In this entertaining and enlightening collection David Lodge considers the art of fiction under a wide range of headings, drawing on writers as diverse as Henry James, Martin Amis, Jane Austen and James Joyce. Looking at ideas such as the Intrusive Author, Suspense, the Epistolary Novel, Magic Realism and Symbolism, and illustrating each topic with a passage taken from a classic or modern novel, David Lodge makes the richness and variety of British and American fiction accessible to the general reader. He provides essential reading for students, aspiring writers and anyone who wants to understand how fiction works.

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Sometimes only remembered for the epic motion picture and "Frankly ... I don't give a damn," Gone with the Wind was initially a compelling and entertaining novel. It was the sweeping story of tangled passions and the rare courage of a group of people in Atlanta during the time of Civil War that brought those cinematic scenes to life. The reason the movie became so popular was the strength of its characters--Scarlett O'Hara, Rhett Butler, and Ashley Wilkes--all created here by the deft hand of Margaret Mitchell, in this, her first novel.

With her disarming, intimate, completely accessible voice, and dry sense of humor, Nora Ephron shares with us her ups and downs in I Feel Bad About My Neck, a candid, hilarious look at women who are getting older and dealing with the tribulations of maintenance, menopause, empty nests, and life itself.
The woman who brought us When Harry Met Sally . . . , Sleepless in Seattle, You’ve Got Mail, and Bewitched, and the author of best sellers Heartburn, Scribble Scribble, and Crazy Salad, discusses everything—from how much she hates her purse to how much time she spends attempting to stop the clock: the hair dye, the treadmill, the lotions and creams that promise to slow the aging process but never do. Oh, and she can’t stand the way her neck looks. But her dermatologist tells her there’s no quick fix for that.
Ephron chronicles her life as an obsessed cook, passionate city dweller, and hapless parent.  She recounts her anything-but-glamorous days as a White House intern during the JFK years (“I am probably the only young woman who ever worked in the Kennedy White House that the President did not make a pass at”) and shares how she fell in and out of love with Bill Clinton—from a distance, of course.  But mostly she speaks frankly and uproariously about life as a woman of a certain age.
Utterly courageous, wickedly funny, and unexpectedly moving in its truth telling, I Feel Bad About My Neck is a book of wisdom, advice, and laugh-out-loud moments, a scrumptious, irresistible treat.</p>

《豺狼的日子》内容为：一九六三年，一名杀手受雇刺杀法国总统夏尔·戴高乐，除了“豺狼”这个代号，全世界任何情报组织都对此人一无所知。刺杀戴高乐只有百分之一的可能，但对于“豺狼”这样的顶尖高手来说，这已经是百分之百的胜算。他杀人无数，从未失手；他身手非凡，冷酷无情。对来他说，唯一的准则是就是杀手的职业准则，最大的敌人就是还活着的目标。
每次“豺狼”都能领先一步，逃出警方布下的罗网。面对危险之极、高深莫测的“豺狼”，整个法国警方都束手无策，只能寄希望于一位低级别的警长，因为每个人都知道他实际上身怀绝技。
历史的命运维系在两个人之间这场尊严与智力的较量之中。

赵元任是著名语言学家，与梁启超、王国维、陈寅恪并为清华大学国学院四大导师，并先后在中央研究院、耶鲁大学、哈佛大学、加州大学任教。赵氏一家俊秀满门，妻子杨步伟是中国第一位医学博士，女儿、女婿多在大学任教，都取得了杰出的成就。在胡适的鼓励之下，杨步伟撰写《一个女人的自传》和《杂记赵家》，记录两代知识人的学习和生活经历，为后人留下了丰富生动的记录。
赵元任和杨步伟二人结交众多著名学者，书中不乏关于这些人的趣闻轶事：陈寅恪和俞大维在留德期间专心治学，就像“宁国府门口的一对石狮子，最干净”；刘半农经过六个小时的魔鬼考试，终于拿到博士学位；金岳霖因为母鸡“难产”，打电话急请杨步伟帮忙……种种掌故，让人想望前辈学者的性格与风采。

孟晖的《盂兰变》以武则天即位后的数年为背景，写出了一段惊心动魄的宫闱故事。武则天不是小说的主角，但女皇无所不在的权威阴影，成为启动叙事的契机。作者的兴趣是想象那样一个时代里，人与人之间的关系：伦理的、政治的，以及情欲的关系。外戚世族。王子公主、蕃将妖僧、佞幸男宠，还有无数的彩女侍从，勾心斗角，交织成极复杂的网络。这网络又以圣神女帝为辐辏点。天威难测，谁能预卜自己明日的命运？皇恩浩荡的排场下掩不住一波波的死亡斗争；骄奢淫逸之后，是无边荒凉的生命叹息。
http://www.douban.com/subject/1037351/

《莲灯微光里的梦——林徽因的一生》的作者陈学勇系国内知名的林徽因研究专家，这部传记是他积多年研究积累结出的成果。
它打破了以往林徽因传记单纯以时间顺序记述的套路，采取新颖的，以人物、地点、事件为切入角度的方式，为读者展现了林徽因动人的一生。它不但纠正了以往林传诸多史实上的错误和小说演绎之类的谬误，而且还提供了许多第一手珍贵文史资料。是集趣味性、学术性与可读性于一体的好读本。
此书是图文本，存有图片百余张，不少照片首次面世；除此之外，很多图片也非常少见。书中还首次附有完整的林徽因年表和林氏世系谱表，为喜爱林徽因的读者以另一种方式了解传主提供了最为清晰简洁的脉络。
这部传记从内容、文字到插图都保持了严谨高雅的风格，说它是林徽因传记中的佼佼者，当之无愧。

山月清辉已远，她仅有的，也只是清晨枕边的那一缕阳光。
曾经在山月的清辉下，年幼的他们并肩坐在溪涧的边缘，叶骞泽说：〔向远，我们水远不会分开。〕喧嚣浮华的城市中，向远披荆斩棘朝梦想而去，终于嫁给了心爱的那个人，也拥有了梦寐以求的财富。然而，记忆里的山月只在她一个人的心里散放清辉，于他而言，只是遇风而碎的泡影。把心里最柔软的角落给了他，为他实现一个个愿望。他一步步进，她一步步退……当山月的前尘旧梦终被践踏得面目全非，绝望的她爱极生恨，断然命令绑匪撕票……山月虽好，注定不能留在身旁，而自幼依恋向远的叶昀会是她的最后一缕晨光吗？

苏韵锦爱上了高中同学程铮，程铮也深深爱着她。但是家庭背景不同的二人，生活上的差异要彼此分开。而韵锦在分开之后才发觉有了程铮的孩子。个性强的韵锦没有告知程铮。在几年后，韵锦事业有成发觉程铮又出现在她的生活中，她们的爱情会开花结果吗？

自喻为“玉面小飞龙”的郑微，洋溢着青春活力，心怀着对邻家哥哥林静浓浓的爱意，来到大学。可是当她联系林静的时候，却发现出国的林静并没有告诉她任何消息。生性豁达的她，埋藏起自己的爱情，享受大学时代的快乐生活。却意外地爱上同学校的陈孝正，板正、自闭而又敏感、自尊的陈孝正却在毕业的时候又选择了出国放弃了郑微。
几年后，林静和陈孝正都出现在郑微面前，而工作后的郑微也纠葛在工作、感情甚至阴谋之中。郑微感情的天平，会倾向于哪一个呢？

Hotshot spies never die. They just slip undercover. Julia Torrison-codename Sheba-is keeping secrets. Seventeen months ago she was a CIA superagent, tracking down dangerous terrorists with her partner and lover, Conrad Flynn. A mission was blown, literally, when a bomb Julia built exploded early and Conrad died. Yanked back to Langley and given a new identity, she is now the Counterterrorism Center's top analyst, spending her days at CIA headquarters and her nights in the bed of her boss. Her former life as a secret agent has been sealed off. Like her heart. Conrad Flynn-codename Solomon-has his own secrets. For starters, he's not dead. Going under the deepest cover possible, he faked his death to save Julia's life. Now he must tear her life apart and ask her to help him hunt down a traitor: her new love. Is Con a rogue agent or just a jealous ex-lover? To find out, Julia will have to enter a web of seduction and betrayal to play the spy game of her life using nothing more than her iPod-and her intuition. Julia warns: "Beware of sexy spies bearing gifts. Trust no one and sleep with a gun under your pillow." Conrad warns: "Sex, lies and tantalizing suspense.don't worry, I'll protect you."--Amazon

Brilliant and illuminating, this astonishing debut novel by the award-winning writer Yiyun Li is set in China in the late 1970s, when Beijing was rocked by the Democratic Wall Movement, an anti-Communist groundswell designed to move China beyond the dark shadow of the Cultural Revolution toward a more enlightened and open society. In this powerful and beautiful story, we follow a group of people in a small town during this dramatic and harrowing time, the era that was a forebear of the Tiananmen Square uprising.<br /><br />Morning dawns on the provincial city of Muddy River. A young woman, Gu Shan, a bold spirit and a follower of Chairman Mao, has renounced her faith in Communism. Now a political prisoner, she is to be executed for her dissent. Her distraught mother, determined to follow the custom of burning her only child’s clothing to ease her journey into the next world, is about to make another bold decision. Shan’s father, Teacher Gu, who has already, in his heart and mind, buried his rebellious daughter, begins to retreat into memories. Neither of them imagines that their daughter’s death will have profound and far-reaching effects, in Muddy River and beyond.<br /><br />In luminous prose, Yiyun Li weaves together the lives of these and other unforgettable characters, including a serious seven-year-old boy, Tong; a<br />crippled girl named Nini; the sinister idler Bashi; and Kai, a beautiful radio news announcer who is married to a man from a powerful family. Life in a world of oppression and pain is portrayed through stories of resilience, sacrifice, perversion, courage, and belief. We read of delicate moments and acts of violence by mothers, sons, husbands, neighbors, wives, lovers, and more, as Gu Shan’s execution spurs a brutal government reaction.<br /><br />Writing with profound emotion, and in the superb tradition of fiction by such writers as Orhan Pamuk and J. M. Coetzee, Yiyun Li gives us a stunning novel that is at once a picture of life in a special part of the world during a historic period, a universal portrait of human frailty and courage, and a mesmerizing work of art.

长篇小说《上种红菱下种藕》以几个十一、二岁的小女孩的成长经历为引线，讲述在市场经济大潮中江浙农村所发生的自觉的和不自觉的动荡转变。
全书以极细腻和平缓的基调讲述了这样一个故事，一个叫秧宝宝的乡下小女孩，因父母外出经商，不得已离开乡下的老屋子，来到城镇。这个与村庄风貌迥异的城镇从此就成了小姑娘的生活天地了。小姑娘在一年内跑遍了华舍镇的角角落落，看到和经历了许许多多奇奇怪怪的人和事（包括在她寄宿的顾老师家）。秧宝宝就在这新的环境中不知不觉地长大了，她和她的几个小同学蒋芽儿、张柔桑的友谊也经历了更新和发展。然而，一个更加开阔的天地在等待着秧宝宝。一年后，爸爸妈妈要带她走向更大的城市绍兴。

莫言怀抱华美颓败的土地，决意对半个世纪的土地做出重述。莫言郑重地将土地放在记忆的丰碑前，看着它在历史中渐渐荒废并确认它在荒废中重新获得庄严、熔铸、锋利。
《生死疲劳》是一部向中国古典小说和民间叙事的伟大传统致敬的大书。在这次神圣的“认祖归宗”仪式中，小说将六道轮回这一东方想象力草灰蛇线般隐没在全书的字里行间，写出了农民对生命无比执著的颂歌和悲歌。
地主西门闹一家和农民蓝解放一家的故事充满了吊诡和狂热，唏嘘和罹难。当转世为人的“大头儿”终于执著坚定地叙述时，我们看到了一条生气沛然的人与土地、生与死，苦难与慈悲的大河，流进了我们的心田。
在莫言对伟大古典小说呼应的那一刻，聆听到了“章回体”那最亲切熟悉的大音；莫言承受着生死疲劳的磨砺以及冤缠孽结，将中国人百感交集、庞杂喧哗的苦难经验化为纯美准确的诗篇，祈祷祖国庄严、宁静、祈望人类丰沛的生命祥和、自然。

本书为《中国当代作家选集丛书》中的一册。 本书共收录王小鹰所创作的短篇及中篇小说共9篇，其中短篇小说4篇，中篇5篇。王小鹰是从揭示茶林场知识青年的情感走上文坛的。初读她的作品，您会感到一个共同的印象，就是她似乎比较热心表现那种温柔、善良、受到欺压的弱女子，而对于巧言令色、势利庸俗的女子却每每只以很少的笔墨，就结束暴露其灵魂的过程。近年来，王小鹰逐渐停止了中、短篇的创作，而致力于长篇，表现出生活、情

小说中会议执行主席贾兰坡教授突然神秘自杀，紧接着发生了一系列离奇的事件宋子衿疯狂、会议赞助商被捕……而曾山与张末的爱情更是让人费解：他们一方面深陷于欲望编织的囚笼之中，另一方面则试图冲破它的束缚，复活古老的爱情诗意，寻找自身生命残剩的一点点真实感。正是这一点“真实感”。使他们的心灵靠得如此之近；同时也因为这种，“真实感”的脆弱和“奢侈”，他们又一次次地远离。“犹疑”是他们生存的最基本的轮廓，欲望的旗帜升起来了；没有安慰，没有援手，没有归宿，没有和解，剩下的只是一个迷惘的信念：活在真实之中……小说描述了社会整体性价值伦理崩坍之后，困扰着人们的种种欲望以及这欲望的变体……

《瑰宝》内容简介：1940年代末的香港，一个繁忙而拥挤的中转站，各色观望人群的“避难”岛。在这里，刚从英国完成学业、归途中因战乱滞留香港的中西混血儿、年轻的女医生韩素音，邂逅英国记者马克·艾略特，两人坠入情网。韩素音一心要回大陆报效祖国，而在当时的情势下，马克这样的来自“帝国主义国家”的新闻记者还不可能被人民政权接受……于是，中英文化、欧亚文化，不同人种和阶层的生活状况与生存意识，不同的政治制度与精神信仰，所有的一切都与他们的爱情奇妙地交融在一起，造就了他们用生命与历史撞击的爱情时光。
1955年，美国二十世纪福克斯公司把这部小说搬上银幕（译名《生死恋》、《爱情至上》），次年获得了两项奥斯卡奖——诗意与艺术使这部小说比历史本身更加长久。

《上种红菱下种藕》以极细腻和平缓的基调讲述了这样一个故事：一个叫秧宝宝的乡下小女孩，因父母外出经商，不得已离开乡下的老屋子，来到城镇。这个与村庄风貌迥异的城镇从此就成了小姑娘的生活天地了。小姑娘在一年内跑遍了华舍镇的角角落落，看到和经历了许许多多奇奇怪怪的人和事（包括在她寄宿的顾老师家）。秧宝宝就在这新的环境中不知不觉地长大了，她和她的几个小同学蒋芽儿、张柔桑的友谊也经历了更新和发展。然而，一个更加开阔的天地在等待着秧宝宝呢。一年后，爸爸妈妈要带她走向更大的城市绍兴。

《启蒙时代》是一部描写一代人心灵成长的小说。20世纪60年代中期，“文革”狂飙突至，把生活在完全不同的世界里的青年人抛到了一处。从高级干部公寓和从市井里弄走出来的男女主人公们，带着青春的热情、敏感、躁动和迷茫，顽强而莽撞地为自己的理想和人生寻找理由。可以说，这是一部“老三届”的精神成长史，作者书写了从那个年代走过来的人从来不需要想起也永远不会忘记的一段历史。
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