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Critical Survey of Long Fiction, 2d Rev. Ed.

The Critical Survey of Long Fiction, Second Revised Edition, follows in the Magill tradition of Critical Survey series, providing in-depth overviews of major authors in one of the major literary genres: long fiction (the novel, novella, and related long forms).

Consisting of eight volumes covering 463 world authors and 52 major areas of study, the current reference work both updates and substantially adds to the previous editions of the Critical Survey from which it is partially drawn: the Critical Survey of Long Fiction, English Language Series, Revised Edition (1991) and the Critical Survey of Long Fiction, Foreign Language Series (1984). First, the current Second Revised Edition combines the most important and most often studied authors from both of the older sets: Of the 332 English-language authors in the 1991 revised edition, 298 have been retained, the remainder weeded because they are rarely or no longer taught; of the original 182 foreign-language authors in the 1984 foreign-language series, 103 were selected for inclusion in this Second Revised Edition; and of the combined 401 author essays, fully 138 have been substantially updated. To these have been added 62 new author essays, covering figures previously omitted or who, over the past decade, have earned their place in classroom discussion--from such classic authors as Louisa May Alcott, Isaac Asimov, and Alan Paton to established contemporary voices such as Rudolfo A. Anaya, Bebe Moore Campbell, Barbara Kingsolver, Michael Ondaatje, Leslie Marmon Silko, and Tom Wolfe.

Librarians and their patrons often wonder what a publisher means by "updating"--especially relevant to a compilation of essays many of which concern writers who are still actively contributing to their body of work. All parts of the essays were scrutinized: The authors' latest books and other publications were added to the front-matter and back-matter listings of their works; new translations were added to listings for foreign-language authors; and deceased authors' listings were re-checked for accuracy as well as currency. Having identified 263 of the original articles as not in need of substantial updating (most of these authors died long ago), Salem's editors and researchers nevertheless reviewed all listings for these authors, and Editor Carl Rollyson carefully reviewed these authors' annotated bibliographies, weeding out superseded citations and adding in previously overlooked, new, and important entries for students who are seeking secondary sources for further study. In addition, those 138 author essays deemed in need of updating by academic experts received similar and even fuller attention: Each section of text was reviewed to ensure that, for example, major awards were added to "Achievements"; that new biographical details were incorporated into "Biography" for still-living authors; and that the "Analysis" examined one or more recently published works of long fiction. The bibliographies of these articles were also updated.

The first seven volumes of the resulting Second Revised Edition, therefore, contain 463 essays on novelists likely to be studied in most high school and undergraduate classrooms in the English-speaking world. They are arranged alphabetically by author's last name. The basic format of these articles remains the same as in the previous edition of the Critical Survey: Beginning with full data on dates and places of birth and death, ready-reference top matter includes a list of the author's "Principal Long Fiction" (original title, original date of publication, English title-in-translation, and English translation date). The brief overview of "Other Literary Forms" places the author in a larger literary context: The fact that Samuel Beckett was equally well known as a dramatist, for example, or that Ann Beattie is also a major voice in the short form, is noted here. Two longer sections, "Achievements" and "Biography," follow. The former summarizes the author's innovations and contributions to literature, as well as noting any major honors and awards. The latter rehearses the basic life events, from birth and upbringing to death (or the present day, for authors still living).

The meat of the author essays will be found in the section headed "Analysis," in which the author's work in the long fiction form is described and examined in terms of its themes, typical concerns, characters, motifs, and the like. Subsections within this major portion of the text are headed plainly with the titles of works that receive special or prolonged attention. It is here that students will learn, for example, that William Melvin Kelley's novels are sufficiently interrelated to be called sagas, as well as other general information about the writer's novelistic production. In the subsections that follow, students will find description and analysis of selected important novels--learning, for example, that Kelley's A Different Drummer, set in the Civil Rights era, bases its narrative in the fundamental issues of race relations in the United States.

The final section of each of the author essays, "Bibliography" lists both classic and up-to-date resources deemed most useful to students approaching the writer's work for the first time. Candidates for inclusion in the Bibliography include biographies, literary surveys, monographs, and other book-length secondary works geared to a student or general audience; occasionally, however, journal articles, interviews, or chapters in books are also included--particularly where book-length works are less likely to be widely available (as for very contemporary novelists such as Paul Auster). As previously mentioned, each of the older essays' bibliographies was reviewed and updated; the 62 newly written author essays contain bibliographies that are up to date by virtue of having been generated within a few months of publication.

Volume 8 has been devoted to a set of 53 surveys of long fiction, arranged in four sections: Long Fiction in History (chronological overviews), World Long Fiction (covering major regions of the world), North American Long Fiction (covering various groups and genres in the United States and Canada), and Genre Overviews (addressing prominent ongoing subgenres, from the detective novel to feminist fiction). These lengthy essays include not only updated versions of all but two of the original essays from the English Language Series and the Foreign Language Series but also 22 entirely new essays to round out the set. Hence, for example, the old "Long Fiction in Antiquity" has been revised thoroughly and now appears as "Long Fiction in the Ancient Greco-Roman World," while "Origins and Development of the Novel, Since 1890" has been revised and updated as "Origins and Development of the Novel, 1890-1980" and a new essay, "Contemporary Long Fiction," has been added to review trends in the postwar world. "Postcolonial Long Fiction" also examines recent trends in a contemporary global community where issues of diversity and cultural conflict are increasingly expressed, and addressed, through fiction. Similarly, to the plate of updated essays covering parts of the world--from "African Long Fiction" and "Chinese Long Fiction" through "Spanish Long Fiction"--have been added several previously neglected, including "The Australian Novel," "Irish Long Fiction," and "The Middle Eastern Novel." North America has experienced a blossoming of interest in the long-fiction form as practiced by African Americans, Asian Americans, Canadians, Caribbeans, Jewish Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, immigrants, and Southerners--all of whom are represented in discrete essays here, for the first time. Finally, to the standard subgenre overviews, from the epistolary novel to the science-fiction novel, we have added several new essays to fill gaps and address major new areas of study, "Experimental Long Fiction," "Feminist Long Fiction," "Gay and Lesbian Long Fiction," "The Horror Novel," and "Self-Reflexive Long Fiction" among them.

Volume 8 ends with several tools for further research and better access to the wealth of information contained in the Second Revised Edition: An updated "Glossary of Literary Terms" defines basic literary concepts. The "Chronological List of Authors" organizes the 463 novelists covered in these volumes into a time line by year of birth, allowing students to identify contemporaries quickly. The "Geographical List of Authors" will give those looking for all Russians covered in these pages quick access to those authors. A "Categorized List of Authors" organizes each author under subgenre and subject matter headings. Finally, the Subject Index lists all titles, authors, and literary movements or terms that receive substantial discussion in these volumes.