The Writing of Fiction

By Edith Wharton

Book Overview

The Writing of Fiction by Edith Wharton is a masterful meditation on the art and architecture of storytelling, penned by one of America's most astute literary minds. With characteristic elegance and precision, Wharton explores the structural integrity of the novel, the moral dimensions of narrative, and the subtle alchemy of character and style. Drawing from both classical traditions and her own formidable career, she illuminates the inner workings of fiction with a voice that is at once rigorous, refined, and deeply human. More than a manual, this is a work of literary criticism steeped in insight and cultivated sensibility-a rare and enduring testament to fiction's highest aspirations.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1515466817
• ISBN13: 9781515466819
• Release Date: August 2025
• Publisher: Sublime Books
• Length: 64 Pages
• Weight: 0.57 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

a classic writing guide

This classic guide to the art of writing is as thought-provoking now as it must have been upon publication in 1924. In erudite prose, Edith Wharton describes the general aspects of fiction, going far beyond the surface to touch deep veins often unseen by casual readers. Using examples from the classics, she analyzes the methods of telling a short story and constructing a novel. She contrasts novels of character, such as Emma, with novels of situation, such as The Scarlet Letter, and discusses novels that weld the two types. The last chapter of the book analyzes the works of the great French author, Marcel Proust. By studying this book and the works it refers to, one may perhaps develop the ability, demonstrated by Proust, "to reveal, by a single allusion, a word, an image, those depths of soul beyond the soul's own guessing."