HOW FICTION WORKS: Rare Fine Copy of The First Hardcover Edition/First Printing - COPY OF THE TRUE FIRST EDITION

1st Printing. 265 pages. Published in 2008. The author's book-length account on subject. James Wood's best book. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions, particularly multiple subsequent printings, the Softcover Edition, and the 10th Anniversary Edition, reissued in 2018. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only that became a surprise bestseller and went into multiple subsequent printings. The First Edition is now rare. Presents, in its true First Edition collectible format, James Wood's "How Fiction Works". Thoughtful, illuminating, and anti-theoretical in the very best sense. That is, it is ardently pro-literature, vehemently anti-"critical studies" and all other academic criticism, the work (to borrow from the vile Vladimir Nabokov) of subhuman mediocrities. Wood concisely sums up what he himself has learned in a mere 265 pages. "He joins his audience as a fellow reader, citing his chosen texts judiciously, ranging from Henry James to Nabokov, Joyce, Updike, and more, to explore not just how fiction works, mechanically speaking, but to reflect on how a novelist's choices make us feel that a novel ultimately works or doesn't. His terrific Bibliography will surely be a boon to anyone's education, but it's his masterful writing that you'll want to keep reading over the course of your life" (Anne Bartholomew). "Wood writes like a dream" (Daniel Mendelsohn). In the end, James Wood's "formula" is exactly the same as Harold Bloom's (in "How To Read And Why", 2000), despite their temperamental - which is always more decisive than moral, philosophical, or literary - differences: "Read enough literature to be taught by it how to read it" (James Wood). An absolute "must-have" title for James Wood collectors. This title is a great book. As far as we know, this is the only copy of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing (complete number line that starts with the Number 1 on the Copyright Page) available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. It is the single most beautiful copy we have ever seen. Please note: Copies available online have very serious flaws (because they were read and used), are in multiple subsequent printings, the Paperback Edition, or the 10th Anniversary Edition. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A rare copy thus. One of the most brilliant literary critics of our time. A fine copy. ISBN 0374173400.…