The Writing of Fiction (Warbler Classics Annotated Edition)

By Edith Wharton

Book Overview

Edith Wharton's The Writing of Fiction offers a master class in crafting both short stories and novels. Wharton, renowned for her adept handling of plot and nuanced character development, delineates the principles guiding her literary endeavors. Wharton's slender, practical, and witty guide is essential reading for both writers and literature enthusiasts alike. As perceptive as it is instructive, it enriches writers' understanding and enhances readers' appreciation and enjoyment of literature. Wharton examines the fundamental components of fiction writing, basic elements of storytelling, and essential approaches to character, motivation, and plot. She concludes with a brief, lively analysis of the work of Marcel Proust. This Warbler Classics edition includes an extensive biographical timeline of Edith Wharton's life and work.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1962572706
• ISBN13: 9781962572705
• Release Date: May 2024
• Publisher: Warbler Classics
• Length: 110 Pages
• Weight: 0.33 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.5" x 8.5"

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."