In this entertaining & enlightening collection David Lodge considers the art of fiction under a wide range of headings, drawing on writers as diverse as Henry James, Martin Amis, Jane Austen & James Joyce. Looking at ideas such as the Intrusive Author, Suspense, the Epistolary Novel, Magic Realism & Symbolism, & illustrating each topic with a passage taken from a classic or modern novel, David Lodge makes the richness & variety of British & American fiction accessible to the general reader. He provides essential reading for students, aspiring writers & anyone who wants to understand how fiction works.