The Business of Reading: A Hundred Years of the English Novel

In The
Business of Reading, Julian Lovelock charts the development of the English
novel over the past hundred years. Smuggling in titles from Scotland, Ireland
and the Caribbean, he focuses on twenty texts written since the end of the
First World War, some well-known but others less so, placing them in their
historical context. Novelists represented range from D.H. Lawrence, E.M.
Forster and Virginia Woolf, through Graham Greene, Kingsley Amis and Iris Murdoch,
to such contemporary writers as Ian
McEwan, Maggie O'Farrell and Graham Swift.



Written in a
lucid style that reflects his expertise and enthusiasm, Lovelock's innovative
selection, perceptive analysis and lightness of touch will appeal to the
general reader, the book club member and the student. He argues that our
response as readers is an important part of the creative process, and while he
mainly avoids the critical '-isms' that have characterised recent academic
debate, he introduces such concepts as intertextuality, metafiction and the
role of the often unreliable narrator, showing how an appreciation of the way
the language of fiction works can only add to our understanding and enjoyment.