ASPECTS OF THE NOVEL

The renowned British novelist?s ?casual and wittily acute guidance? on reading?and writing?great fiction (Harper?s Magazine).   Renowned for such classics as A Room with a View, Howards End, and A Passage to India, E. M. Forster was one of Britain?s?and the world?s?most distinguished fiction writers, a frequent nominee for the Nobel Prize in Literature. In this collection of lectures delivered at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1927, he takes a wide-ranging look at English-language novels?with specific examples from such masters as Dickens and Austen?discussing the elements they all have in common.   Using a witty, informal tone and drawing on his extensive readings in French and Russian literature, Forster discusses his ideas in reference to such figures as Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and Proust; explains the difference between ?flat? and ?round? characters and between plot and story; and ultimately provides an ?admirable and delightful? education for anyone who appreciates the art of a good book (The New York Times).