Using Dickens, Flaubert, and Mann as his examples, Gay explores their world, their craftsmanship, and their minds. That trust, Gay brilliantly shows, is misplaced novels take their own path to reality. Typically, readers believe that fiction, especially the Realist novels that dominated Western culture for most of the nineteenth century and beyond, is based on historical truth and that great novels possess a documentary value. Focusing on three literary masterpieces-Charles Dickens's Bleak House (1853), Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary (1857), and Thomas Mann's Buddenbrooks (1901)-Peter Gay, a leading cultural historian, demonstrates that there is more than one way to read a novel. A revelatory work that examines the intricate relationship between history and literature, truth and fiction-with some surprising conclusions.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |