A handbook for the study of fiction – Lynn Altenbernd - Leslie L. Lewis – Macmillan – 1969 – Blanda

**A handbook for the study of fiction**: Introduction:

The three little books called A Handbook for the Study of Fiction, A Handbook for the Study of Poetry, and A Handbook for the Study of Drama are revisions and enlargements of the handbook sections in our Introduction to Literature: Stories, Poems, Plays. In their present form the handbooks are intended for use with editions of individual works or with any anthology that lacks similar instructional materials. These books are intended to facilitate rather than to forestall classroom discussion -hence, they set forth their principles briefly, without elaboration, and with modest amounts of illustration. The authors have concentrated on preliminary and elementary suggestions for reading literary works. Thus the student with little earlier experience in these matters may find help in getting started, whereas the more advanced student should find the handbooks useful for review. Often the teacher may wish to develop points beyond our discussion of them or, if the class procedure is inductive, to use the handbooks as references that succinetly summarize the discussion. Of course, they are no substitute for the guidance of an intelligent and sympathetic teacher.
The study of the elements of fiction may be delayed until the student knows enough stories to enable him to add examples from his own reading and to test the handbook's observations by his own experience. Also at some point it is useful for the student to become conscious of a method of literary analysis, but that moment is best determined by the teacher in the classroom.