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Aspects of the Novel

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Description

Forster’s lively, informed originality and wit have made this book a classic. Avoiding the chronological approach of what he calls “pseudoscholarship,” he freely examines aspects all English-language novels have in common: story, people, plot, fantasy, prophecy, pattern, and rhythm. Index.

There are all kinds of books out there purporting to give details this odd phenomenon the novel. Sometimes it's hard to recognize whom they're are for, exactly. Enthusiastic readers? Fellow academics? Would-be writers? Aspects of the Novel, E.M. Forster's 1927 treatise on the "fictitious prose work over 50,000 words" is, it turns out, for anyone together with the faintest interest in how fiction is made. Open at random, and locate your attention utterly sandbagged.

Forster's book is not really a book at all; rather, it's a collection of lectures brought at Cambridge University on subjects as parboiled as "People," "The Plot," and "The Story." It has an unpretentious verbal immediacy thanks to its spoken origin and is written in the key of Aplogetic Mumble: "Those who dislike Dickens have an outstanding case. He ought to be bad." Such gentle provocations litter these pages. How can you not read on? Forster's critical writing is so ridiculously plainspoken, so happily commonsensical, this we often not recall to be intimidated by the rhetorical landscapes he so ably leads us throughout. As he himself points out in the introductory note, "Since the novel is itself often colloquial it may possibly withhold some of its secrets from the graver and grander streams of criticism, and may reveal them to backwaters and shallows."

And Forster does paddle into some unlikely eddies here. For instance, he seems none too gung ho concerning love in the novel: "And lastly, love. I am utilizing this celebrated word in its widest and dullest sense. Let me be very dry and brief concerning sex in the first situate." He really means in the first situate. Like the narrator of a '50s hygiene film, Forster continues, dry and brief as anything, "Some years afterwards a human being is born, certain changes occur in it..." One feels here the same-sexer having the last laugh, heartily.

Forster's brand of humanism has fallen from fashion in literary studies, yet it endures in fiction itself. Readers still love this author, even if they come to him by way of the multiplex. The durability of his work is, of course, the greatest raison d'être this book could have. It should have been titled How to Put in writing Novels People Will Still Read in a Hundred Years. --Claire Dederer

Customer Reviews

Reading this is like conversing about literature and philosophy in an Oxford pub 2010-05-18

By JypsyJBook (Boston, MA United States)

For the first 30 pages, I was surprisingly annoyed with Forster. But for the rest of the book, I wished I were sitting in an Oxford pub with him, having a lively exchange of ideas. I certainly don't agree with all of his opinions (such as when he completely disregards novelists' sociocultural situations--though he describes his idea beautifully: "Empires fall, votes are accorded, but to those people writing in the circular room it is the feel of the pen between their fingers that matters most"), and some of his ideas I began by disparaging but came to understand only in light of later ideas (such as when he describes story as a "low, atavistic form"). But almost without exception, his ideas were fascinating and had merit. That plus his conversational tone (the book is actually a series of transcribed lectures) are what made me wish I were good-naturedly debating with him over drinks.

One of his most interesting ideas was that the difference between real people and characters in fiction is that we can never fully understand the secret inner life of our fellow human beings but fictional characters can be fully known to us. He says that the characters we feel are most "real" are not those who most closely resemble real people but those whom the author most fully knows. Not that the author will always explain everything about the character in the novel, of course, but he/she will express enough that the character will give readers a convincing surprise. He wrote a brilliant few pages in which he praises Jane Austen for her characters' convincing responses to every situation (which is exactly what I love about her).

There are a great many more ideas in the book than that one I mentioned above. I definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes to philosophize about fiction, truth, humanity, art, etc. And, if you're interested, meet me for a drink and we'll have a good conversation about it.

One to Re-Read 2010-03-29

By bronx book nerd (Bronx, NY USA)

This is the kind of book that humbles a reader. I had always heard great things about this book, that anyone interested in learning profound truths about what makes a good novel and how a novel works needs to read this. I must say that I found the text challenging and had a difficult time grasping the points E.M. Forster was making. I got the parts about the story and the plot fairly well. However, the sections on fantasy, prophecy, pattern and rhythm were somewhat more difficult to digest. Perhaps one needs to read a few more novels, or read them with more attention, to fully comprehend all of Forster's points - the traditional once-over of high school and college literature gruel will not do. I will probably re-read this after reading some of the works Forster uses as examples to get more out of this book, which has been hailed as a classic on the novel.

Aspects of the Novel is novelistic not academic 2010-03-13

By Bernard M. Patten (Seabrook, TX United States)

Of course, I allow myself the luxury of re-reading this masterpiece every year and have been so doing since 1988. Why? To hone my skills as a writer and for the pleasure of reading a real novelist comment on the real novel. The real novel is not a tidy piece of art. Forbid it almighty gods. Oh no, it is a piece of organized chaos like War and Peace. And so it follows that the real discussion of the art of the novel need not be a tidy organized piece of art. Each time I have read this work I get something new and important out of it. That says more about it than it does about me for that is the mark of a real classic - benefits of re-reading. The distinction of story from plot is interesting and real: A story is the narration of events in time and a plot explains the events or gives reasons for them. The King dies and then the Queen dies. That's a story. The King dies and then the Queen dies of grief. That's the plot as it explains why the Queen died. The discussion of character is somewhat dated but classical. You should know it if you are writing fiction. Characters are round or flat according to Forster. Round characters can surprise us in convincing ways. Flat characters don't surprise us. But what of characters that surprise us but not in a convincing way? They are according to Forster flat characters who are pretentding to be round. If he were able to revise this appraisal, Forster might say characters are flat or round and everything in between according to the needs of the novel at that particular time and place. Besides the advice about what novels should do and be, the Aspects also includes a great deal of philosophical advice: "If human nature does alter it will be because individuals manage to look at themselves in a new way. Here and there people - a very few people, but a few novelists are among them - are trying to do this. Every institution and vested interest is against such as search: organized religion, the state, ..." The discussion of rhythm in fiction is excellent and significant and probably would be replace by a discussion of scene and summary in modern writing schools. I see no discussion of realistic presentation (based on detailed description) or discussion on psychological realism or moral realism based on plot and actions. So the novel has progressed the way Forster hoped it would and that implies that humanitiy has progressed as well. For humanity's greatest hope is in the novel for it is the novel (not painting and certainly not music) that shows us our inner life. If we don't know what's wrong there is little hope for correction. And if we don't know what's right there is no hope period.

Aspects of the Novel by E. M. Forster 2009-12-20

By scott89119 (Whittier, CA)

E. M. Forster was a great author of perfectly constructed English novels. He was responsible for the layered romance of A Room with a View and the pitch-perfect caste battles of Howards End. In short, he knows how to write, so any lecture from him detailing the countless pieces that make a novel work is quite a gift. In Aspects of the Novel, Forster looks at the different parts with a keen intellectual eye, briefly explaining on how they work when done well and then referencing famous works of the past to show them in action. The book succeeds at being very challenging yet accessible, and worth many re-readings. It did not seem so much a guide on how to write better per se, but rather an appreciation/homage for the great writers that Forster admired. It was interesting to see an acclaimed writer drop the disguise, and talk about what he enjoyed as a reader- the usefulness of flat and round characters, the differentiation between plot and story, and the subconscious sense of music when reading a finely constructed work all stuck out for me. Unfortunately for me, I have not read many of the works he cited yet, but the brief synopses and the copied text he cited gives you a good idea of how they operate in relation to that lecture's theme. While not as easily digestible as other lit analysis books (i.e. Reading Like a Writer), it is still regarded as a gold standard and should be read by everyone patient enough to appreciate it.

Aspects of the Novel is a series of classic lectures on the topic by the great novelist E.M. Forster 2009-06-23

By C. M Mills (Knoxville Tennessee)

In the spring of 1927 at Cambridge the Clark Lectures were delivered by Edward Morgan Forster (1879-1970). Forster is well known for his Edwardian age classics "A Room With a View"; "Howard's End"; "Maurice" and a plethora of essays. He would later write "A Passage to India" which is, in my opinion, his finest effort in fiction.
In the Clark lectures we see Forster waxing eloquently about the glories of the English novel. Forster posits the belief that a novel is a work of prose fiction containing over 50,000 words. He believes that the English novel does not delve as deeply into the human soul as do such continental works by masters such as Tolstoy, Dostoevksi, Proust and Hugo.
Each of the lectures deals with one aspect of what is an essential ingredient in the making of a novel. Those topics are:
Story-Without a good story to tell the novel is doomed to failure.
Plot: A plot is what explains the action in the story. What is it that motivates the characters to act as they do. Plots are vital.
People: Fictional characters are either round or flat. Flat characters abound in the vast fictional universe created by Charles Dickens. Round characters are found is such novelists as Jane Austen and George Eliot. These round characters grow, change and adapt themselves to life. Emma by Eliot or Ishamel by Melville are richly drawn as compared with a wooden stick such as David Copperfield by Dickens. A good novel is often a mixture of both round and flat characters. Hemingway could draw rounded male characters but was weak in rounding out his female ones. Virginia Woolf could depict both male and female rounded characters. This discussion of character in fiction was the most valuable chapter to this reviewer.
Forster discusses the use of fantasy and prophetic statements in novels. Many novelists such as Dostoevski and Melville had the ability to dream big dreams and make pronouncements about the human predicament.
Forster's book is a sine qua non in literary criticism even though the lectures were delivered so long ago. The man's obvious love of the novel is palpable. As long as there is paper there will be novels. These basic tips on how to read and relish novels is a valuable resource for the common reader.

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