The Things That Matter: What Seven Classic Novels Have to Say About the Stages of Life

ISBN: 0307275221

Author: Mendelson, Edward

Condition: New

She felt rather inclined just for a moment to stand still after all that chatter, and pick out one particular thing; the thing that mattered . . .-Virginia Woolf, To The LighthouseAn illuminating exploration of how seven of the greatest English novels of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries-Frankenstein, Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, Middlemarch, Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, and Between the Acts-portray the essential experiences of life.Edward Mendelson-a professor of English at Columbia University-illustrates how each novel is a living portrait of the human condition while expressing its authors complex individuality and intentions and emerging from the authors life and times. He explores Frankenstein as a searing representation of child neglect and abandonment and Mrs. Dalloway as a portrait of an ideal but almost impossible adult love, and leads us to a fresh and fascinating new understanding of each of the seven novels, reminding us-in the most captivating way-why they matter.