A finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism Vivian Gornicks The End of the Novel of Love explores the meaning of love and marriage as literary themes in the twentieth century. In The End of the Novel of Love an acclaimed and provocative collection of criticism Gornick applies the same intelligence honesty and insight that define her memoirs to an analysis of love and marriage as literary themes in the twentieth century. She examines the work and lives of several authors she admiresincluding Grace Paley Willa Cather Jean Rhys George Meredith Jane Smiley Richard Ford and Andre Dubusto ultimately posit that love sexual fulfillment and marriage are now exhausted as the metaphorical expressions of success and happiness. Spanning the depths of common experience and the expanse of twentieth century literature Gornick crafts an argument that is as defined by discourse as it is by the power of her language which is gracefully poised between objective knowledge and subjective experience. In these eleven essays she comes to see that for most writers like most readers it is the drama of our angry and frightened selves in the presence of love that is our modern preoccupation. The End of the Novel of Love is a strikingly original and thoughtprovoking collection from a canonical critic. show more