In 1958, Ayn Rand, already the world-famous author of such bestselling books as Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead, gave a private series of extemporaneous lectures in her own living room on the art of fiction. Tore Boeckmann and Leonard Peikoff for the first time now bring readers the edited transcript of these exciting personal statements. The Art of Fiction offers invaluable lessons, in which Rand analyzes the four essential elements of fiction: theme, plot, characterization, and style. She demonstrates her ideas by dissecting her best-known works, as well as those of other famous authors, such as Thomas Wolfe, Sinclair Lewis, and Victor Hugo. An historic accomplishment, this compendium will be a unique and fascinating resource for both writers and readers of fiction.
Edited by Tore Boeckmann with an Introduction by Leonard Peikoff
Introduction
Editor's Preface
1. Writing and the Subconscious
2. Literature as an Art Form
3. Theme and Plot
4. The Plot-Theme
5. The Climax
6. How to Develop a Plot Ability
Concretize Your Abstractions
Think in Terms of Conflict
Tap Your Emotions
7. Characterization
8. Style I: Depictions of Love
From Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
From Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo
From Of Time and the River by Thomas Wolfe
From Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis
From Star Money by Kathleen Winsor
From By Love Possessed by James Gould Cozzens
9. Style II: Descriptions of Nature and of New York
From Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
From Seven Gothic Tales by Isak Dinesen
From The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
From Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
From One Lonely Night by Mickey Spillane
From The Web and the Rock by Thomas Wolfe
Naturalistic Description
Analysis of "A Letter on Style" by Sinclair Lewis
10. Particular Issues of Style
Narrative versus Dramatization
Exposition
Flashbacks
Transitions
Metaphors
Descriptions
Dialogue
Slang
Obscenities
Foreign Words
Journalistic References
11. Special Forms of Literature
Humor
Fantasy
Symbolism
Tragedy and the Projection of Negatives
Index
