Creating literature out of life
Subtitle: the making of four masterpieces
By: Doris Alexander.
Publisher: Pennsylvania State University Press
Published: 1996
Place of publication: University Park, Pa
Language: eng
Number of pages: 253
Subjects: Literature, Comparative; Creation (Literary, artistic, etc.); Literature -- Psychological aspects
Description: 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 Death in Venice, Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, Edward FitzGerald's The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam and Lev Tolstoy's War and Peace.

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. Creating Literature Out of Life tells the exciting story of how Mann, Stevenson, FitzGerald, and Tolstoy fought out their major life battles in their works.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [173]-245) and index.
Table of contents: title: Death in Venice; title: Treasure Island; title: The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám; title: War and peace.