This work is part of the "Continuum Contemporaries" series giving readers accessible and informative introductions to 30 of the most popular, most acclaimed and most influential contemporary novels. It contains a biography of the novelist, a full-length study of the novel, a summary of how the novel was received upon publication, a summary of how the novel has performed since publication, and a wide range of suggestions for further reading.
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CONTRIBUTORS: Prof Linda Wagner-Martin
EAN: 9780826452344
COUNTRY: United Kingdom
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WEIGHT: 120 g
HEIGHT: 0 cm
PUBLISHED BY: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
DATE PUBLISHED: 2001-10-01
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GENRE: LITERARY CRITICISM / General
WIDTH: 0 cm
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Book Themes:
United States of America, USA, American English, 20th century, c 1900 to c 1999, Literary studies: c 1900 to c 2000, Literary studies: fiction, novelists and prose writers
"The series comes as near to squaring various circles - popular / academic, 'good read' / 'classic Lit', novel / film of the book as any I know. And at best it goes a fair way towards reshuffling those categories and redrawing the boundaries. With the first volume, I was relieved. After two or three, I was hooked. The books are invaluable for gathering out-of-the-way or ephemeral comment from TV and radio interviews and the web as well as from literary reviews. Refreshingly upfront and up-to-date Given the space, there are remarkably balanced film/novel comparisons of the most well-known examples An important feature is the fully referenced bibliographies, including reviews and copious website addresses - the latter ranging from fanzines and authors' and publishers' own sites to academic discussion lists and online journals. In method as in subject matter, these guides move freely on the interface between print culture and multimedia. Highly finished and pleasantly handleable as books in their own right, they gesture accommodatingly to both words and worlds beyond. Taking the series as a whole, it also confirms two things: that narrative nowadays is generically highly hybrid and increasingly cross-media; and that an understanding of the processes of writing and reading 'contemporary classic' (or at least 'currently famous') fiction cannot be separated - yet must be distinguished - from the processes of making and marketing books and films." The Times Higher Education Supplement, May 31, 2002
Linda Wagner-Martin teaches English at the University of North Carolina. She is the author of a best-selling study of Sylvia Plath.
