The naive and the sentimental novelist (Tapa blanda)

What happens within us when we read a novel? And how does a novel create its unique effects, so distinct from those of a painting, a film or a poem? In this inspired, thoughtful and deeply personal book, which is based on his Charles Eliot Norton Lectures, Orhan Pamuk takes us into the worlds of the writer and the reader, revealing their intimate connections.

Pamuk draws on Friedrich Schiller's famous distinction between 'naive' poets who write spontaneously, serenely, unselfconsciously and 'sentimental' poets: those who are reflective, emotional, questioning and alive to the artifice of the written word.

Harking back to the beloved novels of his youth and ranging through the work of such writers as Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Stendhal, Flaubert and Proust he explores the oscillation between the naive and the reflective, and the search for equilibrium, that lie at the centre of the novelist's craft.

He ponders the novel's visual and sensual power its ability to conjure landscapes so vivid they can make the here and now fade away.

In the course of this exploration, he considers the elements of character, plot, time and setting that compose the 'sweet illusion' of the fictional world.

Anyone who has known the pleasure of becoming immersed in a novel will enjoy, and learn from, this perceptive book by one of the modern masters of the art.