Aspects of the Novel

E. M. Forster

Rosetta Books, Jul 1, 2010 - Literary Criticism - 192 pages

The 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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A ghastly cover for a classic piece of work inside.

About the author

E. M. Forster published his first novel, Where Angels Fear to Tread, in 1905, which was quickly followed in 1907 by The Longest Journey, and then in 1908 with A Room with a View. However, Forster's major breakthrough came in 1910 with the book Howards End, which is often still regarded as his greatest work. Forster was associated with the Bloomsbury Group, a collective of intellectuals and peers, among them Virginia Woolf, Benjamin Britten, Roger Fry, and John Maynard Keynes. The publication of A Passage to India in 1924 firmly cemented Forster in the literary firmament as one of the most important writers of the twentieth century with this being one of the most important novels of the twentieth century. It was, however, the last novel Forster ever completed.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Aspects of the Novel; Clark lectures
• Author: E. M. Forster
• Publisher: Rosetta Books, 2010
• ISBN: 0795311567, 9780795311567
• Length: 192 pages
• Subjects: Literary Criticism / Books & Reading; Literary Criticism / General