Ideas and the Novel

by Mary McCarthy

In this eye-opening book, Mary McCarthy shares her love of the novel and her fear that it is becoming an endangered literary species"
"He had a mind so fine that no idea could violate it."""
"So begins Mary McCarthy's fascinating critical analysis of the novel (and its practitioners) from her double-edged perspective as both reader and writer. The bestselling author of "The Group" takes T. S. Eliot's quote about Henry James, written in 1918, as a jumping-off point to discuss how the novel has evolved--or not--in the last century. In this lively, erudite book, McCarthy throws down the gauntlet: Why did the nineteenth century produce novels of ideas while the twentieth century is so lacking in serious fiction? She winnows out the underachieving (read: overhyped) authors from the geniuses, explores why Jean Valjean personifies man's conscience in Victor Hugo's "Les Miserables," and shows how Stendhal's" ""The Red and the Black ""illustrates the evil effects of reading."" "She also tackles the role of the omniscient narrator" "and analogizes novels to air travel.
With its exploration of authors from Balzac to D. H. Lawrence, "Ideas and the Novel "holds inviolate the idea of the novel as a means ultimately of liberating ideas.
This ebook features an illustrated biography of Mary McCarthy including rare images from the author's estate.

Genres: American, Writing, 20th Century, Literature, Nonfiction, Literary Criticism

121 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1980

About the author

People note American writer Mary Therese McCarthy for her sharp literary criticism and satirical fiction, including the novels The Groves of Academe (1952) and The Group (1963).

McCarthy studied at Vassar college in Poughkeepsie, New York and graduated in 1933. McCarthy moved to city of New York and incisively wrote as a known contributor to publications such as the Nation, the New Republic, and the New York Review of Books. Her debut novel, The Company She Keeps (1942), initiated her ascent to the most celebrated writers of her generation; the publication of her autobiography Memories of a Catholic Girlhood in 1957 bolstered this reputation.

This literary critic authored more than two dozen books, including the now-classic novel The Group , the New York Times bestseller in 1963.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_McC...

Reviews

[R.K. Cowles · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 1/4 stars

[Geoff Wyss · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is more an extended essay (at 120 pages) than a full study, and so has a predictable lack of breadth, but it's still a really incisive reading of the discrediting of ideas as a novelistic technique. Henry James is McCarthy's bete noire. Great extended sections on Middlemarch, The Red and the Black, and Crime and Punishment.

[Chinmaya Lal · Rating 3 out of 5]

One may disagree with McCarthy's central thesis that the novel ceased to engage with ideas since the time of Henry James. Yet, one will not be able to dispute some of her insights about specific novels and novelists like 'The Red and the Black' and 'Middlemarch', and Dostoevsky and Balzac.

[Julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

quick late afternoon/early evening read yesterday—i admire mccarthy's confidence, tho this extended essay really deserved a lengthier/more rigorous definition of 'ideas'

[Yu · Rating 2 out of 5]

it's interesting when she talk about Red and Black, it's been a long time after reading Standhal's Red and Black, but it's good that I almost remember every details with Julien Maddma Renal, etc. and also cool about Dostoyevski, Crime and Punishment. but it's a little way too self-esteem when she said, "if I remember it right, or I dont remember the name" something like that, it makes the book less academical, I don't know. maybe I know too little about Mary McCarthy, but seems her voice likes Susan Sontag's a little bit. and about Balzc, Dickens, I have little interest in them, so I finished it quickly, and looking forward to getting a chance to read her novel. anyway, it's good, a casual book on ideas and the novel. but I think, you cannot just make up a theory and told readers that's the ideas of novel of my opinion.