An Introduction to Fiction [Paperback]

X. J. Kennedy (Author), Dana Gioia (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 24, 2004 | ISBN-10: 0321209400 | ISBN-13: 978-0321209405 | Edition: 9th

Fiction 9/e, is a collection of short stories¤65 in all¤which offers a wide ranging view of classic and contemporary writers. An introduction to a balance of contemporary and classic stories. Casebooks offer in-depth look at an author or clusters of works, for example “Edgar Allen Poe.”Authors Joe Kennedy and Dana Gioia provide inviting and illuminating introductions to the authors included and to the elements of fiction. Coverage of writing about literature is also included. For interested in learning more about fiction.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

An Introduction to Fiction 8/e, is a collection of short stories-69 in all-which offers a wide ranging view of classic and contemporary writers. "Writer's Perspectives" sections give commentary on the craft of writing and revising from authors, which provide insight and a more human perspective on literature and the writing process. "Writing Critically" sections at the end of each major chapter, expand coverage of composition with accessible and pragmatic suggestions on writing. "Critical Approaches to Literature" section provides three essays on every major school of criticism with sections on gender criticism and cultural studies. New casebooks on Flannery O'Connor and Raymond Carver. 13 New Stories including works from Aesop, Ha Jin, Eudora Welty, Octavio Paz, Anjana Appachana, Margaret Atwood, Andre Dubus, Kazuo Ishiguro, Leo Tolstoy, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Concise and easy to use new Glossary of Literary Terms helps readers better understand literary terminology. For anyone interested in Fiction. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

X.J. Kennedy, after graduation from Seton Hall and Columbia, became a journalist second class in the Navy ("Actually, I was pretty eighth class"). His poems, some published in the New Yorker, were first collected in Nude Descending a Staircase (1961). Since then he has written five more collections, several widely adopted literature and writing textbooks, and seventeen books for children, including two novels. He has taught at Michigan, North Carolina (Greensboro), California (Irvine), Wellesley, Tufts, and Leeds. Cited in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations and reprinted in some 200 anthologies, his verse has brought him a Guggenheim fellowship, a Lamont Award, a Los Angeles Times Book Prize, an award from the American Academy for Poetry for Children from the National Council of Teachers of English. He now lives in Lexington, Massachusetts, where he and his wife Dorothy have collaborated on four books and five children.

Dana Gioia is a poet, critic, and teacher. Born in Los Angeles, he attended Stanford and Harvard before taking a detour into business. ("Not many poets have a Stanford M.B.A., thank goodness!") After years of writing and reading late in the evenings after work, he quit a vice presidency to write and teach. He has published three collections of poetry: Daily Horoscope (1986); The Gods of Winter (1991); Interrogations at Noon (2001), winner of the 2001 American Book Award; an opera libretto, Nosferatu (2002); several anthologies; and an influential study of poetry's place in contemporary America, Can Poetry Matter? (1992). Gioia has taught at Johns Hopkins, Sarah Lawrence, Wesleyan (Connecticut), Mercer, and Colorado College. He is also the co-founder of the summer poetry conference at West Chester University in Pennsylvania and a frequent commentator on literature for the British Broadcasting Corporation. He currently lives in Santa Rosa, California, with his wife, Mary, two sons, and an ever growing number of cats.

(The surname Gioia is pronounced JOY-A. As some of you may have already guessed, gioia is the Italian word for joy.)

Product Details

• Paperback: 848 pages
• Publisher: Longman; 9th edition (March 24, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321209400
• ISBN-13: 978-0321209405
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,390,539 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The new standard, June 12, 2002

By 

[e-mail] "[e-mail]" (Beaumont, tx USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: An Introduction to Fiction (8th Edition) (Paperback)

For years Norton has been the standard in the Literature textbook field. But lately it seems that Longman is coming up and taking over. First there are the pocket anthologies edited by R.S. Gwynn, better than anything Norton has. Then there is the Longman Anthology of Short Fiction edited by Dana Gioia and R.S. Gwynn, which should take the place of Norton as the standard that all other textbooks should be compared with. And finally there is the series of anthologies edited by X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia.

The Introduction to Fiction is an excellent anthology written by one of the best poets of this generation and one of the best poets of the older generation. Kennedy's years of experience in the literary world, and his years of experience writing for children (making things easy to understand), and Gioia's take on literature from outside the world of academia have given this anthology an ease of understanding that you won't find in anything Norton has put together. They write clearly. They have chosen good stories, and ones that help understand the topic of the chapter. As well as a `writer's perspective' which adds understanding to the story. They also have added two new casebooks on Raymond Carver and Flannery O'Connor.

I'd say that without any doubt Longman will overtake Norton with this anthology. In fact the only Fiction anthology that I find to be any better than this one is the Gioia & Gwynn Short Fiction anthology, also put out by Longman.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Mixture, September 27, 2008

By 

J. Amaro "LadyGem03" (Allentown, PA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: An Introduction to Fiction (Paperback)

I love this book. We used it for my Intro to Fiction class, and it has a good mix of short stories. It has a lot of extras for some stories that will help you understand the stories better. I commend my teacher for picking this book and I won't sell this book for book-buy-back. It was also the same thing with last semester no one sold the book so we all had to buy new books.

3.0 out of 5 stars School requirment, March 31, 2011

By 

RepublicanMom - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: An Introduction to Fiction (Paperback)

I bought this book because it was a school requirement for one of my general Ed classes. The book was okay, but I didn't keep it in my library after the class was over, so that's got to say something.