The Art of Fiction, By David Lodge

Problem with the narrator? Let's take a look under the bonnet...

The articles collected in Vintage's new edition of The Art of Fiction appeared in this newspaper from 1991-92.

In them, David Lodge deconstructs the novelist's craft, taking in concepts such as stream of consciousness, intertextuality and the unreliable narrator, and illustrating each topic with an extract from a major work. Lodge's selections are somewhat conservative, but his analyses are persuasive.

He eschews the esoteric tendency of literary theory and writes in an accessible mode, combining the insights of a seasoned scholar with the lapidary prose of a fine journalist. His approach has worn well: these essays are as fresh and as readable as ever.