10th anniversary revised edition with new Introduction
James Wood's
How Fiction Works
is a scintillating study of the magic of fiction—an analysis of its main elements and a celebration of its lasting power.
Here one of the most prominent and stylish critics of our time looks into the machinery of storytelling to ask some fundamental questions: What do we mean when we say we "know" a fictional character? What constitutes a telling detail? When is a metaphor successful? Is Realism realistic? Why do some literary conventions become dated while others stay fresh?
James Wood ranges widely, from Homer to
Make Way for Ducklings
, from the Bible to John le Carré, and his book is both a study of the techniques of fiction-making and an alternative history of the novel. Playful and profound,
will be enlightening to writers, readers, and anyone else interested in what happens on the page.