{{Infobox book , , name = Reading Like a Writer , title_orig = , translator = , image = Readinglikeawriter.jpg , caption = Cover of the first edition , author =

Francine Prose Francine Prose (born April 1, 1947) is an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and critic. She is a visiting professor of literature at Bard College, and was formerly president of PEN American Center. Life and career Born in Brookl ...

, illustrator = , cover_artist = Roberto de Viqde Cumptich , country = United States , language = English , series = , genre =

Nonfiction Nonfiction, or non-fiction, is any document or media content that attempts, in good faith, to provide information (and sometimes opinions) grounded only in facts and real life, rather than in imagination. Nonfiction is often associated with be ...

, publisher =

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Cor ...

, release_date = 2006 , english_release_date = , media_type = Print ( Hardback) , pages = 275 pp , isbn = 0-06-077704-4 , dewey= 808/.02 22 , congress= PE1408 .P774 2006 , oclc= 62762325 ''Reading Like a Writer'' is a writing guide by American writer

, published in 2006.

Background

Subtitled "A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them," — Prose shares how she developed her writing craft through writing and reading. She uses examples from literature to demonstrate how fictional elements, such as character and

dialogue Dialogue (sometimes spelled dialog in American English) is a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people, and a literary and theatrical form that depicts such an exchange. As a philosophical or didactic device, it is c ...

, can be mastered.

Summary

* ''Chapter One: Close Reading'' Prose discusses the question of whether writing can be taught. She answers the question by suggesting that although writing workshops can be helpful, the best way to learn to write is to read. Closely reading books, Prose studied word choice and sentence construction. Close reading helped her solve difficult obstacles in her own writing. * ''Chapter Two: Words'' Prose encourages the reader to slow down and read every word. She reminds the reader that words are the "raw material out of which literature is crafted." Challenging the reader to stop at every word, she suggests the following question be asked: "What is the writer trying to convey with this word?" * ''Chapter Three: Sentences'' Prose discusses how "the well made sentence transcends time and genre." She believes the writer who is concerned about what constitutes a well-constructed sentence is on the right path. Prose mentions the importance of mastering

grammar In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structure, structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clause (linguistics), clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraint ...

and how it can improve the quality of a writer's sentence. In this chapter, she also discusses the use of long sentences, short sentences, and rhythm in

prose Prose is a form of written or spoken language that follows the natural flow of speech, uses a language's ordinary grammatical structures, or follows the conventions of formal academic writing. It differs from most traditional poetry, where the f ...

. * ''Chapter Four: Paragraphs'' Prose discusses that, just as with sentence construction, the writer who is concerned about paragraph construction is stepping in the right direction. She states that the writer who reads widely will discover there are no general rules for building a well-constructed paragraph, but "only individual examples to help point

he writer He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...

in a direction in which

might want to go." * ''Chapter Five: Narration'' When determining point of view, Prose says audience is an important factor. She gives examples from literature of point-of-view variations. First person and third person are discussed, and even an example of writing fiction in second person is given. * ''Chapter Six: Character'' Using examples from the works of Heinrich von Kleist and

Jane Austen Jane Austen (; 16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist known primarily for her six major novels, which interpret, critique, and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Austen's plots of ...

, Prose discusses how writers can develop characterization. She mentions that Kleist, in his "The Marquise of O—" ignores physical description of the characters, but instead "tells us just as much as we need to know about his characters, then releases them into the narrative that doesn't stop spinning until the last sentence . . ." Excerpts from other pieces of literature are used to show how action, dialogue and even physical description can help develop characterization. * ''Chapter Seven: Dialogue'' Prose begins this chapter by dispelling the advice that writers should improve and clean up dialogue so it sounds less caustic than actual speech. She believes this idea on dialogue can be taken too far and that dialogue can be used to reveal not only the words on the surface, but the many motivations and emotions of the characters underneath the words. * ''Chapter Eight: Details'' Using examples from literature, Prose explains how one or two important details can leave a more memorable impression on the reader than a barrage of description. * ''Chapter Nine: Gestures'' Prose argues that gestures performed by fictional characters should not be "physical clichés" but illuminations that move the narrative. * ''Chapter Ten: Learning from Chekhov'' Prose gives examples of what she has learned from reading

Anton Chekhov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; 29 January 1860 Old Style date 17 January. – 15 July 1904 Old Style date 2 July.) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer who is considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career ...

. As a creative writing teacher, she would disseminate advice to her students after reading their stories. As a fan of Chekhov, she would read his short stories and find examples of how he would successfully break the "rules" of fiction writing, contradicting something she recently told her students to do in their writing projects. Prose also discusses how Chekhov teaches the writer to write without judgment; she tells how Chekhov practiced not being the "judge of one's characters and their conversations but rather the unbiased observer." * ''Chapter Eleven: Reading for Courage'' Prose discusses the fears writers may have: revealing too much of themselves in their writing; resisting the pressures that writers must write a certain way; determining whether or not the act of writing is worth it when one considers the state of the world. She concludes her book by stating that the writer may fear creating "weeds" instead of "roses." Continuing the

metaphor A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are often compared wit ...

, she says reading is a way for the writer to see how other gardeners grow their roses. * ''Books to Be Read Immediately'' Prose includes a list of book recommendations, many of which have selections from those that are used as examples for the concepts she discusses.

Books to be Read

Here are the books in mostly chronological order. The chapters in which they are discussed are in italics. *

Sophocles Sophocles (; grc, Σοφοκλῆς, , Sophoklễs; 497/6 – winter 406/5 BC)Sommerstein (2002), p. 41. is one of three ancient Greek tragedians, at least one of whose plays has survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or co ...

(trans. Sir George Young)

Oedipus Rex ''Oedipus Rex'', also known by its Greek title, ''Oedipus Tyrannus'' ( grc, Οἰδίπους Τύραννος, ), or ''Oedipus the King'', is an Athenian tragedy by Sophocles that was first performed around 429 BC. Originally, to the ancient Gr ...

* Anonymous (trans.

Dorothy L. Sayers Dorothy Leigh Sayers (; 13 June 1893 – 17 December 1957) was an English crime writer and poet. She was also a student of classical and modern languages. She is best known for her mysteries, a series of novels and short stories set between th ...

)

The Song of Roland ''The Song of Roland'' (french: La Chanson de Roland) is an 11th-century ''chanson de geste'' based on the Frankish military leader Roland at the Battle of Roncevaux Pass in 778 AD, during the reign of the Carolingian king Charlemagne. It is t ...

* Miguel de Cervantes (trans.

Tobias Smollett Tobias George Smollett (baptised 19 March 1721 – 17 September 1771) was a Scottish poet and author. He was best known for picaresque novels such as ''The Adventures of Roderick Random'' (1748), ''The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle'' (1751) a ...

) Don Quixote *

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

King Lear ''King Lear'' is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare. It is based on the mythological Leir of Britain. King Lear, in preparation for his old age, divides his power and land between two of his daughters. He becomes destitute and insane an ...

John Milton John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was an English poet and intellectual. His 1667 epic poem '' Paradise Lost'', written in blank verse and including over ten chapters, was written in a time of immense religious flux and political ...

Paradise Lost ''Paradise Lost'' is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton (1608–1674). The first version, published in 1667, consists of ten books with over ten thousand lines of verse (poetry), verse. A second edition fo ...

* Samuel Richardson Pamela: Or Virtue Rewarded *

Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. The ''Oxford ...

The Life of Savage ''Sentences'' *

Edward Gibbon Edward Gibbon (; 8 May 173716 January 1794) was an English historian, writer, and member of parliament. His most important work, ''The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'', published in six volumes between 1776 and 1788, is k ...

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire *

Sense and Sensibility ''Sense and Sensibility'' is a novel by Jane Austen, published in 1811. It was published anonymously; ''By A Lady'' appears on the title page where the author's name might have been. It tells the story of the Dashwood sisters, Elinor (age 19) a ...

''Paragraphs'' ''Character'' * Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice ''Pride and Prejudice'' is an 1813 novel of manners by Jane Austen. The novel follows the character development of Elizabeth Bennet, the dynamic protagonist of the book who learns about the repercussions of hasty judgments and comes to appreci ...

''Paragraphs'' ''Character'' * Heinrich von Kleist (trans. Martin Greenberg) The Marquise of O---- and Other Stories ''Sentences'' ''Character'' *

Stendhal Marie-Henri Beyle (; 23 January 1783 – 23 March 1842), better known by his pen name Stendhal (, ; ), was a 19th-century French writer. Best known for the novels ''Le Rouge et le Noir'' (''The Red and the Black'', 1830) and ''La Chartreuse de P ...

(trans. Roger Gard) The Red and the Black ''Paragraphs'' * Honore de Balzac (trans. Kathleen Raine)

Cousin Bette ''La Cousine Bette'' (, ''Cousin Bette'') is an 1846 novel by French author Honoré de Balzac. Set in mid-19th-century Paris, it tells the story of an unmarried middle-aged woman who plots the destruction of her extended family. Bette works wit ...

Nikolai Gogol Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol; uk, link=no, Мико́ла Васи́льович Го́голь, translit=Mykola Vasyliovych Hohol; (russian: Яновский; uk, Яновський, translit=Yanovskyi) ( – ) was a Russian novelist, ...

(trans. Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky) Dead Souls: A Novel ''Courage'' *

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...

Dombey and Son ''Narration'' * Charles Dickens Bleak House *

Emily Bronte Emily may refer to: * Emily (given name), including a list of people with the name Music * "Emily" (1964 song), title song by Johnny Mandel and Johnny Mercer to the film ''The Americanization of Emily'' * "Emily" (Dave Koz song), a 1990 song ...

Wuthering Heights * Ivan Turgenev (trans.

Isaiah Berlin Sir Isaiah Berlin (6 June 1909 – 5 November 1997) was a Russian-British social and political theorist, philosopher, and historian of ideas. Although he became increasingly averse to writing for publication, his improvised lectures and talks ...

) First Love * George Eliot Middlemarch ''Character'' *

Herman Melville Herman Melville (Name change, born Melvill; August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American people, American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance (literature), American Renaissance period. Among his bes ...

Bartleby, the Scrivener "Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street" is a short story by the American writer Herman Melville, first serialized anonymously in two parts in the November and December 1853 issues of ''Putnam's Magazine'' and reprinted with minor text ...

''Paragraphs'' * Herman Melville Moby Dick * Herman Melville Benito Cereno *

Gustave Flaubert Gustave Flaubert ( , , ; 12 December 1821 – 8 May 1880) was a French novelist. Highly influential, he has been considered the leading exponent of literary realism in his country. According to the literary theorist Kornelije Kvas, "in Flauber ...

(trans. Geoffrey Wall) Madame Bovary ''Courage'' * Gustave Flaubert (trans. Robert Baldick)

Sentimental Education ''Sentimental Education'' (French: ''L'Éducation sentimentale'', 1869) is a novel by Gustave Flaubert. Considered one of the most influential novels of the 19th century, it was praised by contemporaries such as George Sand and Émile Zola, but ...

''Character'' *

Fyodor Dostoyevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (, ; rus, Фёдор Михайлович Достоевский, Fyódor Mikháylovich Dostoyévskiy, p=ˈfʲɵdər mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪdʑ dəstɐˈjefskʲɪj, a=ru-Dostoevsky.ogg, links=yes; 11 November 18219 ...

(trans. Constance Garnett) Crime and Punishment ''Narration'' ''Courage'' *

Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-refor ...

(trans. David McDuff)

The Kreutzer Sonata ''The Kreutzer Sonata'' (russian: Крейцерова соната, ) is a novella by Leo Tolstoy, named after Beethoven's Violin Sonata No. 9 (Beethoven), Kreutzer Sonata. The novella was published in 1889, and was promptly censored by the Rus ...

and Other Stories * Leo Tolstoy (trans. Aylmer Maude)

The Death of Ivan Ilych ''The Death of Ivan Ilyich'' (also Romanized ''Ilich, Ilych, Ilyitch''; russian: Смерть Ивана Ильича, Smert' Ivána Ilyicha), first published in 1886, is a novella by Leo Tolstoy, considered one of the masterpieces of his late f ...

and Other Stories ''Courage'' * Leo Tolstoy (trans. Constance Garnett) Anna Karenina * Leo Tolstoy (trans. Constance Garnett) War and Peace * Leo Tolstoy (trans. Rosemary Edmonds)

Resurrection Resurrection or anastasis is the concept of coming back to life after death. In a number of religions, a dying-and-rising god is a deity which dies and is resurrected. Reincarnation is a similar process hypothesized by other religions, which ...

Louisa May Alcott Louisa May Alcott (; November 29, 1832March 6, 1888) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet best known as the author of the novel ''Little Women'' (1868) and its sequels ''Little Men'' (1871) and ''Jo's Boys'' (1886). Raised in ...

Little Women ''Little Women'' is a coming-of-age novel written by American novelist Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888). Alcott wrote the book, originally published in two volumes in 1868 and 1869, at the request of her publisher. The story follows the lives ...

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has p ...

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ''Narration'' * James Baldwin Vintage Baldwin ''Paragraphs'' *

Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...

The Portrait of a Lady ''The Portrait of a Lady'' is a novel by Henry James, first published as a serial in ''The Atlantic Monthly'' and ''Macmillan's Magazine'' in 1880–81 and then as a book in 1881. It is one of James's most popular novels and is regarded by cri ...

''Gesture'' * Henry James The Turn of the Screw ''Narration'' * Anton Chekhov (trans. Constance Garnett) Tales of Anton Chekhov: Volumes 1-13 ''Detail'' ''Gesture'' ''Chekhov'' ''Courage'' * Anton Chekhov (trans. Constance Garnett) A Life in Letters ''Detail'' * William Strunk The Elements of Style, Illustrated ''Sentences'' *

Marcel Proust Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust (; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, critic, and essayist who wrote the monumental novel ''In Search of Lost Time'' (''À la recherche du temps perdu''; with the previous Eng ...

(trans. Lydia Davis)

Swann's Way ''In Search of Lost Time'' (french: À la recherche du temps perdu), first translated into English as ''Remembrance of Things Past'', and sometimes referred to in French as ''La Recherche'' (''The Search''), is a novel in seven volumes by French ...

''Gesture'' * Gertrude Stein

The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas ''The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas'' is a book by Gertrude Stein, written in October and November 1932 and published in 1933. It employs the form of an autobiography authored by Alice B. Toklas, her life partner. In 1998, Modern Library r ...

''Sentences'' *

Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born i ...

On Being Ill ''On Being Ill'' is an essay by Virginia Woolf, which seeks to establish illness as a serious subject of literature along the lines of love, jealousy and battle. Woolf writes about the isolation, loneliness, and vulnerability that disease may bri ...

''Sentences'' *

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...

Dubliners ''Sentences'' ''Gesture'' *

Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It ...

(trans. Malcolm Pasley)

Metamorphosis Metamorphosis is a biological process by which an animal physically develops including birth or hatching, involving a conspicuous and relatively abrupt change in the animal's body structure through cell growth and differentiation. Some inse ...

and Other Stories ''Detail'' * Franz Kafka The Judgement ''Gesture'' * Franz Kafka

In the Penal Colony "In the Penal Colony" ("") (also translated as "In the Penal Settlement") is a short story by Franz Kafka written in German in October 1914, revised in November 1918, and first published in October 1919. As in some of Kafka's other writings, the ...

* Rex Stout

Plot It Yourself ''Plot It Yourself'' (British title ''Murder in Style'') is a Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout, published by the Viking Press in 1959, and also collected in the omnibus volume ''Kings Full of Aces'' (Viking 1969). Plot introduction A gro ...

''Paragraphs'' * Katherine Mansfield Collected Stories of Katherine Mansfield ''Words'' ''Gesture'' *

Raymond Chandler Raymond Thornton Chandler (July 23, 1888 – March 26, 1959) was an American-British novelist and screenwriter. In 1932, at the age of forty-four, Chandler became a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive durin ...

The Big Sleep ''Sentences'' ''Gesture'' * Ryunosuke Akutagawa (trans. M. Kuwata and Tashaki Kojima)

Rashomon is a 1950 Jidaigeki psychological thriller/crime film directed and written by Akira Kurosawa, working in close collaboration with cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa. Starring Toshiro Mifune, Machiko Kyō, Masayuki Mori (actor), Masayuki Mori, and ...

and Other Stories * Konstantin Paustovsky Years of Hope: The Story of a Life ''Paragraphs'' *

Rebecca West Dame Cicily Isabel Fairfield (21 December 1892 – 15 March 1983), known as Rebecca West, or Dame Rebecca West, was a British author, journalist, literary critic and travel writer. An author who wrote in many genres, West reviewed books ...

The Birds Fall Down ''Sentences'' * Rebecca West Black Lamb and Grey Falcon: A Journey Through Yugoslavia ''Sentences'' * Isaac Babel (trans. Walter Morrison) The Collected Stories ''Paragraphs'' ''Courage'' *

L. P. Hartley Leslie Poles Hartley (30 December 1895 – 13 December 1972) was a British novelist and short story writer. Although his first fiction was published in 1924, his career was slow to take off. His best-known novels are the '' Eustace and Hilda'' ...

The Go-Between ''The Go-Between'' is a novel by L. P. Hartley published in 1953. His best-known work, it has been adapted several times for stage and screen. The book gives a critical view of society at the end of the Victorian era through the eyes of a naïv ...

''Gesture'' * F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby ''Words'' * F. Scott Fitzgerald Tender is the Night ''Words'' *

Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century fic ...

The Sun Also Rises ''The Sun Also Rises'' is a 1926 novel by American writer Ernest Hemingway, his first, that portrays American and British expatriates who travel from Paris to the Festival of San Fermín in Pamplona to watch the running of the bulls and the bu ...

''Sentences'' * Ernest Hemingway A Moveable Feast ''Sentences'' * Elizabeth Bowen

The House in Paris ''The House in Paris'' is Elizabeth Bowen's fifth novel. It is set in France and Great Britain following World War I, and its action takes place on a single February day in a house in Paris. In that house, two young children—Henrietta and Leopo ...

''Detail'' * Vladimir Nabokov Lectures on Russian Literature ''Chekhov'' * Vladimir Nabokov

Lolita ''Lolita'' is a 1955 novel written by Russian-American novelist Vladimir Nabokov. The novel is notable for its controversial subject: the protagonist and unreliable narrator, a middle-aged literature professor under the pseudonym Humbert Humber ...

''Narration'' ''Dialogue'' * Nadezhda Mandelstam Hope Against Hope: A Memoir ''Words'' *

Christina Stead Christina Stead (17 July 190231 March 1983) was an Australian novelist and short-story writer acclaimed for her satirical wit and penetrating psychological characterisations. Christina Stead was a committed Marxist, although she was never a mem ...

The Man Who Loved Children ''The Man Who Loved Children'' is a 1940 novel by Australian writer Christina Stead. It was not until a reissue edition in 1965, with an introduction by poet Randall Jarrell, that it found widespread critical acclaim and popularity. ''Time'' maga ...

''Dialogue'' * Henry Green Doting ''Dialogue'' * Henry Green Loving ''Dialogue'' *

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish novelist, dramatist, short story writer, theatre director, poet, and literary translator. His literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal and tragicomic expe ...

The Complete Short Prose, 1929-1989 ''Gesture'' ''Courage'' *

Francis Steegmuller Francis Steegmuller (July 3, 1906 – October 20, 1994) was an American biographer, translator and fiction writer, who was known chiefly as a Flaubert scholar. Life and career Born in New Haven, Connecticut, Steegmuller graduated from Columbia Un ...

Flaubert and Madame Bovary: A Double Portrait *

Paul Bowles Paul Frederic Bowles (; December 30, 1910November 18, 1999) was an American expatriate composer, author, and translator. He became associated with the Moroccan city of Tangier, where he settled in 1947 and lived for 52 years to the end of his ...

Collected Stories and Later Writings *

John Cheever John William Cheever (May 27, 1912 – June 18, 1982) was an American short story writer and novelist. He is sometimes called "the Chekhov of the suburbs". His fiction is mostly set in the Upper East Side of Manhattan; the Westchester suburbs; ...

The Stories of John Cheever ''Sentences'' * Randall Jarrell

Pictures from an Institution ''Pictures from an Institution: a Comedy'' is a 1954 novel by American poet Randall Jarrell. It is an academic satire, focusing on the oddities of academic life, in particular the relationships between the characters and their private lives. The ...

Jane Bowles Jane Bowles (; born Jane Sydney Auer; February 22, 1917 – May 4, 1973) was an American writer and playwright. Early life Born into a Jewish family in New York City on February 22, 1917, to Sydney Auer (father) and Claire Stajer (mother), Jane ...

Two Serious Ladies ''Two Serious Ladies'' is a 1943 modernist novel by the American writer Jane Bowles. It follows two upper-class women, Christina Goering and Frieda Copperfield, as they descend into debauchery. Bowles' style is often described as singular. In Fe ...

''Narration'' ''Dialogue'' *

Juan Rulfo Juan Nepomuceno Carlos Pérez Rulfo Vizcaíno, best known as Juan Rulfo ( ; 16 May 1917 – 7 January 1986), was a Mexican writer, screenwriter, and photographer. He is best known for two literary works, the 1955 novel ''Pedro Páramo'', and th ...

(trans. Margaret Sayers Peden) Pedro Páramo ''Courage'' * Peter Taylor

A Summons to Memphis ''A Summons to Memphis'' is a 1986 novel by Peter Taylor that won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1987. It is the recollection of Phillip Carver, a middle aged editor from New York City, who is summoned back to Memphis by his two conniving un ...

''Narration'' *

J. D. Salinger Jerome David Salinger (; January 1, 1919 January 27, 2010) was an American author best known for his 1951 novel ''The Catcher in the Rye''. Salinger got his start in 1940, before serving in World War II, by publishing several short stories in '' ...

Franny and Zooey ''Detail'' * William Gaddis The Recognitions * Mavis Gallant Paris Stories ''Narration'' * Italo Calvino

Cosmicomics ''Cosmicomics'' ( it, Le cosmicomiche) is a collection of twelve short stories by Italo Calvino first published in Italian in 1965 and in English in 1968. The stories were originally published between 1964 and 1965 in the Italian periodicals ''I ...

* Paula Fox

Desperate Characters ''Desperate Characters'' is a 1970 novel by Paula Fox. Plot Sophie and Otto Bentwood are a childless, upper-middle class married couple who live in a brownstone in Brooklyn. She is a translator, he an attorney, currently preoccupied by the acr ...

''Paragraphs'' *

Zbigniew Herbert Zbigniew Herbert (; 29 October 1924 – 28 July 1998) was a Polish poet, essayist, drama writer and moralist. He is one of the best known and the most translated post-war Polish writers. While he was first published in the 1950s (a volume title ...

(trans.

Czesław Miłosz Czesław Miłosz (, also , ; 30 June 1911 – 14 August 2004) was a Polish-American poet, prose writer, translator, and diplomat. Regarded as one of the great poets of the 20th century, he won the 1980 Nobel Prize in Literature. In its citation ...

and

Peter Dale Scott Peter Dale Scott (born 11 January 1929) is a Canadian-born poet, academic, and former diplomat. A son of the Canadian poet and constitutional lawyer F. R. Scott and painter Marian Dale Scott, he is best known for his critiques of deep politics a ...

) Selected Poems ''Courage'' * Flannery O'Connor Wise Blood ''Narration'' ''Gesture'' * Flannery O'Connor A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories ''Words'' * Flannery O'Connor Collected Stories ''Detail'' * Richard Yates

Revolutionary Road ''Revolutionary Road'' is American author Richard Yates's debut novel about 1950s suburban life in the East Coast. It was a finalist for the National Book Award in 1962, along with ''Catch-22'' and ''The Moviegoer''. When published by Atlantic ...

''Words'' * Gabriel García Márquez One Hundred Years of Solitude ''Paragraphs'' * Gabriel García Márquez

The Autumn of the Patriarch ''The Autumn of the Patriarch'' (original Spanish title: ''El otoño del patriarca'') is a novel written by Gabriel García Márquez in 1975. A "poem on the solitude of power" according to the author, the novel is a flowing tract on the life of a ...

''Paragraphs'' * William Trevor The Collected Stories * William Trevor

Fools of Fortune ''Fools of Fortune'' is a 1990 Irish romantic drama film directed by Pat O'Connor and written by Michael Hirst based on the 1983 novel by Irish writer William Trevor. It depicts a Protestant family caught up in the conflict between the Briti ...

* William Trevor

The Children of Dynmouth ''The Children of Dynmouth'' is a 1976 novel written by William Trevor. In 1976, it won the Whitbread Award. Plot summary The plot follows Timothy Gedge, a socially inept yet intrusive teenage boy as he wanders around the dull seaside town of D ...

* Stanley Elkin Searches and Seizures ''Sentences'' *

Harold Brodkey Harold Brodkey (October 25, 1930 – January 26, 1996), born Aaron Roy Weintraub, was an American short-story writer and novelist. Life Brodkey was the second child born in Staunton, Illinois, to Max Weintraub and Celia Glazer Weintraub (1899- ...

Stories in an Almost Classical Mode {{unreferenced, date=December 2009 ''Stories in an Almost Classical Mode'' is a short story collection by the American writer Harold Brodkey, published in 1988 by Alfred A. Knopf. Most of the stories were published in ''The New Yorker'', between 1 ...

''Narration'' ''Dialogue'' * Donald Barthelme

Sixty Stories Sixty Stories is a Canadian three piece, female-fronted indie rock band from Winnipeg, Manitoba. History Sixty Stories formed in 1999. The band's original members included Jo Snyder (guitar, vocals), Kelly Martin (bass), and Paul Furgale (drummer ...

* Alice Munro Selected Stories ''Words'' *

John le Carré David John Moore Cornwell (19 October 193112 December 2020), better known by his pen name John le Carré ( ), was a British and Irish author, best known for his espionage novels, many of which were successfully adapted for film or television. ...

A Perfect Spy ''A Perfect Spy'' (1986) is a novel by British author John le Carré about the mental and moral dissolution of a high-level intelligence-officer. Major aspects of the novel are lifted from the real life of the author, including the relationsh ...

''Dialogue'' *

Philip Roth Philip Milton Roth (March 19, 1933 – May 22, 2018) was an American novelist and short story writer. Roth's fiction—often set in his birthplace of Newark, New Jersey—is known for its intensely autobiographical character, for philosophicall ...

American Pastoral ''American Pastoral'' is a Philip Roth novel published in 1997 concerning Seymour "Swede" Levov, a successful Jewish American businessman and former high school star athlete from Newark, New Jersey. Levov's happy and conventional upper middle cla ...

''Sentences'' * Philip Roth Novels and Stories 1959-1962 ''Gesture'' * Diane Johnson Persian Nights ''Narration'' * Diane Johnson

Le Divorce ''Le Divorce'' is a 2003 romantic comedy-drama film directed by James Ivory from a screenplay by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and Ivory, based on the 1997 novel of the same name by Diane Johnson. Plot Isabel Walker travels to Paris to visit her siste ...

''Narration'' * Thomas Pynchon Gravity's Rainbow * Raymond Carver

Where I'm Calling From "Where I'm Calling From" is a short story by American author Raymond Carver Raymond Clevie Carver Jr. (May 25, 1938 – August 2, 1988) was an American short story writer and poet. He contributed to the revitalization of the American short story ...

: Selected Stories ''Sentences'' ''Paragraphs'' * Raymond Carver

Cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denomination ...

Stuart Dybek Stuart Dybek (born April 10, 1942) is an American writer of fiction and poetry. Biography Dybek, a second-generation Polish American, was born in Chicago, Illinois and raised in Chicago's Little Village and Pilsen neighborhoods in the 1950s a ...

I Sailed with Magellan ''Narration'' * Joy Williams Escapes ''Dialogue'' * Scott Spencer A Ship Made of Paper * Tim O'Brien The Things They Carried ''Sentences'' * Charles Baxter Believers: A Novella and Stories ''Gesture'' *

David Gates David Ashworth Gates (December 11, 1940 – January 5, 2023) was a American singer-songwriter, guitarist, musician and producer, frontman and co-lead singer (with Jimmy Griffin) of the group Bread, which reached the top of the musical charts i ...

The Wonders of the Invisible World: Stories ''Dialogue'' *

Denis Johnson Denis Hale Johnson (July 1, 1949 – May 24, 2017) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and poet. He is perhaps best known for his debut short story collection, '' Jesus' Son'' (1992). His most successful novel, ''Tree of Smoke'' (2007) ...

Jesus' Son * Denis Johnson Angels ''Paragraphs'' *

Tatyana Tolstaya Tatyana Nikitichna Tolstaya (russian: Татьяна Никитична Толстая; born May 3, 1951) is a Russian writer, TV host, publicist, novelist, and essayist from the Tolstoy family. Family Tolstaya was born in Leningrad into a f ...

Sleepwalker in a Fog ''Words'' *

Bruce Wagner Bruce Alan Wagner (born March 22, 1954) is an American novelist and screenwriter based in Los Angeles known for his apocalyptic yet ultimately spiritual view of humanity as seen through the lens of the Hollywood, Los Angeles, Hollywood entertainm ...

I'm Losing You ''Character'' *

Jay McInerney John Barrett "Jay" McInerney Jr. (; born January 13, 1955) is an American novelist, screenwriter, editor, and columnist. His novels include '' Bright Lights, Big City'', ''Ransom'', '' Story of My Life'', ''Brightness Falls'', and ''The Last of ...

Bright Lights, Big City ''Narration'' *

Jonathan Franzen Jonathan Earl Franzen (born August 17, 1959) is an American novelist and essayist. His 2001 novel ''The Corrections'', a sprawling, satirical family drama, drew widespread critical acclaim, earned Franzen a National Book Award, was a Pulitzer Pr ...

The Corrections ''Paragraphs'' * Deborah Eisenberg The Stories (So Far) of Deborah Eisenberg ''Narration'' * Richard Price Freedomland ''Narration'' *

Edward St Aubyn Edward St Aubyn (born 14 January 1960) is an English author and journalist. He is the author of ten novels, including notably the semi-autobiographical ''Patrick Melrose'' novels. In 2006, ''Mother's Milk'' was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. ...

Some Hope: A Trilogy ''Gesture'' * Edward St Aubyn

Mother's Milk Mother's milk is milk produced by mammary glands located in the breast of a human female to feed a young child. Mother's Milk may also refer to: Entertainment * ''Mother's Milk'' (album)'', an album by Red Hot Chili Peppers ** Mother's Milk Tou ...

''Dialogue'' * James Wood Broken Estates: Essays on Literature and Belief * Junot Díaz Drown ''Gesture'' * Gary Shteyngart

The Russian Debutante's Handbook ''The Russian Debutante's Handbook'' is the debut novel by author Gary Shteyngart, published in 2002. It follows the exploits of young Russians both in the Alphabet City neighborhood of Manhattan and the European city of Prava (a pseudonym for Prag ...

''Paragraphs'' * ZZ Packer

Drinking Coffee Elsewhere ''Drinking Coffee Elsewhere'' is a 2003 collection of eight short stories by ZZ Packer. Packer was given an advance for thousands of dollars and she promoted the book in a 13 city tour. The book deals with race, gender, identity, and the need for ...

''Gesture'' * Konstantin Paustovsky (trans. Joseph Barnes) Years of Hope: The Story of a Life

External links

* Quotes by Francine Prose at Wikiquote
Report and photos from reading at Strand
(Nov 2006)

2006 non-fiction books Books about writing HarperCollins books