The Writing of Fiction

Edith Wharton

Scribner, 1925 - Literary Criticism - 125 pages

A rare work of nonfiction from Edith Wharton, The Writing of Fiction contains brilliant advice on writing from the first woman ever to win a Pulitzer Prize - for her first novel The Age of Innocence. In The Writing of Fiction, Wharton provides general comments on the roots of modern fiction, the various approaches to writing a piece of fiction, and the development of form and style. She also devotes entire chapters to the telling of a short story, the construction of a novel, and the importance of character and situation in the novel. Not only a valuable treatise on the art of writing, The Writing of Fiction also allows readers to experience the inimitable but seldom heard voice of one of America's most important and beloved writers, and includes a final chapter on the pros and cons of Marcel Proust.

What people are saying

Review: The Writing of Fiction

User Review  - Don (The Book Guy) - Goodreads

A short book about how to write by one of the masters, Edith Wharton. She has chapters that focus on the short story, writing novels, discussing novels that focus on character versus situation , and ...

Review: The Writing of Fiction

User Review  - Marcus Speh - Goodreads

Like the writing books of other great novelists and writers — John Gardner, EM Forster, Margaret Atwood... — this book captures the imagination and not just the mind of any writer. Also don't miss Roxane Gay's review in HTMLgiant.

About the author

Edith Wharton was born in 1862 into one of New York's older and richer families, and was educated here and abroad. Her works include The Age of Innocence, Ethan Frome, The House of Mirth, and Roman Fever and Other Stories. As a keen observer and chronicler of society, she is without peer. Edith Wharton died in France in 1937.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Writing of Fiction; Touchstone books
• Author: Edith Wharton
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: Scribner, 1925
• ISBN: 0684845318, 9780684845319
• Length: 125 pages
• Subjects: Language Arts & Disciplines / Composition & Creative Writing; Literary Criticism / General