How to Read a Novel.

New York, NY The Viking Press: Compass Editions, 1964. Paperback First Ed thus, so stated. EX-LIBRARY COPY, DISCARDED, showing a sticker at the bottom of the back strip and a card pocket at the inside of the front cover, but no other library markings, and WITH A NUMBER OF VERY FAINT PENCIL MARKINGS IN THE TEXT. Else, Good in Wraps: shows indications of considerable use: heavy wear to the extremities, with a number of creases, especially at the front panel and a short, closed; tear at the outside edge of the front panel, which has been carefully tape repaired; significant rubbing to the wrapper cover; very slight spine lean; light sunning at the lower portion of the front panel and at the back strip; the first twenty-five pages are inadvertently creased at the lower corner tip. The binding remains secure. Despite it's many noted flaws remains a sturdy reading copy. NOT a Remainder or Book-Club. 8vo. 248pp. First Ed thus, so stated. Trade Paperback. Caroline Gordon's HOW TO READ A NOVEL is an apology for intelligent reading of fiction. Using classic examples in literture, Gordon moves from the value and danger of first person narrative to the importance of complication and resolution. Writing in the era of what her close friend, Flannery O'Connor called the Christ-haughted South, she also explains in detail why good fiction deals with theft, and rape, and murder. It is true to life, and if a novel isn't true to life, then it has no value. Although hard to find anymore, if you can get a clean copy, it is well worth it.