Modern Fiction

Warner, Charles Dudley, 1829-1900Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.2

Word count: 40K words
Chapters: 4

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Modern Fiction by Charles Dudley WarnerAuthor: Warner, Charles Dudley, 1829-1900,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Dec 5, 2004

Editor's review

Warner's Modern Fiction is a short essayistic discussion informed by nineteenth-century American literary criticism, yet it focuses on the status, function, and craft of the novel as a genre in its time. As both a novelist and an essayist, the author writes with a mild argumentative tone, addressing both the technique of fiction and its interplay with social mores. For today's readers, its value lies not in offering ready-made literary theory but in showing how a late-nineteenth-century American mean of letters understood the "modern novel": which works deserved serious attention, whether fiction should serve a didactic function, and how readers' tastes are shaped. These topics still echo contemporary debates over popular versus serious literature, and the reading carries a sense of historical depth. As a public-domain electronic text, it suits supplementary reading for courses in the history of literary criticism or American literature, and casual browsing by general readers interested in the evolution of the novel as a genre.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers studying nineteenth-century American literary criticism and the essay tradition
Those interested in the history of the novel as a genre and the evolution of the idea of "fiction"
English majors seeking supplementary reading in the history of literary criticism
General readers who enjoy short discursive pieces and are willing to savor an old text slowly

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting a systematic theoretical framework or contemporary critical methods
Beginners with limited stamina for English reading who prefer a modern, concise style
Readers looking for a plot-driven novel to pass the time

Reading tips

Read through once to grasp the overall argument, then revisit key passages, noting what the author specifically means by "modern."
Read alongside selections of late-nineteenth-century American fiction to appreciate the interplay between criticism and creative work.
Make brief annotations when passages touch on the relationship between morality and fiction, for easy reference later.
For course use, set it beside other literary criticism of the same period to compare different judgments of the novel's function.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book a novel or a commentary?

It is not a novel but a discursive text by Charles Dudley Warner about modern fiction, belonging to literary criticism and the essay. Readers should approach it as a text of opinion rather than expecting stories and characters.

Can I read it without a background in literary theory?

Yes. The essay unfolds in a prose style with few technical terms, though it engages with the nineteenth-century American literary context. It helps to know the general historical background first; unfamiliar author or work names can be skipped without losing the main argument.

What should I keep in mind when reading the electronic edition?

Public-domain electronic texts tend to have plain formatting and long paragraphs, so larger line spacing and reading in sections are recommended. With old-style spellings or long sentences, read for the gist first rather than checking every word, so as not to break the reading rhythm.

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About the author

Warner, Charles Dudley, 1829-1900 Author

Charles Dudley Warner (1829–1900) was an American writer and editor, with fifty-seven of his works held in this catalog. His subjects are notably wide-ranging: there are familiar essays on gardening and everyday leisure such as My Summer in a Garden, a study of a fellow writer in Washington Irving, and travel accounts of foreign places, including In the Levant, My Winter on the Nile and Our Italy, the last concerning Italy. The chapters associated with The Gilded Age indicate that he also took part in writing on social themes. The catalog classifies him under inspirational growth, suggesting that some of his works carry a tone of counsel and self-reflection. Public information is limited, so rather than dwelling on biographical detail, readers may begin with his essays and travel writings and appreciate their easy, unhurried style and close observation.