Letters to a Young Novelist (Spanish: Cartas a un joven novelista) is a non-fiction book by the Nobel Prize-winning Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa, published in 1997.[1] An English translation by Natasha Wimmer was published in 2001. In 2011, the book was listed byThe Guardian among the 100 best non-fiction books.[2]
 Cover of 1997 first edition | |
| Author | Mario Vargas Llosa |
|---|---|
| Original title | Cartas a un joven novelista |
| Translator | Natasha Wimmer |
| Language | Spanish |
| Genre | Literary criticism (writing manual) |
Publication date | 1997 |
| Pages | 136 |
Following in the footsteps of Rainer Maria Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet, Vargas Llosa in Letters to a Young Novelist discusses important tools and techniques of writing in eleven essays, in some cases using a classic text as an example, using letters as an organizational principle.[3] However, unlike in Rilke's book, the "young novelist" of the title is generally understood to be a conceit; there is no intended recipient other than the reader.[4]
Contents
editThe eleven essays (and postscript) of the book are titled as follows:
- The Parable of the Tapeworm
- The Catoblepas
- The Power of Persuasion
- Style
- The Narrator and Narrative Space
- Time
- Levels of Reality
- Shifts and Qualitative Leaps
- Chinese Boxes
- The Hidden Fact
- Communicating Vessels
- By Way of a P.S.
References
edit- ^ Barrós, Manuel (28 March 2017). "Libro de la semana: Cartas a un joven novelista de Mario Vargas Llosa". Casa de la Literatura Peruana (in Spanish).
- ^ "The 100 greatest non-fiction books". The Guardian. 14 June 2011.
- ^ "LETTERS TO A YOUNG NOVELIST". Kirkus Reviews. 15 April 2002.
- ^ Axelrod, Mark (Spring 2004). "Mario Vargas Llosa. Letters to a Young Novelist". The Review of Contemporary Fiction. 23 (1) – via Gale Literature Resource Center.
External links
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