How Novels Work

How Novels Work
Author :
Publisher : OUP Oxford
Total Pages : 410
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780191622922
ISBN-13 : 0191622923
Rating : 4/5 (923 Downloads)

Book Synopsis How Novels Work by : John Mullan

Download or read book How Novels Work written by John Mullan and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2008-02-14 with total page 410 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Never has contemporary fiction been more widely discussed and passionately analysed; recent years have seen a huge growth in the number of reading groups and in the interest of a non-academic readership in the discussion of how novels work. Drawing on his weekly Guardian column, 'Elements of Fiction', John Mullan examines novels mostly of the last ten years, many of which have become firm favourites with reading groups. He reveals the rich resources of novelistic technique, setting recent fiction alongside classics of the past. Nick Hornby's adoption of a female narrator is compared to Daniel Defoe's; Ian McEwan's use of weather is set against Austen's and Hardy's; Carole Shield's chapter divisions are likened to Fanny Burney's. Each section shows how some basic element of fiction is used. Some topics (like plot, dialogue, or location) will appear familiar to most novel readers; others (metanarrative, prolepsis, amplification) will open readers' eyes to new ways of understanding and appreciating the writer's craft. How Novels Work explains how the pleasures of novel reading often come from the formal ingenuity of the novelist. It is an entertaining and stimulating exploration of that ingenuity. Addressed to anyone who is interested in the close reading of fiction, it makes visible techniques and effects we are often only half-aware of as we read. It shows that literary criticism is something that all fiction enthusiasts can do. Contemporary novels discussed include: Monica Ali's Brick Lane; Martin Amis's Money; Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin; A.S. Byatt's Possession; Jonathan Coe's The Rotters' Club; J.M. Coetzee's Disgrace; Michael Cunningham's The Hours; Don DeLillo's Underworld; Michel Faber's The Crimson Petal and the White; Ian Fleming's From Russia with Love; Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections; Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time; Patricia Highsmith's Ripley under Ground; Alan Hollinghurst's The Spell; Nick Hornby's How to Be Good; Ian McEwan's Atonement; John le Carré's The Constant Gardener; Andrea Levy's Small Island; David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas; Andrew O'Hagan's Personality; Orhan Pamuk's My Name Is Red; Ann Patchett's Bel Canto; Ruth Rendell's Adam and Eve and Pinch Me; Philip Roth's The Human Stain; Jonathan Safran Foer's Everything Is Illuminated; Carol Shields's Unless; Zadie Smith's White Teeth; Muriel Spark's Aiding and Abetting; Graham Swift's Last Orders; Donna Tartt's The Secret History; William Trevor's The Hill Bachelors; and Richard Yates's Revolutionary Road .


How Novels Work Related Books

How Novels Work
Language: en
Pages: 410
Authors: John Mullan
Categories: Literary Criticism
Type: BOOK - Published: 2008-02-14 - Publisher: OUP Oxford

GET EBOOK

Never has contemporary fiction been more widely discussed and passionately analysed; recent years have seen a huge growth in the number of reading groups and in
How Novels Work
Language: en
Pages: 357
Authors: John Mullan
Categories: Language Arts & Disciplines
Type: BOOK - Published: 2006-10-12 - Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

GET EBOOK

Never has contemporary fiction been more widely discussed and passionately analysed; recent years have seen a huge growth in the number of reading groups and in
Working On My Novel
Language: en
Pages: 140
Authors: Cory Arcangel
Categories: Language Arts & Disciplines
Type: BOOK - Published: 2014-07-31 - Publisher: Penguin UK

GET EBOOK

What does it feel like to try and create something new? How is it possible to find a space for the demands of writing a novel in a world of instant communicatio
How Fiction Works
Language: en
Pages: 300
Authors: James Wood
Categories: Language Arts & Disciplines
Type: BOOK - Published: 2008-07-22 - Publisher: Macmillan

GET EBOOK

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 Fict
Common People
Language: en
Pages: 278
Authors: Kit de Waal
Categories: Social Science
Type: BOOK - Published: 2019-05-01 - Publisher: Unbound Publishing

GET EBOOK

Working-class stories are not always tales of the underprivileged and dispossessed. Common People is a collection of essays, poems and memoir written in celebra