"This is a Borzoi Book published by Alfred A. Knopf"--Title page verso

"In his first book devoted exclusively to narrative fiction, America's most original and controversial literary critic and legendary Yale professor writes trenchantly about fifty-two masterworks spanning the Western tradition"--

Bloom offers meditations on forty-eight essential works of fiction that span the Western canon. While considering each novels' strengths and shortcomings, he also explains where and why he differs with other critics' assessments. In doing so, he guides readers to a new understanding of the novels, and in the importance and power of fiction. -- adapted from jacket and from reviews on Amazon

Lost traveller's dream -- Don Quixote / Miguel de Cervantes -- Clarissa / Samuel Richardson -- Tom Jones / Henry Fielding -- Pride and prejudice / Jane Austen -- Emma / Jane Austen -- Persuasion / Jane Austen -- I promessi sposi (the bethrothed) / Alessandro Manzoni -- Red and black / Stendhal -- Charterhouse of Parma / Stendhal -- Vautrin saga: old goriot, lost illusions, the splendor and misery of the courtesans / Honoré de Balzac -- Captain's daughter / Alexander Pushkin -- Wuthering heights / Emily Brontë -- Vanity fair / William Makepeace Thackeray -- Moby-Dick / Herman Melville -- Bleak house / Charles Dickens