James Wood’s Followers (441)

James Wood

Born

in Durham, England , The United Kingdom

November 01, 1965

Genre

Fiction

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James Douglas Graham Wood is an English literary critic, essayist and novelist. He is currently Professor of the Practice of Literary Criticism at Harvard University (a part-time position) and a staff writer at The New Yorker magazine.
Wood advocates an aesthetic approach to literature, rather than more ideologically-driven trends in academic literary criticism.
Wood is noted for coining the genre term hysterical realism, which he uses to denote the contemporary conception of the "big, ambitious novel" that pursues vitality "at all costs." Hysterical realism describes novels that are characterized by chronic length, manic characters, frenzied action, and frequent digressions on topics secondary to the story. ...more

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James Wood’s books

Average rating: 3.92 · 19,850 ratings · 2,499 reviews · 152 distinct works • Similar authors

	How Fiction Works 3.99 avg rating — 7,848 ratings — published 2008 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Upstate 3.42 avg rating — 1,254 ratings — published 2018 — 22 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Nearest Thing to Life 3.95 avg rating — 703 ratings — published 2015 — 27 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Fun Stuff: And Other Essays 3.86 avg rating — 493 ratings — published 2012 — 18 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Broken Estate: Essays on Literature and Belief 4.08 avg rating — 398 ratings — published 1999 — 19 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Irresponsible Self: On Laughter and the Novel 4.12 avg rating — 251 ratings — published 2004 — 15 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Serious Noticing: Selected Essays, 1997-2019 4.32 avg rating — 219 ratings — published 2019 — 11 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Book Against God 3.11 avg rating — 284 ratings — published 2003 — 15 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Stories from Greek Mythology by James Wood, Lewis John Wood 3.28 avg rating — 54 ratings — published 1867 — 25 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Tomato Container Gardening: How to Grow Tomatoes in Small Spaces 3.85 avg rating — 13 ratings — published 2014 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Quotes by James Wood (?)

“Literature differs from life in that life is amorphously full of detail, and rarely directs us toward it, wheras literature teaches us to notice. Literature makes us better noticers of life; we get to practice on life itself; which in turn makes us better readers of detail in literature; which in turn makes us better readers of life.”
― James Wood, How Fiction Works

tags: details, fiction, james-wood, literature

61 likes

“Life, then will, always contain an inevitable surplus, a margin of the gratuitous, a realm in which there is always more than we need: more things, more impressions, more memories, more habits, more words, more happiness, more unhappiness.”
― James Wood, How Fiction Works

13 likes

“When I talk about free indirect style I am really talking about point of view, and when I talk about point of view I am really talking about the perception of detail, and when I talk about detail I'm really talking about character, and when I talk about character I am really talking about the real, which is at the bottom of my inquiries.”
― James Wood, How Fiction Works

11 likes

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Come funzionano i romanzi. Breve storia delle tecniche narrative per lettori e scrittori di James Wood

35 votes, 26.1%

Gödel, Escher, Bach: un'Eterna Ghirlanda Brillante di Douglas R. Hofstadter

20 votes, 14.9%

Passato prossimo: donne romane da Tacita a Sulpicia di Eva Cantarella

17 votes, 12.7%

Il cucchiaino scomparso e altre storie della tavola periodica degli elementi di Sam Kean

14 votes, 10.4%

La cultura greca e le origini del pensiero europeo di Bruno Snell

11 votes, 8.2%

Viaggi di Michael Crichton

10 votes, 7.5%

Chiedilo al Dr. Ozzy di Ozzy Osbourne

9 votes, 6.7%

Dell'amore e del dolore delle donne di Umberto Veronesi

8 votes, 6.0%

Gli spettri del Congo di Adam Hochschild

7 votes, 5.2%

La grande trasformazione di Karl Polanyi

3 votes, 2.2%

134 total votes

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James Wood’s Followers (441)

James Wood

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Combine Editions
James Wood’s books