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106th out of 465 books
—
717 voters
The Art of Fiction: Illustrated from Classic and Modern Texts
by
David Lodge
The articles with which David Lodge entertained and delighted readers of the Independent on Sunday and The Washington Post are now revised, expanded, and collected together in book form.
The art of fiction is considered under a wide range of headings, such as the Intrusive Author, Suspense, the Epistolary Novel, Time-shift, Magic Realism and Symbolism, and each topic is il...more
The art of fiction is considered under a wide range of headings, such as the Intrusive Author, Suspense, the Epistolary Novel, Time-shift, Magic Realism and Symbolism, and each topic is il...more
Paperback, 256 pages
Published
July 1st 1994
by Penguin Books
(first published 1992)
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The very fact that the book has compelled me to put my thoughts here when I've barely finished reading a quarter of it is a reflection of how much a wonderful read it is.
What David Lodge has done is quite simple - he has chosen a variety of styles in fiction eg intrusive author, unreliable narrator, suspense, symbolism, magical realism, interior monologue etc and illustrated each of them with a passage taken from well known book with a succinct missive to go with them. The beauty of the book is...more
What David Lodge has done is quite simple - he has chosen a variety of styles in fiction eg intrusive author, unreliable narrator, suspense, symbolism, magical realism, interior monologue etc and illustrated each of them with a passage taken from well known book with a succinct missive to go with them. The beauty of the book is...more
This book originated in the early 1990's when David Lodge was invited by the Independent on Sunday to contribute a series of weekly articles in which he chose a literary topic (such as Beginnings, Mystery, A Sense of Place, Allegory or Endings) and illustrated this with one or two short extracts from relatively well-known novels.
The constraint of a short weekly newspaper column has demanded that Lodge restricts his comments and analysis to the most significant elements of the passages that he h...more
The constraint of a short weekly newspaper column has demanded that Lodge restricts his comments and analysis to the most significant elements of the passages that he h...more
I'm not in the mood for fiction at the moment - I know, that is a ridiculously sweeping thing to say, but really I'm not. I had hoped that in reading this basic introduction to literary criticism that I might have a surge of wonder and excitement, see all that I was missing, and rush out and bury myself in a novel.
It was not to be. I huffed and puffed my way from chapter to chapter, feeling irritated and disgruntled. Firstly by the extracts from various novels - none of which appealed - and then...more
It was not to be. I huffed and puffed my way from chapter to chapter, feeling irritated and disgruntled. Firstly by the extracts from various novels - none of which appealed - and then...more
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Jul 31, 2011
Lobstergirl
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Lobstergirl by:
Dai Xianglong
Shelves:
books-on-books
Professor and novelist David Lodge, in plain, clear prose unadorned by the baubles and thorns of academese, explains a variety of basic literary terms and ideas using examples from (mostly) the classic novels. Sample: "Metafiction is fiction about fiction: novels and stories that call attention to their fictional status and their own compositional procedures." Each short chapter (they were originally newspaper columns) begins with a longish excerpt from literature.
The book is occasionally marred...more
The book is occasionally marred...more
The author says that this is a book to dip into at leisure, and he's right. The essays in this book are clear, concise and readable, but seem to lack any sort of great wit or spark. The author's method is to give an example passage first to illustrate his point, then explain it in greater depth - unfortunately, I feel, with the shortness of these essays, any depth he goes into is still purely surface, thus rendering it kind of pointless. Also, he has an irritating tendency to deviate into talkin...more
David Lodge writes in a low key amusing style which makes these essays on fiction entertaining reading. The book contains fifty essays which examine all aspects of fiction including magic realism, point of view, chapters, surrealism, irony and the weather. His thoughts are illustrated with quotations from all types of fiction from the eighteenth to the twenty first century. He also shows how he has used various techniques in his own novels.
Reading this book helps the reader to understand how aut...more
Reading this book helps the reader to understand how aut...more
The essays are short, concise, occasionally illuminating. Great for an undergrad. But perhaps a bit undercooked for the graduate or advanced reader--it is likely that this sort of person has already encountered or understands the concepts David Lodge touches on in his essays. You also will not find many contemporary samples--lots of Austen, Henry James, Fielding, and George Eliot. All excellent writers, of course. But the reliance on them gives the essays a whiff of that musty dusty smell we've...more
Got me through college, man. Eventually I got my dog-eared copy signed by the man himself when he gave a talk at Warwick Uni.
Lodge uses writing excerpts from literary greats to demonstrate how writers should use point of view, allergory, symbolism, sense of place, magic realism and many other techniques and devices. It's a useful book for those writers who want to come to grips with various basic techniques that can be used but I struggled a bit with the language he used to explain the various concepts. I had to re-read many sentences twice. A useful reference book to have and perhaps that's how it should be used - as...more
This book is a collection of texts on literary criticisms which the author had published in the form of a weekly column on a newspaper.
The first chapter is entitled "The beginning", and the last chapter is entitled "The end". There are 50 chapters in total, and they all deal with different aspects of the art of fiction: suspense, surprise, introduction of characters, time, repetitions, intertextuality, unreliable narrator, stream of consciousness, metafiction, etc. etc., giving examples from cla...more
The first chapter is entitled "The beginning", and the last chapter is entitled "The end". There are 50 chapters in total, and they all deal with different aspects of the art of fiction: suspense, surprise, introduction of characters, time, repetitions, intertextuality, unreliable narrator, stream of consciousness, metafiction, etc. etc., giving examples from cla...more
A collection of 50 short articles originally written for the Independent on Sunday and the Washington Post. This is a very readable and thought-provoking survey of the key elements of fiction - from 'beginnings' to 'endings' and everything in between. Each theme is illustrated by an example from a novel, and the range of such examples is very wide. I enjoyed this as a book to dip into for a few minutes every now and then and it has inspired me to search out some novels I hadn't ever really thoug...more
First sentence: "When does a novel begin?"
P. 99: "Intertextuality, in short, is entwined in the roots of the English novel, while at the other end of the chronological spectrum novelists have tended to exploit rather than resist it, freely recycling old myths and earlier work of literature to shape, or add resonance to, their presentation of contemporary life."
Last sentence: "A novel is a Gestalt, a German word for which there is no exact English equivalent, defined in my dictionary as "a percep...more
P. 99: "Intertextuality, in short, is entwined in the roots of the English novel, while at the other end of the chronological spectrum novelists have tended to exploit rather than resist it, freely recycling old myths and earlier work of literature to shape, or add resonance to, their presentation of contemporary life."
Last sentence: "A novel is a Gestalt, a German word for which there is no exact English equivalent, defined in my dictionary as "a percep...more
No wonder this book is mandatory in the bibliography of many Literature students. It explains beautifully, by analyzing excerpts from various masterpieces, essential notions of literary theory and criticism. Even if its 50 sections were initially written for a weekly newspaper column, and with the declared intention to be comprehensible to a general public, "The Art of Fiction" introduces the basic notions for anyone who intends to lose the innocence of reading and become a critic en herbe.
Some...more
Some...more
Author uses examples from famous texts to illustrate the skills of the great novelists. I quite enjoyed having someone point out what's admirable about passages in "Passage to India" or some other work that made my eyes glaze over. Lodge does pick out one of my favorite descriptions in literature from Middlemarch. Fun! This book is a good one but less fun than the more masterful and historical "How Fiction Works" by James Wood.
I read this book a couple of years back on the recommendation of my writing teacher. This book has a brilliant selection of passages from old and modern classics to accompany its insightful essays of literary criticism. I remember how it gave me a deeper understanding of the structure of fiction. I would love to get around to re-reading this book at some point. Strongly recommended for all bibliophiles out there.
some techniques and articles , of how to write and understand the Novel.
Though i studied it in my major as English Literature, but i come back to it to re-read it again, because it builds a solid basic information of understanding the techniques of novel writing.
thanks to my professor to whom i owe a great thanks for making me a great lover to this book and other similar books, Mr. Riyadh Mathkaloun
Though i studied it in my major as English Literature, but i come back to it to re-read it again, because it builds a solid basic information of understanding the techniques of novel writing.
thanks to my professor to whom i owe a great thanks for making me a great lover to this book and other similar books, Mr. Riyadh Mathkaloun
A terrific group of essays about various aspects of fiction-writing. Each chapter begins with a short excerpt from a novel (mostly well-known novels) illustrating some technical or stylistic choice that Lodge then explains and analyzes. I have read this enjoyable book twice in the hope it would make me a better reader of fiction. Unfortunately, however, I seem to forget Lodge's points as soon as I finish!
Aye aye. All pretty breezy. Good source of inspiration for future novel reading. Good to see Henry Green mentioned.
Meanwhile, it's a mark of my dopiness that I have no memory of noticing that the butler in 'Remains of the Day' was a selfish, confabulating git (I just remember him as a bit wet behind the ears and lost in the past). Learn summat every day.
Meanwhile, it's a mark of my dopiness that I have no memory of noticing that the butler in 'Remains of the Day' was a selfish, confabulating git (I just remember him as a bit wet behind the ears and lost in the past). Learn summat every day.
كتاب رائع فى تبويبه عن فن الرواية والقصة . وقد بلغ إعجابى به أن قمت بترجمته الى العربية وصدر عن المشروع القومى للترحمة بالقاهرة.
ويتقسم الكتاب الى خمسين فصلا ، يقوم المؤلف فى كل فصل بتناول ناحية خاصة فى التأليف الروائى . وقد جدد من ذلك التناول ، ففى فصل يعالج اعتماد على الرسائل ، وعلى التليفون ، وهكذا . وهو من الضروريات لكل من يريد التعرف على فنون كتابة الرواية
ويتقسم الكتاب الى خمسين فصلا ، يقوم المؤلف فى كل فصل بتناول ناحية خاصة فى التأليف الروائى . وقد جدد من ذلك التناول ، ففى فصل يعالج اعتماد على الرسائل ، وعلى التليفون ، وهكذا . وهو من الضروريات لكل من يريد التعرف على فنون كتابة الرواية
Esta formado por una serie de artículos reunidos en forma de libro, que van examinando diferentes técnicas literarias.
Todos tiene la misma forma, a partir de un párrafo de una obra, comenta el concepto en cuestión. A pesar de ser ligeros, me lo he pasado muy bien leyendo los diferentes recursos a los que normalmente no presto atención, concentrado como estoy en la historia.
Todos tiene la misma forma, a partir de un párrafo de una obra, comenta el concepto en cuestión. A pesar de ser ligeros, me lo he pasado muy bien leyendo los diferentes recursos a los que normalmente no presto atención, concentrado como estoy en la historia.
Using excerpts from great British and American novels Lodge discusses many devices and details in fiction. A lesson, but such a lively one, both in the books chosen and Lodge's thoughts about them. The brief articles that make up the book were originally created for the newspaper, obviously not in America.
I use this book every year in teaching my 1lth grade honors English section, and it does an amazing job of breaking down fiction into components that we can talk about as a class. I do have unusually bright students, and maybe I wouldn't recommend it generally until college, but we do enjoy it.
well, i studied this book in my first academic year in English Literature. it is a perfect book and reference illustrated with examples and extracts for studying and understanding the art of fiction.
this book is one of my favorites, and i don't mind reading it 10 times more.
this book is one of my favorites, and i don't mind reading it 10 times more.
This is me getting an early jump on my personal "summer reading." Lodge's book is 50% useful...which is pretty good. He includes some great extracts, too...along with the notes I'll pass along to the kids, I am aiming to add 20 books to my smart library.
50 artigos que desmembram a narrativa tendo como objeto: a narrativa! Um ótimo guia de literatura - mesmo sem a pretensão de sê-lo - com linguagem acessível e detalhamento sobre as diversas faces da arte da ficção em grandes clássicos da literatura de língua inglesa. Excelente, excelente, excelente!
This book came highly recommended from K. L. Cook and I can understand why. It takes a bit more of an academic approach to fiction writing but I found it illustrative and helpful and an enjoyable read.
Lodge is writing here as a novelist not a scholar. Jargon is avoided and wonderful pieces of text exegesis are presented to help the reader peep into the secrets of the art of fiction.
Found it interesting. The author does a fairly chop-busty thing, however -- he constantly references his own fiction as examples in his analysis of fiction. Ugh.
This book had become a reference book for me as I start to churn out my own fiction. To the point, full of helpful examples and well written.
I learnt more about fiction from this little book than anything else I've ever read -- quite brilliant
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Professor David Lodge is a graduate and Honorary Fellow of University College London. He is Emeritus Professor of English Literature at the University of Birmingham, where he taught from 1960 until 1987, when he retired to write full-time.
He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, was Chairman of the Judges for the Booker Prize for Fiction in 1989, and is the author of numerous works of li...more
More about David Lodge...
He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, was Chairman of the Judges for the Booker Prize for Fiction in 1989, and is the author of numerous works of li...more
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“What do we mean - it is a common term of praise - when we say that a book is "original"? Not, usually, that the writer has invented something without precedent, but that she has made us "perceive" what we already, in a conceptual sense, "know", by deviating from the conventional, habitual ways of representing reality. Defamiliarization, in short, is another word for "originality". I shall have recourse to it again in these glances at the art of fiction.”
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2 people liked it
“En el muro de Facebook hay una opción que te permite añadir "Me gusta" al comentario o la foto de otro internauta. El pictograma es una mano cerrada con el pulgar hacia arriba. También ofrece la posibilidad, en caso de arrepentimiento, de sustituirlo por un "Ya no me gusta". Eso es todo. La red social de Zuckerberg no admite la alternativa de matizar esa adhesión o ese arrepentimiento con algún estado intermedio, quizá titubeante o más gaseoso. Sólo acepta la rotundidad de un sí o un no, del blanco o el negro, con el pulgar hacia arriba o hacia abajo, sin medias tintas.
La duda ha sido expulsada de esta arcadia digital y condenada a vagar por el desierto de territorios más lejanos y lentos, es decir, más literarios [...]
Ahora bien, pensar consiste justamente en lo contrario. Pensar implica el compromiso radical de ir un paso más allá del "Me gusta" o "No me gusta", de suspender la fase infantil de la imposición caprichosa de nuestros antojos. Aquí no sirve eso tan socorrido del "Porque lo digo yo" y el puñetazo en la mesa. Hay que razonar, justificar, argumentar con palabras de peso nuestro amor, nuestro rechazo, lo cual es complicado e incómodo, ya que puedes equivocarte o quedar en ridículo. O puedes caer en la paradoja de aquel personaje de Monterroso, un escritor cuya esposa, tras desvelar los hábitos de trabajo de él, concluía: «Cuando no se le ocurre nada escribe pensamientos».”
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1 person liked it
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La duda ha sido expulsada de esta arcadia digital y condenada a vagar por el desierto de territorios más lejanos y lentos, es decir, más literarios [...]
Ahora bien, pensar consiste justamente en lo contrario. Pensar implica el compromiso radical de ir un paso más allá del "Me gusta" o "No me gusta", de suspender la fase infantil de la imposición caprichosa de nuestros antojos. Aquí no sirve eso tan socorrido del "Porque lo digo yo" y el puñetazo en la mesa. Hay que razonar, justificar, argumentar con palabras de peso nuestro amor, nuestro rechazo, lo cual es complicado e incómodo, ya que puedes equivocarte o quedar en ridículo. O puedes caer en la paradoja de aquel personaje de Monterroso, un escritor cuya esposa, tras desvelar los hábitos de trabajo de él, concluía: «Cuando no se le ocurre nada escribe pensamientos».”
