Legal Fictions

A series of attempted answers to a suitably challenging mock-examination paper probe the curious relations between various literary works and the specific procedures, problems, and dilemmas of the legal process, from the dubious status of evidence in the fiction of magistrate-novelist Henry Fielding, through the deeply suspect work of fictional detectives, to the unreliable processes of trial and confession in Kafka and Camus. Once entangled, readers are invited to complete the examination for themselves, and of themselves.

Re-issued from Bernard Sharratt's Reading Relations (1982).

Praise for Sharratt's previous work :

.. an absolutely important first-rate book -Terry Eagleton

.. fascinating, entertaining, . . very impressive-David Lodge

.. the most richly-packed book by an English critic in recent years-Nicholas Tredell

.. astonishing, powerful, playful, brilliantly clever and attractive-Fred Inglis