Art of Telling

Sir (John) Frank Kermode was Julian Clarence Levi Professor of English Literature, Emeritus, at Columbia University and a Fellow of King’s College, University of Cambridge. He was instrumental in the 1979 founding of the London Review of Books and was knighted in 1991 for his service to literature.

It is a matter of some moment when a distinguished and dispassionate critic such as Frank Kermode…offers what he calls a ‘recuperative’ response to contemporary literary criticism… Through a careful analysis of authors ranging from Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John to Joseph Conrad and writers of detective fiction, he demonstrates in this book what can be gained, and what discarded, from all the fury of contemporary criticism… Here is a badly needed voice of reason.

• Prologue 1. The English Novel,circa 1907 2. Local and Provincial Restrictions 3. The Use of the Codes 4. Recognition and Deception 5. On Reading Novels 6. Secrets and Narrative Sequence 7. Can We Say Absolutely Anything We Like? 8. Institutional Control of Interpretation 9. Instances of Interpretation: Death and Survival Appendix: The Single Correct Interpretation Acknowledgments Index