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Index
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Table of Contents
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INTRODUCTION
GREAT OPENERS
PART I - WRITERS
WHAT DO HOMER AND JAY-Z HAVE IN COMMON? - Bards and epic storytelling
HOW DID STARVING WRITERS PAY THE BILLS? - The patrons, odd jobs, and odder merchandising of the masters
IS COFFEE OR OPIUM BETTER FOR CREATIVITY? - Writers and their rotten habits
WHY ARE THE BEST AUTOBIOGRAPHIES SO EMBARRASSING? - Humiliating confessions from St. Augustine to Augusten Burroughs
WHY COULDN’T F. SCOTT FITZGERALD WRITE A DECENT MOVIE? - Hollywood adaptations and why most novelists shouldn’t quit their day jobs
ARE SHORT STORY WRITERS LESS MATURE THAN NOVELISTS? - Why size matters, and when a novella is really just a novel
HOW DO YOU WRITE THE GREAT AMERICAN (OR BRITISH OR FRENCH) NOVEL? - Writing habits of the greats
PART II - READERS
CAN BIG BOOK SALES LEAD TO MASS SUICIDE? - The history of bestsellers from John Bunyan to Dan Brown
WHY DON’T TODAY’S WRITERS HAVE AS MANY GROUPIES AS LORD BYRON? - The rise and fall of literary celebrity
DID ROBINSON CRUSOE TEACH JAMES FREY TO LIE? - The long history of fake memoirs and literary hoaxes
WHO’S AFRAID OF JANE AUSTEN? - Novelists’ battle for respectability
WHEN DOES BOOK BURNING ACTUALLY HELP FREE SPEECH? - The follies of censorship and its backlash
WHAT DID CHILDREN READ BEFORE THERE WAS CHILDREN’S LITERATURE? - The battle for fun in kids’ books, from hornbooks to Harry Potter
PART III - WORKS
WHO ELEVATED INSULTS TO AN ART FORM? - When authors attack (with invective and satire)
WHAT MAKES SOMETHING ODE-WORTHY? - The surprising range of the lyrical poem
WHEN DID LITERATURE FINALLY GET SEXY? - How Shakespeare and others slipped sex into their works
WHY IS SATAN THE GREATEST BAD GUY EVER? - Literary villains and why we love them
WHY DID ROMANTICS LOVE TERROR (AND NOT HORROR)? - Gothic fiction and ghost stories
WHY DO SOME DETECTIVES USE THEIR MINDS AND OTHERS THEIR FISTS? - The crime-solving skills of Holmes, Marlowe, and more
WHAT OTHER UNCONTROLLABLE MONSTER DID DR. FRANKENSTEIN INVENT? - The birth and spread of science fiction
CONCLUSION: LAST WORDS
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
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