{"product_id":"the-novel-a-biography-9780674724730","title":"The Novel: A Biography","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe 700-year history of the novel in English defies straightforward telling. Geographically and culturally boundless, with contributions from Great Britain, Ireland, America, Canada, Australia, India, the Caribbean, and Southern Africa; influenced by great novelists working in other languages; and encompassing a range of genres, the story of the novel in English unfolds like a richly varied landscape that invites exploration rather than a linear journey. In \u003ci\u003eThe Novel: A Biography, \u003c\/i\u003eMichael Schmidt does full justice to its complexity. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eLike his hero Ford Madox Ford in \u003ci\u003eThe March of Literature\u003c\/i\u003e, Schmidt chooses as his traveling companions not critics or theorists but artist practitioners, men and women who feel hot love for the books they admire, and fulminate against those they dislike. It is their insights Schmidt cares about. Quoting from the letters, diaries, reviews, and essays of novelists and drawing on their biographies, Schmidt invites us into the creative dialogues between authors and between books, and suggests how these dialogues have shaped the development of the novel in English. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eSchmidt believes there is something fundamentally subversive about art: he portrays the novel as a liberalizing force and a revolutionary stimulus. But whatever purpose the novel serves in a given era, a work endures not because of its subject, themes, political stance, or social aims but because of its language, its sheer invention, and its resistance to cliché--some irreducible quality that keeps readers coming back to its pages.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Belknap Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 05\/12\/2014\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780674724730\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 1200\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 4.05lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 10.35h x 6.87w x 2.18d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e 03\/01\/2014\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e 04\/01\/2014 pg. 92\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e 08\/10\/2014 pg. 17\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChoice\u003c\/i\u003e 11\/01\/2014 pg. 440\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eBooks \u0026amp; Culture\u003c\/i\u003e 11\/01\/2015 pg. 32\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Michael Schmidt","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42916958437557,"sku":"9780674724730","price":33.96,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_09893833-96ba-45b0-8c2d-416e31f12cdb.jpg?v=1687274434","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/the-novel-a-biography-9780674724730","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}