We see that javascript is disabled or not supported by your browser - javascript is needed for important actions on the site. Read more

What's New - Home - Login

Member $avings: $81,884,985.22 | Books Available: 683,280 | Members Online: 245

Swap Used Books - Buy New Books at Great Prices!

How To Swap Books Sign Up Search submenu

PBS Market (New Books)

Gift Buying Guide

Book Browser Advanced Search Books Posted Today Member Book Reviews Award Winning Books NYT Best Sellers Amazon Best Sellers Most Traveled Copies Club Wish List

Discussion Forums Book Lists

Club Lists My Book Lists My Watched Lists Create a List

Blog Donations

School Donation Program In Memory of... Military Donation Program Friends of PBS

Box-O-Books Maps The Eclectic Pen Fun Stuff

20 Questions Sudoku Bookmark Creator

Top 100

Requests Posts Swappers Referrers Reviewers

Pulse of PBS Spread The Word

Invite Friends Bookmarks Facebook Page Facebook App More Ways...

Photo Gallery Recipes Club Tag Cloud Member Testimonials

Help Center submenu

How To Swap Books Browse Help Docs Ask the Librarian PBS Member Icons Live Help

Kiosk

PBS Market (New Books) Go Shopping Buy Credits Buy PBS Money Upgrade Membership Gift Certificates Transfer Credits

Need Help?

Search - How to Write Like Tolstoy: A Journey Into the Minds of Our Greatest Writers

How to Write Like Tolstoy A Journey Into the Minds of Our Greatest Writers
Author: Richard Cohen

For anyone who has ever identified with a hero or heroine, been seduced by a strong opening sentence, or been powerfully moved by a story s end, "How to Write Like Tolstoy"is a thought-provoking journeyinside the minds of the world s most accomplished storytellers, from Shakespeare to Stephen King. — I have tried, as far as possible using the wor... more »ds of the authors themselves, to explain their craft, aiming to take readers on a journey into the concerns, techniques, tricks, flaws, and, occasionally, obsessions of our most luminous writers. from the Preface

Behind every acclaimed work of literature is a trove of heartfelt decisions. The best authors put painstaking sometimes obsessive effort into each element of their stories, from plot and character development to dialogue and point of view.

What made Nabokov choose the name Lolita? Why did Fitzgerald use first-person narration in"The Great Gatsby"? How did Kerouac, who raged against revision, finally come to revise"On the Road"?Veteran editor and teacher RichardCohen draws on his vast reservoir of a lifetime s reading and his insight into what makes good prose soar. Here are Gabriel Garcia Marquez s thoughts on how to start a novel ( In the first paragraph you solve most of the problems with your book ); Virginia Woolf offering her definition of style ( It is all rhythm. Once you get that, you can t use the wrong words ); and Vladimir Nabokov on the nature of fiction ( All great novels are great fairy tales ).

Cohen has researched the published works and private utterances of our greatest authors to discover the elements that made their prose memorable. The result is a unique exploration of the act and art of writing that enriches our experience of reading both the classics and the best modern fiction. Evoking the marvelous, the famous, and the irreverent, he reveals the challenges that even the greatest writers faced and shows us how they surmounted them.

Praise for "How to Write Like Tolstoy"

""

This book is a wry, critical friend to both writer and reader. It is filled with cogent examples and provoking statements. You will agree or quarrel with each page, and be a sharper writer and reader by the end. Hilary Mantel

Insightful . . . [Cohen] escorts his readers to Iris Murdoch for sage counsel on launching a novel, to Salman Rushdie for shrewd guidance on developing an unreliable narrator, to Rudyard Kipling for a cagey hint on creating memorable minor characters, and to Leo Tolstoy for a master s help in transforming personal experience into fictional art. Even readers with no intentions of writing a novel will relish the opportunity to join their favorite authors at the workbench. "Booklist"

""

An elegant, chatty how-to book on writing well, using the lessons of many of the world s best writers . . . [Cohen] draws on plentiful advice from past and present literary titans. . . . The process of gathering advice from prominent contemporary authors such as Francine Prose, Jonathan Franzen, and Nick Hornby gives Cohen the opportunity to tell any number of amusing, often discursive stories about great literature and authors, mixed with the writers own observations. "Publishers Weekly"

""

Lush and instructive . . . [Cohen] is a generous tour guide through his literary world. "Kirkus Reviews" "From the Hardcover edition.""

ISBN-13: 9780812987737
ISBN-10: 081298773X
Publication Date: 2/7/2017
Pages: 352
Rating:

0 stars, based on 0 rating

Publisher: Random House Trade
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover
Members Wishing: 0
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

Genres:

Biographies & Memoirs >> Arts & Literature >> Authors
Literature & Fiction >> Books & Reading >> General
Reference >> Writing >> Fiction

Back to the Top ↑

Search - How to Write Like Tolstoy: A Journey Into the Minds of Our Greatest Writers

Loading...