Aspects of the Novel

What happens when one of the twentieth century's greatest novelists turns his attention to understanding what novels actually are? This book is the result: a series of witty, incisive lectures delivered at Cambridge in 1927, now a landmark of literary criticism. Forster approaches fiction not as an academic dissecting specimens, but as a working novelist sharing hard-won secrets. He examines seven fundamental aspects of the novel, story, people, plot, fantasy, prophecy, pattern, and rhythm, using examples ranging from Dickens and Tolstoy to his own work. His critical voice is distinctive: provocative ("Those who dislike Dickens have an excellent case. He ought to be bad"), funny, and surprisingly intimate. These lectures retain their spoken immediacy, creating the sense of a brilliant conversation rather than a formal treatise. Anyone who has ever wondered why a particular story seized them, or how a novelist actually constructs that seizure, will find answers here that remain startlingly fresh.