Lodge, The Art Of Fiction

256 Pages·2007·3.87 MB·English

by  David Lodge

T HE A RT
O F wi
F I C T I ON
D A V ID
L O D GE
$22.00
T
he articles with which David Lodge entertained
and delighted readers of the Independent and
The Washington Post Book World for fifty weeks
between 1991 and 1992 have now been 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, the Sense of Place, and Symbolism.
Each topic is illustrated by a short passage or two taken
from classic and modem fiction, ranging from Laurence
Sterne to J.D. Salinger, from Jane Austen to Fay
Weldon, from Charles Dickens to Martin Amis. David
Lodge takes these passages apart and puts them back
together again with the expertise of a novelist, critic, and
teacher. Technical terms are lucidly explained, and their
applications examined, in the literary-critical equivalent
of slow-motion replays of some of the best writing in the
English language. To throw further light on a given topic
the author sometimes refers directly, and revealingly,
to his own experience of writing fiction.
This book is essential reading for students of literature,
aspiring writers, and anyone who enjoys literary fiction
and would like to understand better how it works.
0793
DAVID LODGE has published nine novels,
including Paradise News, Nice Work (short-listed for
the Booker Prize and winner of the Sunday Express
Book of the Year Award, 1988), Small World (also
shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1984), How Far Can
You Go? (Whitbread Book of the Year, 1980), and
Changing Places (awarded the Yorkshire Post and
Hawthomden prizes). He is Honorary Professor of Mod
ern English Literature at the University of Birmingham,
where he taught from 1960 to 1987, and is the author
of several other works of literary criticism. He lives with
his wife and children in Birmingham.
Jacket design by Melissa Jacoby
Jacket painting by Vincent Van Gogh, The Nouel Reader, 1888. Private
collection. Photograph courtesy of
The Lefevre Gallery, London.
VIKING PENGUIN
a division of Penguin Books USA Inc.
VIKING 375 Hudson Street, New York, N.Y. 10014
Printed in U.S.A.
C EI II F hen does a novel begin? The question is almost as difficult to answer
• w as the question, when does the human embryo become a person?
Certainly the creation of a novel rarely begins with the penning or typing of
its first words. Most writers do some preliminary work, if it is only in their
heads. . . . For the reader, however, the novel always begins with that open
ing sentence (which may not, of course, be the first sentence the novelist
originally wrote). And then the next sentence, and then the sentence after
that. . . . When does the beginning of a novel end, is another difficult ques
tion to answer. Is it the first paragraph, the first few pages, or the first chapter?
However one defines it, the beginning of a novel is a threshold, separating
the real world we inhabit from the world the novelist has imagined."
—from The Art of Fiction
ISBN 0-670-84848-4
The Art of Fiction
Also by David Lodge
NOVELS
The Picturegoers
Ginger, You're Barmy
The British Museum is Falling Down
Out of the Shelter
Changing Places
How Far Can You Go?
Small World
Nice Work
Paradise News
CRITICISM
Language of Fiction
The Novelist at the Crossroads
The Modes of Modern Writing
Working With Structuralism
After Bakhtin
ESSAYS
Write On
PLAY
The Writing Game
THE ART OF
FICTION
Illustrated from Classic and Modern Texts
DAVID LODGE
VIKING
VIKING
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Books USA Inc., 375 Hudson Street,
New York, New York 10014, U.S.A.
Penguin Books Ltd, 27 Wrights Lane,
London W8 5TZ, England
Penguin Books Australia Ltd, Ringwood,
Victoria, Australia
Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 10 Alcorn Avenue,
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4V 3B2
Penguin Books (N.Z.) Ltd, 182-190 Wairau Road,
Auckland 10, New Zealand
Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices:
Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England
First American Edition
Published in 1993 by Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Books USA Inc.
3 5 79 10 8 64
Copyright © David Lodge, 1992
All rights reserved
The essays in this book first appeared in different form in
The Independent on Sunday in Great Britain and in The Washington Post
Book World in the United States.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Lodge, David, 1935-
The art of fiction : illustrated from classic and modern texts /
David Lodge.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-670-84848-4
1. English fiction — History and criticism — Theory, etc.
2. American fiction — History and criticism — Theory, etc.
3. Criticism — Terminology. 4. Fiction — Technique. I. Title.
PR826.L63 1993
823.009-dc20 92-50751
Printed in the United States of America
Set in Ehrhardt
Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above,
no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by
any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise),
without the prior written permission of both the copyright
owner and the above publisher of this book.
To John Blackwell
"genius among editors" (The Writing Game, Act Two Scene Two)