The Art of History: Unlocking the Past in Fiction and Nonfiction

by Christopher Bram, Charles Baxter (Editor)

Overview

One has to look no further than the audiences hungry for the narratives served up by Downton Abbey or Wolf Hall to know that the lure of the past is as seductive as ever. But incorporating historical events and figures into a shapely narrative is no simple task. The acclaimed novelist Christopher Bram examines how writers as disparate as Gabriel García Márquez, David McCullough, Toni Morrison, Leo Tolstoy, and many others have employed history in their work.

Unique among the "Art Of" series, The Art of History engages with both fiction and narrative nonfiction to reveal varied strategies of incorporating and dramatizing historical detail. Bram challenges popular notions about historical narratives as he examines both successful and flawed passages to illustrate how authors from different genres treat subjects that loom large in American history, such as slavery and the Civil War. And he delves deep into the reasons why War and Peace endures as a classic of historical fiction. Bram's keen insight and close reading of a wide array of authors make The Art of History an essential volume for any lover of historical narrative.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781555977436
Publisher:	Graywolf Press
Publication date:	07/05/2016
Series:	Art of... Series
Pages:	184
Sales rank:	283,008
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 6.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Christopher Bram is the author of nine novels, including Father of Frankenstein, which was made into the filmGods and Monsters. His book on the craft of writing, The Art of History, is forthcoming from Graywolf Press. He lives in New York and teaches at New York University.

Editorial Reviews

Bram’s clear command of the subject gives him the authority to dispense concise criticism of the genres in such a short book without it seeming rushed or abbreviated. . . . An excellent introduction with a conversational style that makes Bram’s criticism accessible to anyone with even a modest interest in historical storytelling.”—PopMatters

“An amiable stroll through selected works of history and historical fiction. . . . Though Bram acknowledges how we can benefit from history, learn from it, and deepen our perspective, it’s refreshing that he underscores the pure pleasure of reading and that he takes such delight in it.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Exploration, appreciation and instruction combine in this slim, accessible study of literary history and historical literature.”—Shelf Awareness

“Christopher Bram’s The Art of History is another insightful and informative entry in Graywolf’s The Art of... series, one that explores the value in reading books on history and historical fiction.”—Largehearted Boy

“Bram is a smart, enthusiastic and well-read guide who illuminates the pleasure of discovering history in books, as well as the various ways authors interpret and re-present truth.”—Philadelphia Gay News

“Delightful. . . . A must-have book for anyone looking to hone their historical writing craft, as well as for anyone who loves the genre and wants to immerse themselves in the intricacies of the historical narrative.” —Historical Novel Society

From the Publisher

2016-04-13
An amiable stroll through selected works of history and historical fiction, showing how the lines between them blur and how each can inform the other.The author of nine novels and two works of nonfiction, Bram (Eminent Outlaws: The Gay Writers Who Changed America, 2012, etc.) plainly delights in reading about the past and is only discriminate about quality, not genre, as he feeds his "history addiction." He immerses himself in the historical past for all the usual reasons and not necessarily the most high-minded: "I believe history's original appeal is as pure escape," he writes. "The past offers a fact-based fantasy, a dream with footnotes….As the flight attendants instruct us before takeoff, ‘The nearest exit may be behind you.' " Though Bram acknowledges how we can benefit from history, learn from it, and deepen our perspective, it's refreshing that he underscores the pure pleasure of reading and that he takes such delight in it. He believes that "much can be gained by treating fiction and nonfiction as different sides of the same mountain" and that "while fiction strives for the condition of history, many history books hope to achieve the high drama of novels." The author shows how some of the most successful and popular works of history employ narrative momentum and character development that could be termed novelistic, while historical novels (War and Peace is "the gold standard of historical fiction") depend on researched detail and plausibility. The author's argument isn't as provocative as some of his counterintuitive judgments on highly praised works and authors, including Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall ("a Game of Thrones for highbrows") and Cormac McCarthy: "After you scrape off the fancy prose style, his novel Blood Meridian could be just the fantasy of a really mean fourteen-year-old boy who's seen too many Sergio Leone movies." Though Bram teaches at NYU, there's no hint of academic stuffiness in a book that offers the joy of reading as well as praising it.

Kirkus Reviews