of pizzazz, technical know-how and sheer enthusiasm as Professor Sutherland.' Independent on Sunday"

Daily Mail, August 24, 2007
`enlightening stuff'

About the Author
John Sutherland is Professor of Modern English Literature at University College London and a visiting professor at the California Institute of Technology. He has published twenty books (including Is Heathcliff a Murderer? Great Puzzles in 19th Century Fiction) and writes a weekly column for the Guardian. He was chairman of the 2005 Man Booker Prize for Fiction.

Customer Reviews

Entertaining but thin in parts
I eagerly pre-ordered this having seen it puffed in the national press, and read it in a day or so. I'd hoped it would give me a new perspective on the wide variety of novels (from Tolstoy and Austen to Sophie Kinsella) that I read, and some insights that I, as a science graduate, haven't gained from my education.

It was an enjoyable read and I liked Sutherland's illustration of his points with examples from a wide range of literature. I gained some useful insights and tips - such as the 'read page 69' test for bookshop browsers, and the need to consider the various timings of a novel's conception, writing, publication and setting. However, some of the content, such as the discussion of the economics of publishing and bookshops, was thin; perhaps because this is not Sutherland's real expertise. He's an academic and critic, not a publisher or bookseller, and it shows. Even the 'literary' content was diluted and too populist, I felt. I had read the vast majority of the books he name-checked and would have liked more pointers to lesser-known works.

It was a worthwhile read, but he could have assumed rather more knowledge and intelligence in his audience, and delivered a more satisfying book.

On Reading...
I'm quite a fan of books on books, since reading a book about books can make you pick up or return to a book previously unread, or re-set the way you think about a certain novel or writer. John Sutherland's `How to Read a Novel: A User's Guide' is an addition to the Bloom-Bradbury style canon and more recent offerings like the BBC's `The Big Read' (which Sutherland was involved in) and my favourite book of this kind, the Faber-Waterstones millennial publication `The Test of Time: What Makes a Classic a Classic?.'

Sutherland's book is the ideal book to read between books, maybe it will get you picking up a certain title here - though elements of the book aren't that far away from several books for aspiring writers, e.g. elements such as sleeve-art, publishers, or editing. The chapter `Hardback or paperback?' ties in with an overall approach that nods to the way we have more choices than ever with the advent of Amazon and the net - which the first chapter `So many novels, so little time' alludes to.

This book is very up to date, touching on Zadie Smith's recent EM Forster-referencing `On Beauty' and the notion of the prize novel - I don't recall mention of Richard & Judy, who jumped on the Oprah-publishing bandwagon, but they are quite forgettable. There are many common debates here, which suggests that anyone studying literature or film may want to read this - I enjoyed the part that touched on adaptations and Sutherland's scathing estimation of the dire adaptation of Woolf's `Mrs Dalloway.' The recent adaptation of `Pride & Prejudice' is touched on, so the common book vs. movie/television adaptation features and the way people know certain books despite never having read the source texts (apparently Kate Bush's `Wuthering Heights' was informed by a BBC adaptation and not a primary reading of Bronte's novel).

The chapters are short and great to dip into, one to browse in a coffee shop, or transport you in your lunch hour - the section on `Saturday' and John Banville veered off into journalism and the scathing way writers are about writers - very Martin Amis, very `Ravelstein'! I enjoyed the excellent chapter setting book against film, particularly Sutherland's comparison of two key Hubert Selby Jr novels against their cinema versions - the reference to the `Tralala'-gang rape and the unpleasant conclusion that didn't feature in Uli Edel's adaptation reminds you how much more graphic a novel can be...

The only drawbacks were the obligatory reference to the over familiar post-modernity of `Pulp Fiction' and the fact the editor didn't notice that Philip K Dick's novel has a title that is `Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?' - rather than the electronic brand alluded to on page 62. Sloppy stuff, especially when the book touches on the realm of publishing. `How to Read a Novel' is hugely readable stuff and would make a fine book to browse through in the initial months of your first year at university; then again, it would make an engaging read whoever you are. It made me want to read `Saturday', after I'd been confused by the critical reception and somewhat put off - obviously it's in the `to read' pile still!!

laugh/learn a little
I bought this on the strength of the first chapter which was all about "pseudo-choice" and the book avalanche we are now subjected to. I found this a reasonably spirited and even - shock! - impassioned attack on the flooding of the market with so much of a middling quality that reduces the literary experience to a uniform flatness. Perhaps. But I read on and nothing really matched this, although he has a nice jokey way I guess.