Number and Nightmare: Forms of Fantasy in Contemporary Fiction

Hamden, CT: Archon Books, 1975 Book. Fine. Hardcover. First Edition. 8vo. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good-Very Good +. 244 pp, credits and acknowledgments, preface, Introduction - The Post-existential World: Image and Counter-Image; Part I. Number: 1. Joseph Heller: At War with Absurdity; 2. John Barth: Imitations of Imitations; 3. James Purdy: Fidelity to Failure; 4. Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.: The Sirens of Satire. Part II. Nightmare: 5 Anthony Burgess: Double Vision; 6. Iris Murdoch: The Revelation of Reality; 7. William Golding: Islands; Afterthoughts, notes, bibliography, index. First Edition, 1975. " As these novelists go beyond the ideology expressed in the writings of Satre and Camus, the author examines the relation of each to his same past and the fantasy techniques each has created in response to the notion of the absurd dilemma. The novelists of number agree with th e Existentialist premise that man's relationship to his universe is fundamentally absurd; that it is anti-literature, anti-myth destructive of form. The novel of number takes the reader systematically and ligically toward nothing, toward the void, by breaking down one by one his expectations of realism. On the other hand, the novelists of nightmare respond by believing that the world has order even if man cannot discover its meaning and even if it does not contribute to his happiness, and is a constructive form. Each of these writiers creates myths, and move the reader towards recognition of an all-inclusive world, a puzzle in which all pieces fit." from the jacket flap. Price clipped. Minor edge wear to dj with lightly age-toned rear panel of same, else, Pristine, no wear. Clean, tight and strong binding with no underlining, highlighting or marginalia. Red mottled boards..