Biography of the novelist; analysis of the novel; reviews of the novel; the novel's standing today; further reading, discussion questions, websites.
Tracy Hargreaves teaches English at Leeds University, UK.
"The series comes as near to squaring various circles - popular /
academic, 'good read' / 'classic Lit', novel / film of the book as
any I know. And at best it goes a fair way towards reshuffling
those categories and redrawing the boundaries. With the first
volume, I was relieved. After two or three, I was hooked.
The books are invaluable for gathering out-of-the-way or ephemeral
comment from TV and radio interviews and the web as well as from
literary reviews.
Refreshingly upfront and up-to-date
Given the space, there are remarkably balanced film/novel
comparisons of the most well-known examples
An important feature is the fully referenced bibliographies,
including reviews and copious website addresses - the latter
ranging from fanzines and authors' and publishers' own sites to
academic discussion lists and online journals.
In method as in subject matter, these guides move freely on the
interface between print culture and multimedia. Highly finished and
pleasantly handleable as books in their own right, they gesture
accommodatingly to both words and worlds beyond.
Taking the series as a whole, it also confirms two things: that
narrative nowadays is generically highly hybrid and increasingly
cross-media; and that an understanding of the processes of writing
and reading 'contemporary classic' (or at least 'currently famous')
fiction cannot be separated - yet must be distinguished - from the
processes of making and marketing books and films."
The Times Higher Education Supplement, May 31, 2002
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