An interesting look at some aspects of fiction.

The difference between just telling events and having cause and effect. The use of flat characters. Fantasy, which just brushes on the edge of the genre as we know it.

Some parts I didn't like -- like his unexplained contempt for pure story. And the writer may find it a bit abstract.

E.M. Forster's book, "Aspects of the Novel" is fascinating.
The book has been compiled from a series of lectures he delivered on the topic.

It harks back to a time when writing was lyrical, compared to the things we read today. You must create time to read books like this. I am going to repeat - you must create the time, and not merely have the time.

He has covered various aspects of the novel - the characters, the plot, fantasy and more. While doing so, he has also compared how different writers have dealt with these aspects.

It helps if you have some familiarity with Dostoevsky, Proust, Tolstoy, Bronte, Joyce, HG Well, Henry James etc.

Read the book, because of way he has dealt with the subject, and also because of the sheer joy that you will get from the book.

ik weet niet precies waarom ik dit vrijwillig gelezen heb maar prima hoor

This isn’t really a guide to the novel, nor does it claim to be, simply Forster’s thoughts on the subject. Delivered almost verbatim from his series of Clark lectures, it comes across as humorous and insightful and the book is so easy to read you forget that it was written almost one hundred years ago, until Forster mentions a classic such as “To the Lighthouse” as being “Virginia Woolf’s latest” or “Ulysses” as that new book from James Joyce everyone is talking about..

did not quite understand the lectures on fantasy and prophecy, but interesting nonetheless. the conclusion is of particular interest on the future of the novel

When it came to looking for a quick read to finish off the year and hit my Goodreads target I came across this slim volume that I had started earlier in the year and left a bookmark in when other reading projects called on my attention.

As a reading experience it alternated between "hell yeah" resonances and allusions that soared over my head. Throughout, though it was gorgeously written and with a lightly comical touch and only one occasion where I found myself reaching for the dictionary. So accessible for vocabulary if not always for concept.

Forster explores themes of story, plot and character, of fantasy, prophecy and pattern or rhythm with a deft certainty, and holds up examples of contemporary (to him) and classic literature to illustrate his points. The kind of book I will have to let marinade in my memory and maybe dip back in to see if my marginal notes still strike me with the same lightning bolt of insight that they did at the time.

Loved it to bits... Not necessarily for what he says or thinks or concludes (when he does so, which isn't often, since he's always undercutting and sabotaging any hint of a clear "theoretical" position, in favour of a certain not always certain eclecticism), but for how he thinks and especially how he says it, which is kind of a combination of fussy Edwardian uncle and the mordant, dry wit of an early Aldous Huxley protagonist and the vast resourcefulness and latitudinarian magnanimity of the best Oxbridge tutor imaginable.

Immediately starting a much slower re-read and ordering those other books of his that I haven't read (most, that is... I've only read A Room With a View and A Passage to India, both years ago).

Update: This deserved a second reading because our critic has never been programmatic; he is rather eclectic but also in a most important, specific way: rather than lecturing us as a critic looking down at the novel form. ex cathedra-lly, or from an outsider's point of view, he has let his reading of novels guide him, inductively as it were, to making...well, not conclusions exactly, nor even clearly elucidated "principles" of composition, but rather he is content merely to note and ruminate upon certain...tendencies in novels he admires, novels which have about them the aura of having issued from the preoccupations of a unique creative mind and which are illustrative of one or more aspect of the totality of the form.

Those aspects are more or less adequately described by his chapter titles:


And here he is, for example, on what makes Tristram Shandy such a paragon of that aspect he chooses to call (not helpfully, perhaps as later literary history would prove) "fantasy":


And here is him on Moby Dick, his prime exponent of fantasy's obverse, the "prophetic":

The point is not whether we agree or disagree with him (for me the record was A:D = 80:20), but to watch a true master of the form wrestle with his own perplexities at the manifold nature of his art, and attempt to speak allusively, acutely, and intimately about it by turns, from the inside-out. Wonderful. There should be more books like this

One of the best books about what a writer does. Originally a series of lectures. Clear, concise, vivid, and true.

Terzo nella mia classifica "scrittura e teoria letteraria" nel 2024.

Articolo intero sul blog: https://attanasioscrive.it/articoli/c...

A very enjoyable, relaxed look at the art of novel-writing, offering much food for thought and many paragraphs that I wanted to highlight or dog-ear. (I shall have to purchase my own copy for that.) Though much of it is, clearly, one writer's personal opinion, most of it seems to be based on good taste and common sense, and I often found myself agreeing with Forster's conclusions. I like his emphasis on the reader's enjoyment and experience of a book, rather than strict structure or over-detailed analysis—for instance, it was refreshing to read his opinion that multiple points of view and/or switching to different points of view are entirely acceptable, so long as the author is able to "bounce" the reader so thoroughly into the world of their story that the changes are not noticed.

The brief treatment of love in fiction seemed a bit cynical to me; it's probably true that love is given a bit more heightened attention in fiction than it is in everyday life, but considering that human relationships are, after all, one of the major components of fiction, I think love in one form or another, whether romantic or otherwise, rightfully plays a key part. The chapters on "Fantasy" and "Prophecy" are also bit windy and involved, but the rest I very much enjoyed. I'd definitely recommend it to writers, as a thoughtful read that provides a welcome contrast to the many strict how-to manuals and articles we're swamped with today.

I read a book! I chipped away at this one, read some passages more than once, and I confess — there were parts I didn't quite understand.

Okay, I exaggerate: "didn't quite understand" should really say, There were parts I did not understand at all.

Forster uses many novels as examples, and I was always grateful when it was a book I had read. There are authors, such as "George Meredith", who seem to have been popular back in the day but have now fallen out of favour. Others, such as the Tolstoy, George Eliot, and Dostoyevsky, remain well-known.

When I read something I can't quite grasp, I try to reach out a little further, stretch out towards the mystery, and imagine I might actually be able to touch some of Morgan's wit and wisdom. Touching is not the same as grasping, but one does what one can.

Definitely written a hundred years ago lol