The Art of Reading: How to Understand Books. A Lively and Engaging Guide to Reading

As long as there are passionate readers interested in language, storytelling, poetry, and literary creativity, literature will exist. It may transition to the realm of digital, revert to handwritten manuscripts, transform into comics, or appear on screen, but it will... never cease to be created. And read. This book, which has become an international bestseller, helps to view literature through the eyes of the most discerning reader: a professor of literature, and elevate one’s reading skills to a new level. In a lively and witty manner, Thomas Foster interprets the special language of literary fiction, filled with symbols, images, parallels, and interconnections. Through examples from the works of classics—Shakespeare, Goethe, Dickens, Dostoevsky, Orwell, Kafka, Hemingway, Nabokov, and many other writers and poets—he shows how to see what is hidden between the lines and decipher many mysteries. An indispensable assistant for all who wish to understand the works of their favorite authors more deeply, as well as for students, aspiring writers, journalists, educators, and literary critics.