Project Gutenberg 2025-07-07 Public domain in the USA. 282 Besant, Walter 1836 1901 Besant, Sir Walter Maurice, Walter The art of fiction $aLondon :$bChatto & Windus, $c1884, pubdate 1902. "A lecture delivered at the Royal Institution, April 25, 1884" Al Haines "The art of fiction by Walter Besant" is a lecture-essay on literary criticism and the craft of novel-writing from the late 19th century, in the Victorian era. It argues that fiction is a fine art equal to painting, sculpture, music, and poetry, and concisely sets out what storytellers should aim to do. The lecture advances three core claims: fiction is a true art; it is guided by general laws that can be learned; and, like other arts, it still requires innate talent. It defines fiction’s domain as humanity, praising its power to cultivate sympathy and to teach through selection, suppression, and suggestion. It lays down practical rules: rely on real observation and experience; keep human interest foremost; select only what advances character and story; present scenes dramatically; conceive characters clearly; believe wholly in the tale; and write with patient, finished style and a moral sense. It insists that story is indispensable, though invention cannot be taught, and urges studying the construction of great novels. An appendix offers direct advice to beginners on revising, seeking honest criticism, navigating publishers, and never paying to publish, closing with encouragement about the art’s present strength and future promise. (This is an automatically generated summary.) https://archive.org/details/artoffiction0000besa 20250706103556besant 1884 GB Reading ease score: 58.5 (10th to 12th grade). Somewhat difficult to read. en Fiction -- Technique PN Text Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches Category: British Literature Category: How To ... Category: Journalism/Media/Writing 97707 2025-07-30T08:17:02.557668 text/html 73738 2025-07-07T19:22:13 text/html 215015 2025-07-30T08:17:04.935652 application/epub+zip 213753 2025-07-30T08:17:03.146639 application/epub+zip 102352 2025-07-30T08:17:02.844624 application/epub+zip 258980 2025-07-30T08:17:06.442588 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 250468 2025-07-30T08:17:04.597620 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 87900 2025-07-30T08:17:02.309657 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 68207 2025-07-07T19:22:13 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 13773 2025-07-30T08:17:06.591587 application/rdf+xml 27280 2025-07-30T08:17:02.920619 image/jpeg 3964 2025-07-30T08:17:02.881635 image/jpeg 306575 2025-07-30T08:17:02.574672 application/octet-stream application/zip Archives containing the RDF files for *all* our books can be downloaded at https://book.klll.cc/wiki/Gutenberg:Feeds#The_Complete_Project_Gutenberg_Catalog en.wikipedia