The art of fiction by David Lodge (Penguin – Literary criticism) – Part 1

Here are my notes and favourite quotes. 

Preface

“This is a book to browse in, and dip into, a book that does not attempt to say the definitive word on any of the topics it touches on, but one that will, I hope, enhance the readers’ understanding and enjoyment of reading – and, who knows, even writing – in this most various and rewarding if literary forms.”

1 - Beginning

The opening sentence

“[…] the beginning of a novel is a threshold, separating the real world we inhabit from the world the novelist has imagined.”

There are many ways of beginning a novel:

·       Using irony (see Jane Austen).

·       Using a “blatant ploy to secure the reader’s attention” (eg: “This is the saddest story I have ever heard.” Ford Madox Ford, The Good Soldier, 1915).

·       A novel may begin with a set-piece description of a landscape or townscape that is the primary setting of the story.

·       It may begin in the middle of a conversation.

·       In medias res.

·       In the middle of a sentence (see Joyce’s Finnegans Wake).

·       With an arresting self-introduction by the narrator.

·       With a philosophical reflection.

·       The author can pitch a character into extreme jeopardy with the very first sentence.

·       Many novels begin with a frame-story which explains how the main story was discovered (see The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne).

2 – The Intrusive author

Around the turn of the XXth century [...] the intrusive authorial voice fell into disfavour, partly because it detracts from realistic illusion and reduces the emotional intensity of the experience being represented, by calling attention to the act of narrating. It also claims a kind of authority, a God-like omniscience, which our sceptical and relativistic age is reluctant to grant to anyone. Modern fiction has tended to suppress or eliminate the authorial voice, by presenting the action through the consciousness of the characters, or by handing over to them the narrative task itself. When the intrusive authorial voice is employed in modern fiction, it's usually with a certain ironic self-consciousness [...].
This is a device much favoured [however] by postmodern writers, who disown a naive faith in traditional realism by exposing the nuts and bolts of their fictional constructs.

Question

Which way of opening a novel (above) is not a direct quote from The Art of Fiction?