How to Read Novels Like a Professor: A Jaunty Exploration of the World's Favorite Literary Form [Paperback]

Thomas C. Foster (Author)

Book Description

Release date: July 1, 2008

Of all the literary forms, the novel is arguably the most discussed . . . and fretted over. From Miguel de Cervantes's Don Quixote to the works of Jane Austen, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and today's masters, the novel has grown with and adapted to changing societies and technologies, mixing tradition and innovation in every age throughout history.

Thomas C. Foster—the sage and scholar who ingeniously led readers through the fascinating symbolic codes of great literature in his first book, How to Read Literature Like a Professor—now examines the grammar of the popular novel. Exploring how authors' choices about structure—point of view, narrative voice, first page, chapter construction, character emblems, and narrative (dis)continuity—create meaning and a special literary language, How to Read Novels Like a Professor shares the keys to this language with readers who want to get more insight, more understanding, and more pleasure from their reading.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Thomas C. Foster studied English at Dartmouth College and then Michigan State University. He has been a professor of literature and writing since 1975, the last twenty-one years at the University of Michigan–Flint. In that time, he's learned more about literature from his students than in all the classes he's taken over the years. He is the author of the New York Times bestselling How to Read Novels Like a Professor and How to Read Literature Like a Professor.

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial; 1st edition (July 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061340405
• ISBN-13: 978-0061340406
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #18,959 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #26 in Books > Literature & Fiction > History & Criticism > Books & Reading > General
  • #82 in Books > Literature & Fiction > History & Criticism > Criticism & Theory
  • #98 in Books > Literature & Fiction > History & Criticism > Movements & Periods

More About the Author

Thomas C. Foster is a professor of English at the University of Michigan-Flint, where he teaches classic and contemporary fiction, drama, and poetry, as well as creative writing and composition. In addition to How to Read Novels Like a Professor, he is the author of How to Read Literature Like a Professor and several books on twentieth-century British and Irish fiction and poetry. He lives in East Lansing, Michigan.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

61 of 63 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars It's a balancing beam... May 24, 2009

By Morgan Tribala

Format:Paperback

I am still on the fence about this book. Having read his prior guide, "How to Read Literature...", I was looking very forward to this work as well. Having finished, I am not exactly sure where I stand. To be honest, I was looking forward to something a bit more similar to his first book. This guide has a roughly similar idea, but it really did not do anything for me as far as learning how to read a novel. It was more of a study in novel history, styles, and techniques. It did offer some wonderful insight in why authors do what they do, the choices they make, and experiments they take. The problem is that Foster did not offer much in how to interpret this. It was like a study in the various ways writers craft their technique and how it differs between them (and time). Which leads me to the next thing...

This book, perhaps, should have been titled, "How to Craft Novels Like a Writer", or some other similar idea. There is a lot in here for an aspiring writer, examples of different techniques, character studies, writing styles, plot, theme, and so forth. I got much more out of this book on a writing level than on a reading level. He even references his creative writing classes several times as examples. All of the examples used to try and illustrate how to `read' a passage was much better used as a writing guideline / example. So, in other words, the book makes a great guide for aspiring writers and for those who want some history and aspects of the novel as a form of lit. If you are looking for something as straightforward as his first book, this does not come close. I know some people had an issue with his `cookie-cutter' approach in his first work, but that is exactly why it is now being used in the classroom by many teachers, including myself. It offered some very straight forward approaches in how to look at, scrutinize, and analyze literature. It is also not as exciting or as humorous as his first work either; this book comes off a bit more dry at parts. I found myself skimming and skipping through a few areas. Don't get me wrong, this is a good book and it offered some really great information, but when compared to "How to Read Lit..." it is average at best. Three stars on a reading level, four, if not five, on a study in writing & technique.

39 of 42 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars a clear voice August 4, 2008

By LMPMG

Format:Paperback

As a high school English teacher with two small children, I rarely get a chance to read a book for pleasure--let alone finish one. Amazingly, I read both of Foster's guides this summer. Each was a palatable presentation of issues surrounding literature in general and the novel in particular. He has a clear "voice" allowing me to imagine being back at a university lecture again--one of my favorite places to be! While other texts may seem more "scholaraly" (i.e. "dry"), Foster has a really accessible style for high school students, undergrads, and the interested public at large.

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Typical Sequel October 31, 2009

By Tumblina

Format:Paperback

As a high school English teacher, I thoroughly enjoyed Foster's How to Read Literature Like a Professor. Our school's AP program uses the book and I've shared select chapters with my underclassmen. I picked up How to Read Novels Like a Professor with high hopes that I would be able to use it in my classroom. Like many sequels, this book does not live up to the promise of its predecessor.

My first concern as a classroom teacher is that my students have not yet encountered a majority of the texts Foster references. The reader who needs a book titled How to Read Novels like a Professor is unlikely to be fluent in Joyce. Foster relies on examples to clarify his points, but the use of oblique references to texts his potential readers are unfamiliar with undermines the clarity of his text. Joyce and Faulkner may act as common ground for those of us with degrees in literature, for those still in training Salinger and Twain would be more effective.

I appreciate Foster's wit and voice, but that is because I know the material he is discussing well enough to differentiate between zingers and revelations. The voice that makes his work approachable to me, is the same voice that would utterly confuse my students. In my experience, high school readers take flip comments literally when they are not fluent in the subject matter. While I may chuckle at Foster's humor or find his comments unnecessarily distracting, my students would be lost.

The chapters in this book lack the tight focus of How to Read Literature; Foster wanders aimlessly at times as though the purpose of the chapter is to fill space. Had the book been shorter and the focus tighter, this would have been a better book.