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Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them

by Francine Prose

A close-reading guide built around fiction’s technical choices

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Paperback New English

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AlbakiReads Editorial

A close-reading guide built around fiction’s technical choices

Francine Prose approaches writing instruction through attentive reading, using work by writers including Dostoyevsky, Flaubert, Kafka, Austen, Dickens, Woolf, Chekhov, Philip Roth, Isaac Babel, and John le Carré. The book frames literary craft as something visible on the page: a writer can study how established authors handle the tools and tricks of fiction by examining their choices closely. Positioned between literary criticism and practical instruction, it treats reading not only as appreciation but as a way of learning how novels and stories are made.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Writers seeking craft guidance grounded in close reading
  • Book lovers interested in how classic and modern fiction is constructed
  • Readers of literary criticism centered on major fiction writers

Themes

Close readingFiction craftLiterary traditionReading as apprenticeship

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

A distinguished novelist and critic inspires readers and writers with this inside look at how the professionals read--and write

Long before there were creative writing workshops and degrees, how did aspiring writers learn to write? By reading the work of their predecessors and contemporaries, says Francine Prose.

As she takes us on a guided tour of the tools and the tricks of the masters--Dostoyevsky, Flaubert, Kafka, Austen, Dickens, Woolf, Chekhov--Prose discovers why these writers endure. She takes pleasure in the signature elements of such outstanding writers as Philip Roth, Isaac Babel, John Le Carr

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