Overview

'A subversive, brilliant and beautifully written book about love, play and power in fiction and in the well-read life' - Sarah Moss, author of Summerwater Romantic love was born alongside the novel, and books have been shaping how we experience and think about our most intimate stories ever since. But what do novels give us when our own lives diverge from the usual narrative paths? Christina is a professor used to examining stories with a critical eye; until one day in middle age she finds herself falling in love and leaving her marriage for a romance with another woman. This involves a familiar enough tale, but when her new partner suffers a stroke, Tina begins to reflect on the sorts of love that novels rarely capture. A heady mix of memoir, criticism and storytelling that draws on novels ranging from Pride and Prejudice to Price of Salt, Anna Karenina to Conversations with Friends, to illuminate the ways love and novels work, and show how some types of love, which don't race to a narrative end-point, might be the most important of all. 'A delicious combination of critical thought and passionate personal experience.' - Tanya Shadrick, author of The Cure for Sleep

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9781788166478

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Reviews

'In this eloquent, captivating conversation between memoir and criticism, Christina Lupton also offers a mesmerizing love song to the experience of reading in its own right.' - David James, author of Discrepant Solace 'Tina Lupton's eloquent account of an unexpected real-life plot twist marries critical prowess and a gripping story, in an honest and fantastically insightful book.' - Laura Kipnis, author of 'Love in the Time of Contagion' 'Lupton's unsparing memoir forces us to re-examine the lives lived on our bookshelves and in our heads.' - Leah Price, author of 'What We Talk About When We Talk About Books' 'Such a rich exploration of love in all its forms (marital, adulterous; for children, friends). I love how Christina Lupton summons an iconic cast of our favourite fictional lovers ... even as her own desires carry her far beyond many of their teachings. A delicious combination of critical thought and passionate personal experience.' - Tanya Shadrick, author of 'The Cure for Sleep' 'A subversive, brilliant and beautifully written book about love, play and power in fiction and in the well-read life' - Sarah Moss

A subversive, brilliant and beautifully written book about love, play and power in fiction and in the well-read life -- Sarah Moss

In this eloquent, captivating conversation between memoir and criticism, Christina Lupton also offers a mesmerizing love song to the experience of reading in its own right. -- David James, author of Discrepant Solace Tina Lupton's eloquent account of an unexpected real-life plot twist marries critical prowess and a gripping story, in an honest and fantastically insightful book. -- Laura Kipnis, author of 'Love in the Time of Contagion' Lupton's unsparing memoir forces us to re-examine the lives lived on our bookshelves and in our heads. -- Leah Price, author of 'What We Talk About When We Talk About Books' Such a rich exploration of love in all its forms (marital, adulterous; for children, friends). I love how Christina Lupton summons an iconic cast of our favourite fictional lovers ... even as her own desires carry her far beyond many of their teachings. A delicious combination of critical thought and passionate personal experience. -- Tanya Shadrick, author of 'The Cure for Sleep' A subversive, brilliant and beautifully written book about love, play and power in fiction and in the well-read life -- Sarah Moss Do novels help us know how to love? Is middle-aged passion worth upending your life and stability for? Instead of turning to shrinks to solve our romantic travails, clearly we should be turning to literature professors. Tina Lupton's eloquent account of an unexpected real-life plot twist marries critical prowess and a gripping story, in an honest and fantastically insightful book. -- Laura Kipnis, author of 'Love in the Time of Contagion' Interspersing self-examination with an equally gripping analysis of the texts that have made and remade their reader, Lupton's unsparing memoir forces us to re-examine the lives lived on our bookshelves and in our heads. -- Leah Price, author of What We Talk About When We Talk About Books What happens when you fall in love and discover in yourself such urgency to be with your beloved that you overturn all the certainties and structures of your life? What next?This haunting and highly personal account is studded with memorable insights into dozens of the novels about love and loss that long shaped Lupton's professional and personal life, but its true contribution is to show us how and why even the most impassioned reader can't ultimately take novels as a blueprint for living. -- Jenny Davidson, author of 'Reading Styles: A Life in Sentences'

A subversive, brilliant and beautifully written book about love, play and power in fiction and in the well-read life -- Sarah Moss Across this captivating book, Christina Lupton brings literature into a moving dialogue with experience to limn the contours of romance as they glide out of sync with expectation. This eloquent conversation between memoir and criticism is also a mesmerizing love song to reading in its own right. -- David James, author of Discrepant Solace: Contemporary Literature and the Work of Consolation Interspersing self-examination with an equally gripping analysis of the texts that have made and remade their reader, Lupton's unsparing memoir forces us to re-examine the lives lived on our bookshelves and in our heads. -- Leah Price, author of What We Talk About When We Talk About Books

A subversive, brilliant and beautifully written book about love, play and power in fiction and in the well-read life -- Sarah Moss In this eloquent, captivating conversation between memoir and criticism, Christina Lupton also offers a mesmerizing love song to the experience of reading in its own right. -- David James, author of Discrepant Solace: Contemporary Literature and the Work of Consolation Interspersing self-examination with an equally gripping analysis of the texts that have made and remade their reader, Lupton's unsparing memoir forces us to re-examine the lives lived on our bookshelves and in our heads. -- Leah Price, author of What We Talk About When We Talk About Books Such a rich exploration of love in all its forms (marital, adulterous; for children, friends). I love how Christina Lupton summons an iconic cast of our favourite fictional lovers ... even as her own desires carry her far beyond many of their teachings. A delicious combination of critical thought and passionate personal experience. -- Tanya Shadrick, author of 'The Cure for Sleep'

Author Information

Christina Lupton is a literature professor at the University of Warwick. Her new edition of Pride and Prejudice (Oxford University Press, 2019) contains an introductory essay about love that was the germ of Love and the Novel. Tina's writing has appeared in many publications including Avidly, n+1, Politics/Letters, the LARB and TLS.

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