Ralph White:
This must have been a very fun romp when Forster unveiled it as a series of lectures at Trinity College, Cambridge, nine years after the First World War ended and eleven before the Second one started. In illustrating examples of specific writing techniques Forster refers to easily fifty books, authors, and characters (in 175 pages, mind you). When would the young men in his audience have had the opportunity to acquaint themselves with a fraction of them? How many would still have a place set for them at the family table twenty years hence? This slender volume is a piece of history itself; more a running critique of two hundred years of British literature than it is a manual of craft. God how I’d like to see the attendance sheet for those lectures to see how many of his students profited from Forster’s observations and are known today.
What will you learn from this book? For one you will learn Forster’s distinction between “story” and “plot.” FYI, stories read as follows: “then this, then this, then this…” Plot reads as follows: “This caused this, which caused this.” Okay, that’s two chapters. Then we have two aspects of...
United States on Dec 23, 2016
Ignatius:
Forster was, of course, a wonderful novelist, so who am I to criticise what he has to say about novels? Nonetheless – as readable and entertaining as these transcripts from a lecture series are – this book seems somewhat imprecise and wordy by today's standards. While there is much insight in these pages (the force of causality in fiction, for instance), Forster grapples with abstractions without really managing to lock them down. Perhaps practitioners are not always the best people to analyse their own craft.
Germany on Jul 15, 2016
Ms Cyprah:
One for the shelves that helps us to understand the novel in greater detail. As it deals mainly with older works, it is a bit dated, but great for academic study.
United Kingdom on Nov 14, 2015
marie:
good value. Studying Forster and was very informative
United Kingdom on Aug 21, 2015
Mr. Lionel Povert:
Forster before being a classic has been a living writer with his dedicated readers. He's today probably more wellknown through the adaptations for the cinema, and of course, his famous novel "Maurice", which was published after his death, as it was dealing with homosexuality, a delicate topic in victorian times, and also after, all along the first part of the twentieth century.
The essays Forster has dedicated to his knowledge of the art of Novel are very readable as they were first written and read for a student audience.
France on Jul 09, 2014
W Perry Hall:
This collection of lectures Forster gave at Cambridge Univ in 1927 is published in book form and provides a decent look at how a novelist of some critical acclaim a century ago viewed the Aspects of the Novel, both from a reader's and a writer's perspective.
Forster defines the novel as "any fictitious prose work over 50,000 words." The seven aspects he discusses are story, people, plot, fantasy, prophecy, pattern, and rhythm. He compares the novel's texture and form to those of a symphony and believes the novel should "reveal the hidden life at its source" since a novelist's necessary preoccupation, in his view, is human nature.
I'd love to read his view on the works of Wm. Faulkner, who said, in accepting the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950 that "the young man or woman writing today has forgotten the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself which alone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about, worth the agony and the sweat."
This book seems useful for considering structure and texture in writing a novel. For that purpose, I'd recommend it. For anyone else, I suggest, instead, reading his 1908 novel "A...
United States on Apr 30, 2014
Davey Jones:
Fiction authors rarely lecture about the novel as well as they do it. Forster provides no exception except that he gives the gift of adroit turn of phrase to reduce legendary classic to whimsical one-liners.
United States on Mar 22, 2014
Bernard M. Patten:
Of course, I allow myself the luxury of re-reading this masterpiece every year and have been so doing since 1988. Why? To hone my skills as a writer and for the pleasure of reading a real novelist comment on the real novel. The real novel is not a tidy piece of art. Forbid it almighty gods. Oh no, it is a piece of organized chaos like War and Peace. And so it follows that the real discussion of the art of the novel need not be a tidy organized piece of art. Each time I have read this work I get something new and important out of it. That says more about it than it does about me for that is the mark of a real classic - benefits of re-reading. The distinction of story from plot is interesting and real: A story is the narration of events in time and a plot explains the events or gives reasons for them. The King dies and then the Queen dies. That's a story. The King dies and then the Queen dies of grief. That's the plot as it explains why the Queen died. The discussion of character is somewhat dated but classical. You should know it if you are writing fiction. Characters are round or flat according to Forster. Round characters can surprise us in convincing ways. Flat...
United States on Mar 13, 2010
| Exploring E.M. Forster's Novel: Aspects of the Novel | Uncovering the Real-Life Inspiration Behind Ernest Hemingway's Classic Novel: The Sun Also Rises | Exploring the Global Impact of Joseph Conrad's 'The Dawn Watch': An Analysis | |
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| B2B Rating |
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| Sale off | $7 OFF | $3 OFF | $2 OFF |
| Total Reviews | 6 reviews | 32 reviews | 9 reviews |
| Best Sellers Rank | #4 in Modernism Literary Criticism #88 in British & Irish Literary Criticism #315 in Literary Criticism & Theory | #435 in Artist & Architect Biographies #990 in Individual Artists #1,380 in Author Biographies | #406 in Emigrants & Immigrants Biographies #3,005 in Traveler & Explorer Biographies #3,427 in Author Biographies |
| Modernism Literary Criticism (Books) | Modernism Literary Criticism | ||
| Dimensions | 7.99 x 5.33 x 0.48 inches | 5.31 x 0.9 x 8 inches | 5.49 x 0.85 x 8.22 inches |
| British & Irish Literary Criticism (Books) | British & Irish Literary Criticism | ||
| ISBN-10 | 0156091801 | 0544944437 | 0143111043 |
| Paperback | 192 pages | 368 pages | 400 pages |
| Item Weight | 5.7 ounces | 10.5 ounces | 11 ounces |
| Customer Reviews | 4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 262 ratings var dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction; P.when.execute { if { dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction = true; A.declarative { if { ue.count || 0) + 1); } } ); } }); P.when.execute { A.declarative{ if { ue.count || 0) + 1); } }); }); | 4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 1,266 ratings var dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction; P.when.execute { if { dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction = true; A.declarative { if { ue.count || 0) + 1); } } ); } }); P.when.execute { A.declarative{ if { ue.count || 0) + 1); } }); }); | 4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 265 ratings var dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction; P.when.execute { if { dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction = true; A.declarative { if { ue.count || 0) + 1); } } ); } }); P.when.execute { A.declarative{ if { ue.count || 0) + 1); } }); }); |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0156091800 | 978-0544944435 | 978-0143111047 |
| Literary Criticism & Theory | Literary Criticism & Theory | ||
| Language | English | English | English |
| Publisher | Mariner Books; First Edition | Mariner Books; Reprint edition | Penguin Books; Reprint edition |
United Kingdom on Mar 10, 2018