How Fiction Works
Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, Books & Reading, Nonfiction, Reference & Language, Language Arts, Writing & Publishing, Composition & Creative Writing
| Author: | James Wood | ISBN: | 9781429908658 |
| Publisher: | Farrar, Straus and Giroux | Publication: | July 22, 2008 |
| Imprint: | Farrar, Straus and Giroux | Language: | English |
| Author: | James Wood |
| ISBN: | 9781429908658 |
| Publisher: | Farrar, Straus and Giroux |
| Publication: | July 22, 2008 |
| Imprint: | Farrar, Straus and Giroux |
| Language: | English |
What makes a story a story? What is style? What's the connection between realism and real life? These are some of the questions James Wood answers in How Fiction Works, the first book-length essay by the preeminent critic of his generation. Ranging widely—from Homer to David Foster Wallace, from What Maisie Knew to Make Way for Ducklings—Wood takes the reader through the basic elements of the art, step by step.
The result is nothing less than a philosophy of the novel—plainspoken, funny, blunt—in the traditions of E. M. Forster's Aspects of the Novel and Strunk and White's The Elements of Style. It sums up two decades of insight with wit and concision. It will change the way you read.
What makes a story a story? What is style? What's the connection between realism and real life? These are some of the questions James Wood answers in How Fiction Works, the first book-length essay by the preeminent critic of his generation. Ranging widely—from Homer to David Foster Wallace, from What Maisie Knew to Make Way for Ducklings—Wood takes the reader through the basic elements of the art, step by step.
The result is nothing less than a philosophy of the novel—plainspoken, funny, blunt—in the traditions of E. M. Forster's Aspects of the Novel and Strunk and White's The Elements of Style. It sums up two decades of insight with wit and concision. It will change the way you read.
