{"product_id":"9781480441217","title":"Ideas and the Novel","description":"\u003cb\u003eIn this eye-opening book, Mary McCarthy shares her love of the novel and her fear that it is becoming an endangered literary species\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“He had a mind so fine that no idea could violate it.”\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003eSo begins Mary McCarthy’s fascinating critical analysis of the novel (and its practitioners) from her double-edged perspective as both reader and writer. The bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eThe Group\u003c\/i\u003e takes T. S. Eliot’s quote about Henry James, written in 1918, as a jumping-off point to discuss how the novel has evolved—or not—in the last century. In this lively, erudite book, McCarthy throws down the gauntlet: Why did the nineteenth century produce novels of ideas while the twentieth century is so lacking in serious fiction? She winnows out the underachieving (read: overhyped) authors from the geniuses, explores why Jean Valjean personifies man’s conscience in Victor Hugo’s \u003ci\u003eLes Misérables\u003c\/i\u003e, and shows how Stendhal’s\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Red and the Black \u003c\/i\u003e“illustrates the evil effects of reading.”\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003eShe also tackles the role of the omniscient narrator\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003eand analogizes novels to air travel.\u003cbr\u003eWith its exploration of authors from Balzac to D. H. Lawrence, \u003ci\u003eIdeas and the Novel \u003c\/i\u003eholds inviolate the idea of the novel as a means ultimately of liberating ideas.\u003cbr\u003eThis ebook features an illustrated biography of Mary McCarthy including rare images from the author’s estate.","brand":"Open Road Media","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47144505934064,"sku":"9781480441217","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781480441217_p0.jpg?v=1763619470","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781480441217","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}