The Art of Fiction by David Lodge - Parts 1 - 10

 

This is the book I chose following the recent death of David Lodge. I had read most of his novels so it had to be non fiction. If the preface is anything to go by, I'm in for a treat over these fifty chapters. Each starts with a short extract from a novel or two, and the author goes on to explain it's particular features.

1 Beginning

Emma by Jane Austen (1816)  and The Good Soldier by Ford Maddox Ford (1915).

So when does a novel begin? How long is the beginning? David Lodge says it should "draw us in". ("Not an easy task"). Both extracts show how we are "hooked" from the start. After dissecting each in turn, Lodge gives us examples of the many ways of starting a novel such as Brighton Rock ("Hale knew before he had been in Brighton for three hours that they meant to murder him")  and James Joyce's Finnegan's Wake that starts in the middle of a sentence.

2 The Intrusive Author

Adam Beade by George Eliot (1859) and Howard's End by E M Forster (1910).

Not so prevalent today (when the novel directly addresses the reader) as around the turn of the century "the intrusive authorial voice fell into disfavour". Personally, I don't mind it.

3 Suspense

A Pair of Blue Eyes by Thomas Hardy (1873).

It was only when I read Lodge's explanation of the extract did I fully understand what was happening. So you really need context when reading such a short extract. But the book sounds great, set as it is in North Cornwall.

4 Teenage Skaz

The Catcher in the Rye by J D Salinger (1951).

Here Lodge is talking about the main character. "The feature's of Holden's narrative style in the first person (Skaz) is that it makes it sound like speech, and a teenager's speech at that". I love that type of prose. "You should have seen the way they said Hello". And lots more examples. "The informality of Holden's discourse is the guarantee of his spontaneity and authenticity". It is only "this style that makes the book interesting" and so a "pleasure to read and re-read".  

5  The Epistolary Novel.

The Trick of It by Michael Frayn (1989).

Yes, there are a lot of clever words in this book, many of which I have had to look up as I did here. "Novels in the form of letters". If like in this book you are addressing one particular person, you know who they are and what that reaction might be, so colouring your thoughts. "The narrator must vividly convey the comedy of his plight, but he cannot be allowed true eloquence, for that would contradict his inability to master "the trick of it" (i.e. writing fiction). that has already been mastered by the heroine in the book. 

6 Point of View

What Masie Knew by Henry James (1897).

Maisie is a child and although the book is written from her point of view, it needs "a naïve viewpoint articulated in a mature style: elegant, complex, subtle". It "makes reading James a strenuous but rewarding experience. Lodge breaks down that long first sentence to demonstrate how it restricts the narrative to one point of view. (Again Lodge uses words like parallelism and antithesis that he would never use in one of his books). 

7 Mystery

Mrs Bathurst by Rudyard Kipling (1904). 

Mystery or enigma ("how did she do it") is different to the previous piece on Suspense ("what will happen"). Those novels of Charles Dickens and Willkie Collins led eventually to the classic detective stories. In Mrs Bathurst the disappearance of a British sailor is the whole basis of the story.

Two books by this author on my shelves. Just So Stories, a present from my father's mother (Gran) for Christmas 1950 when I'm six, and Thy Servant a Dog from my parents for my seventh birthday in 1951.

8 Names

How Far Can You Go by David Lodge (1980).

Nice Work by David Lodge (1988).

City of Glass by Paul Auster (1985).

I was not impressed with the first book even though it won the Whitbread Prize. I was bored by it's "dissertation on the relevance of Catholicism". Lodge quotes Shakespeare with "a rose by any other name would smell as sweet", but what was Henry James doing to call one of his characters Fanny Assingham? But Lodge Tells us "novel names are never neutral ...... they always signify even if just ordinariness". he goes on to talk about the difficulty in sorting out the names for the first of those two books. Auster's piece comes from one of three novellas that make up New York Trilogy of which Ghosts has characters just with names of colours. 

9 The Stream of Consciousness

 Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Wolfe (1925). 

Not a fan of Ms Wolfe. Although Lodge tells us she gives "imaginative access to the inner lives of other human beings, even if they are fiction". He quotes a phrase by William James "to characterize the continuous flow of thought and sensation in the human mind" and that "it renders thought as reported speech". Such as "Mrs Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself". But this is not explained. 

10 Interior Monologue

Ulysses by James Joyce (1922).

Is this book still on every school curriculum? I hope not. Only different to the previous part by use of the first person. Lodge says "We become acquainted with the principle characters  not by being told about them, but by sharing their most intimate thoughts". Apparently very difficult to use successfully. An example of when the main character leaves his house: "All right till I come back any hour".