The Cambridge Companion to Prose
Cambridge Companions to Literature Series

This Companion provides an introduction to the craft of prose. It considers the technical aspects of style that contribute to the art of prose, examining the constituent parts of prose through a widening lens, from the smallest details of punctuation and wording to style more broadly conceived. The book is concerned not only with prose fiction but with creative non-fiction, a growing area of interest for readers and aspiring writers. Written by internationally-renowned critics, novelists and biographers, the essays provide readers and writers with ways of understanding the workings of prose. They are exemplary of good critical practice, pleasurable reading for their own sake, and both informative and inspirational for practising writers. The Cambridge Companion to Prose will serve as a key resource for students of English literature and of creative writing.

Introduction: Daniel Tyler; Part I. Parts of Prose: 1. Punctuation Bharat Tandon; 2. Words Garrett Stewart; 3. Sentences Daniel Tyler; 4. Paragraphs Jenny Davidson; 5. Chapters James Williams; 6. Perspective Ruth Bernard Yeazell; 7. Style Michael Hurley; Part II. Prose Genres: 8. Realist Prose James Wood; 9. Comic Prose Jonathan Greenberg and David Galef; 10. Gothic Prose Alison Milbank; 11. Science Fiction Adam Roberts; 12. Travel Writing Roslyn Jolly; 13. Nature Writing Richard Kerridge; 14. Life Writing Jay Parini; Further Reading; Index.

Daniel Tyler is Fellow and Director of Studies in English at Trinity Hall at the University of Cambridge. He is the editor of three essay collections: Dickens's Style (2013), Poetry in the Making (2020), and On Style in Victorian Fiction (forthcoming, 2020). He previously edited Dickens's The Uncommercial Traveller (2015) and is now editing Bleak House for the Oxford Dickens.