Lives of the novelists
Subtitle: a history of fiction in 294 lives
By: John Sutherland
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2012
Place of publication: New Haven
Language: eng
Number of pages: 818
ISBN-13: 9780300179477
Subjects: English Novelists; English fiction; American fiction; History and criticism; Biography; Fiction
Description: No previous author has attempted a book such as this: a complete history of novels written in the English language, from the genre's seventeenth-century origins to the present day. In the spirit of Dr. Johnson's Lives of the Poets, acclaimed critic and scholar John Sutherland selects 294 writers whose works illustrate the best of every kind of fiction--from gothic, penny dreadful, and pornography to fantasy, romance, and high literature. Each author was chosen, Professor Sutherland explains, because his or her books are well worth reading and are likely to remain so for at least another century. Sutherland presents these authors in chronological order, in each case deftly combining a lively and informative biographical sketch with an opinionated assessment of the writer's work. Taken together, these novelists provide both a history of the novel and a guide to its rich variety. Always entertaining, and sometimes shocking, Sutherland considers writers as diverse as Daniel Defoe, Henry James, James Joyce, Edgar Allan Poe, Virginia Woolf, Michael Crichton, Jeffrey Archer, and Jacqueline Susann.
Notes: "First published in Great Britain in 2011 by Profile Books Ltd."--T.p. verso.

Includes bibliographical references and index.