Aspects of the NovelThe renowned British novelist’s “casual and wittily acute guidance” on reading—and writing—great fiction (Harper’s Magazine). Renowned for such classics as A Room with a View, Howards End, and A Passage to India, E. M. Forster was one of Britain’s—and the world’s—most distinguished fiction writers, a frequent nominee for the Nobel Prize in Literature. In this collection of lectures delivered at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1927, he takes a wide-ranging look at English-language novels—with specific examples from such masters as Dickens and Austen—discussing the elements they all have in common. Using a witty, informal tone and drawing on his extensive readings in French and Russian literature, Forster discusses his ideas in reference to such figures as Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and Proust; explains the difference between “flat” and “round” characters and between plot and story; and ultimately provides an “admirable and delightful” education for anyone who appreciates the art of a good book (The New York Times). |
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action æsthetic aspect audience beauty begin called Chad Charlotte Brontë critic D. H. Lawrence daily death Defoe Dickens Dinah Dostoevsky dream Edie Ochiltree Emily Brontë emotional English everything example facts fantasy Faux Monnayeurs feeling fiction flat characters George Eliot George Meredith Gide give Glenallan grand chain happens happiness heart Henry James Hetty human humour Jane Austen Joyce Lady Bertram lecture literary literature lives logic look Melville memory Meredith mind Mitya Moby Dick Moll Flanders moral muddle mystery mythology nature never novel novelist novelist's touch Paris passion pattern perhaps pity plot prophecy prophet pseudo-scholar Queen reader rhythm round scene Scott seems sense sentence Shandy Sir Arthur sometimes sort sound Strether Swiss Family Robinson things thought time-sequence Tristram Shandy turn understand vague Vionnet voice whole words writer Wuthering Heights Zuleika Zuleika Dobson