Angus Fletcher’s Wonderworks is a browser’s delight! Each chapter in this book explores a different literary technique. Fletcher presents the history of the technique, how it was developed, and how it is used in contemporary fiction.
Dan would certainly enjoy Chapter 8 on Hamlet and Deb would find new insights in Chapter 15 on Middlemarch. I never saw the connection between Jane Austen and Henry Fielding until I read Chapter 11.
Angus Fletcher’s wide reading brings Eastern classics into focus. Including Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness shows how genres influence one another.
I found Wonderworks a fascinating reinterpretation of classic Literature writing with wit and passion. Highly recommended! GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
PREFACE: A Heaven of Inventions — 1
INTRODUCTION: The Lost Technology — 13
CHAPTER 1: Rally Your Courage: Homer’s Iliad and the Invention of the Almighty Heart — 29
CHAPTER 2: Rekindle The Romance: SAPPHO’S Lyrics, the Odes of Eastern Zhou, and the Invention of the Secret Discloser — 43
CHAPTER 3: Exit Anger: The Book of Job, Sophocles’s Oedipus Tyrannus, and the Invention of the Empathy Generator — 57
CHAPTER 4: Float Above Hurt: AESOP’S Fables, Plato’s Meno, and the Invention of the Serenity Elevator — 71
CHAPTER 5: Excite Your Curiosity: The Epic of Sundiata, the Modern Thriller, and the Invention of the Tale Told from Our Future — 83
CHAPTER 6: Free Your Mind: Dante’s Inferno, Machiavelli’s Innovatori, and the Invention of the Vigilance Trigger — 97
CHAPTER 7: Jettison Your Pessimism: GIOVANNI STRAPAROLA, the original Cinderella, and the Invention of the Fairy Tail Twist — 107
CHAPTER 8: Heal From Grief: – Shakespeare’s Hamlet and the Invention of the Sorrow Resolver — 125
CHAPTER 9: Banish Despair: John Donne’s “Songs” and the Invention of the Mind-Eye Opener — 139
CHAPTER 10: Achieve Self-Acceptance: – Can Zuequin’s Dream of the Red Chamber, Zhuangzi’s “The Tale of Wonton,” and the Invention of the Butterfly Immerser — 153
CHAPTER 11: Ward Off Heartbreak: Jane Austen, Henry Fielding, and the Invention of the Valentine Armor — 167
CHAPTER 12: Energize Your Life: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Modern-Meta Horror, and the Invention of the Stress Transformer — 183
CHAPTER 13: Solve Every Mystery: Francis Bacon, Edgar Allan Poe, and the Invention of the Virtual Scientist — 195
CHAPTER 14: Become Your Better Self: Frederick Douglass, Saint Augustine, Jean-Jaques Rousseau, and the Invention of the Life Evolver — 211
CHAPTER 15: Bounce Back From Failure: George Elliot’s Middlemarch and the Invention of the Gratitude Multiplier — 227
CHAPTER 16: Clear Your Head: “Rashomon,” Julius Caesar, and the Invention of the Second Look — 241
CHAPTER 17: Find Peace Of Mind: Virginia Woolf, Marcel Proust, James Joyce, and the Invention of the Riverbank of Consciousness — 251
CHAPTER 18: Feed Your Creativity: Winnie-the-Pooh, Alice in Wonderland, and the Invention of the Anarchy Rhymer — 273
CHAPTER 19: Unlock Salvation: To Kill a Mockingbird, Shakespeare’s Soliloquy Breakthrough, and the Invention of the Humanity Connector — 287
CHAPTER: 20: Renew Your Future: Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, and the Invention of Revolution Rediscovery — 301
CHAPTER 21: Decide Wiser: Ursula Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness, Thomas More’s Utopia, Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, and the Invention of the Double Alien — 311
CHAPTER 22: Believe In Yourself: Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and the Invention of the Choose Your Own Accopmplice — 327
CHAPTER 23: Unfreeze Your Heart: Alison Bechdel, Euripides, Samuel Beckett, T.S. Eliot, and the Invention of the Clinical Joy — 341
CHAPTER 24: Live Your Dream: Tina Fey’s 30 Rock, a Dash of “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,” and the Invention of the Wish Triumphant — 353
CHAPTER 25: Lessen Your Lonely: Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend, Mario Puzo’s The Godfather, and the Invention of the Childhood Opera — 367
Conclusion: Inventing Tomorrow — 387
Coda: The Secret History Of This Book — 391
Acknowledgements — 401
Notes on Translations, Sources, and Further Reading — 403
Index — 423
Based on the title, I thought this book was going to be a compendium of fictional inventions from science fiction and fantasy novels, lol. Anyway, I’m not sure how much gratitude gets multiplied in MIDDLEMARCH: yes, Dorothea gets to love again, but only by renouncing her late husband’s will (which essentially branded Dorothea an unfaithful wife, which she was not); and the doctor, married to a “fashionable” woman who cries very prettily when she doesn’t get her own way, eventually gives up a life of research in exchange for treating wealthy patients. At one point, he tells his wife that she and their daughters are like a pot of basil that “feasts on the brains of murdered men.” Gratitude indeed!
Deb, I just felt gratitude that George Eliot wrote MIDDLEMARCH!
I must admit that I thought the same thing Deb did until I saw the books being covered. It does look interesting, and if I weren’t so overbooked right now I’d give it a go. Maybe later.
Michael, I think you would enjoy WONDERWORKS. The book covers a lot of ground!
Just doesn’t appeal to me. I also thought what Deb thought, based on the title.
Jeff, I suspect the title WONDERWORKS is a marketing ploy. This is basically a book about Literature and its history.
I imagine that Deb’s, above, isn’t the only argument that this book might encourage…just reading about how both Cheever and Vonnegut acutely felt their lack of well-rounded educations in literature at times.
https://www.neh.gov/article/suburban-dwelling –Cheever
https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2012/januaryfebruary/feature/unhappy-camper –Vonnegut
Todd, we all have gaps in our knowledge. Education can only do so much and then our autodidact gene has to kick in.
I imagine that Deb’s, above, isn’t the only argument that this book might encourage…just reading about how both Cheever and Vonnegut acutely felt their lack of well-rounded educations in literature at times.
https://www.neh.gov/article/suburban-dwelling –Cheever
(two links put my comment in Moderation Land)
And the other:
https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2012/januaryfebruary/feature/unhappy-camper –Vonnegut
Todd, thanks for the links!