An exploration of the creative process in four classic works:
Death in Venice
,
Treasure Island
The
Rubáiyát
of Mar Khayyám,
and
War and Peace
.
Creating Literature Out of Life
examines four very dissimilar masterpieces and their authors in search of evidence that will answer some of the many questions in the great mystery of creativity. Crossing boundaries of period, nation, and genre, the study looks into the "why" and "how" of the creation of Thomas Mann's
, Robert Louis Stevenson's
, Edward FitzGerald's
of Mar Khayyám
, and Lev Tolstoy's
Doris Alexander finds that each of these works was compelled by an urgent life problem of its author, some of them partly conscious, others completely unconscious, which worked in harmony and counterpoint with the author's conscious theme to shape his work. She traces an interconnected nexus of memories—personal experiences, ideas, readings—that came alive in response to the author's problem and served as a reservoir out of which his characters, his images, his story line, and the emotional tone of his work emerged.
tells the exciting story of how Mann, Stevenson, FitzGerald, and Tolstoy fought out their major life battles in their works.