I am indebted to my colleagues and students at Cornell where I have
been teaching for seventeen years. In particular, I have had the
privilege of knowing M. H. Abrams, whose example as a scholar
and colleague has had an incalculable effect on my work. I also
appreciate the friendship, generosity, and encouragement of Anthony
Caputi, Michael Colacurcio, Tom Hill, and David Novarr. Some of the
material in the book was first presented to an informal colloquium of
graduate students with whom I was working during the period I wrote
this book. I wish to acknowledge the help of Barrett Fisher, Helen
Maxson, Beth Newman, Margaret Nichols, Paul Russell, Steven
Sicari, William Thickstun, and Caroline Webb. Directing a 1984
Summer Seminar for College Teachers for the National Endowment
for the Humanities helped me clarify my introduction and my final
chapter; I am grateful to the participants. The good-natured and
thorough secretarial help of Phillis Molock is invaluable to my work.
Mira Batra has been helpful with the index and page proofs. As the
dedication indicates, I owe a great debt to my wife.

Parts of the manuscript appeared as articles elsewhere and are
repeated by permission of the editors. An earlier version of Chapter 4
appeared in Diacritics (autumn 1978); a version of Chapter 5 appeared
in The Journal of Narrative Technique (spring 1983); a version of
Chapter 8 appeared in The Centennial Review (autumn 1984-winter
1985). Parts of Chapter 7 first appeared in The Sewanee Review, 93
( 1985) under the title "'Reading as a Moral Activity'". A version of
Chapter 2 was published as "'The Importance of E. M. Forster's
Aspects of the Novel'" in The South Atlantic Quarterly, 82:2, pp. 189-
205, copyright © 1983 by Duke University Press, Durham, N.C.

Cornell University DANIEL R. SCHWARZ
Ithaca, New York

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