First published 1993
E. M. Forster takes apart the machinery of fiction in this collection of Cambridge University lectures from 1927. He skips chronological literary history, which he dismisses as fake scholarship, and instead examines what all English novels share: story, people, plot, fantasy, prophecy, pattern, and rhythm. Forster writes in plain language that feels like conversation rather than academic prose. He makes gentle provocations, noting that critics who dislike Dickens have good reasons since "he ought to be bad." The book reveals how writers transform simple dialogue into living characters and meaningful stories. Forster believes novels hide their secrets from formal criticism but reveal themselves to casual, commonsense approaches. His humanist perspective on literature may seem old fashioned now, but readers still connect with his fiction and the principles he describes here. The lectures offer practical insight into how novels create their effects and why some stories endure while others fade.
Genres: literary-fiction, 20th-century, criticism, academic
Vibes: intimate, lyrical, thought-provoking
Tropes: academic, non-fiction
Setting: Cambridge University
Period: 1927
127 pages · Hardcover · Hodder & Stoughton with Edward Arnold