The Craft of Fiction

by Michaela Bronstein Percy Lubbock’s 1921 volume was one of the first major works of literary criticism to focus on the novel as a form. Literary criticism itself was in its infancy, but more importantly the novel seemed a less notable subject for criticism at the time than poetry and drama. Lubbock’s book is not… Continue Reading The Craft of Fiction

The Ambassadors

by Michaela Bronstein The Ambassadors was the first written (1900–1901), but second published (1903), of the three major works with which Henry James concluded his career as a novelist. Like The Wings of the Dove and The Golden Bowl, it treats Americans abroad in Europe, and like those novels it relies on careful choice of… Continue Reading The Ambassadors

Joseph Conrad: A Personal Remembrance

by Michaela Bronstein Ford Madox Ford’s Joseph Conrad: A Personal Remembrance (1924) is an account of Ford’s collaboration and friendship with Joseph Conrad over the decades before the death of the latter. It is also a manifesto for Ford’s ideas on literary impressionism, and it attempts to mark out places where, according to Ford, he… Continue Reading Joseph Conrad: A Personal Remembrance

Chance

by Michaela Bronstein Joseph Conrad’s Chance (1913) brought him public sales and success after years of relatively obscure work on the novels now considered his masterpieces. Conrad was working on Chance by 1905, but until May 1911 he worked slowly. The novel began serial publication in 1912. In 1914 the book form (published September 1913) outsold… Continue Reading Chance