In what ways does the opening of a novel relate to the narrative that unfolds from it? What are the different approaches to close reading a page of prose fiction? How does reading a text for a second time affect our understanding of the significance of its opening? In this unique book, Peter Childs discusses the opening lines of 24 widely-studied literary texts from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries. These analyses amount to both an overview of modes of fiction over the last 300 years and also a guide to techniques ...
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In what ways does the opening of a novel relate to the narrative that unfolds from it? What are the different approaches to close reading a page of prose fiction? How does reading a text for a second time affect our understanding of the significance of its opening? In this unique book, Peter Childs discusses the opening lines of 24 widely-studied literary texts from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries. These analyses amount to both an overview of modes of fiction over the last 300 years and also a guide to techniques of close reading. The extracts are taken from the work of novelists ranging from Jane Austen to Salman Rushdie. This stimulating and illuminating book will be a useful text for undergraduates studying the novel and involved in critical appreciation and close textual analysis. Texts discussed: Robinson Crusoe , Tristram Shandy , Pride and Prejudice , Frankenstein , Jane Eyre , Wuthering Heights , Great Expectations , Silas Marner , Tess of the D'urbervilles , The Turn of the Screw , Heart of Darkness , The Good Soldier , A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man , The Life and Death of Harriet Frean , A Passage to India , Mrs Dalloway , Brave New World , The Road to Wigan Pier , Goodbye to Berlin , Under the Volcano , Wide Sargasso Sea , The Bloody Chamber , Shame and The Buddha of Suburbia .
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