Savage Reprisals
Bleak House, Madame Bovary, Buddenbrooks
16 January 2004
Description
A revelatory work that examines the intricate relationship between history and literature, truth and fiction—with some surprising conclusions.
Typically, readers believe that fiction, especially the Realist novels that dominated Western culture for most of the nineteenth century and beyond, is based on historical truth and that great novels possess a documentary value. That trust, Gay brilliantly shows, is misplaced; novels take their own path to reality. Using Dickens, Flaubert, and Mann as his examples, Gay explores their world, their craftsmanship, and their minds. In the process, he discovers that all three share one overriding quality: a resentment and rage against the society that sustains the novel itself. Using their stylish writing as a form of revenge, they deal out savage reprisals, which have become part of our Western literary canon. A New York Times Notable Book and a Best Book of 2002.
Reviews
"The great strength of these essays is that they are truly a pleasure to read: lucid, accessible, sharp, entertaining and witty, written in crisp, inviting prose." — Merle Rubin, Los Angeles Times
"Peter Gay, the prominent cultural historian, here does a skillful turn as a literary critic....Reading Savage Reprisals is like sitting in a college lecture hall and listening to a seasoned professor perform scintillating riffs on masterworks and their contexts." — David Reynolds, New York Times
"A provocative triptych of essays....Written in elegant prose, and wearing its extensive scholarship lightly...continually stimulating." — San Francisco Chronicle
Also By: Peter Gay 
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