The Novel Now: A Guide to Contemporary Fiction by Anthony Burgess [FIRST EDITION • FIRST PRINTING] 1967 • W.W. Norton

'The germ of this book', says the author, 'is a little British Council pamphlet I wrote on the state of the British novel in the early nineteen-sixties. The audience I addressed then was not very different from the one I seek now. This survey (which is about the novel and the novel only) is not for the well-read reader who needs gaps-as in an otherwise perfect set of teeth—to be filled elegantly, nor for those who hunger after criticism in depth; it is for those, especially the young, who are starting to take the art of the novel seriously and want to organize their reading economically.' Mr. Burgess writes with the authority of wide reading and his own practice; the result is a guide that is both stimulating and informative. Bibliographical summaries of each chapter and full indexes of authors and titles complete the book as a valuable work of reference.