Table of Contents

PROLOGUE: A Real Madeleine Is a Work of Art 1 CHAPTER ONE: Salammbo: Three Rough Stones beneath a Rainy Sky 13 CHAPTER TWO: The Sacred Fount: The Case of the Man Who Suddenly Grew Smart 47 CHAPTER THREE: The Ambassadors: What He Saw Was Exactly the Right Thing 71 CHAPTER FOUR: Lolita: A Beautiful, Banal, Eden-Red Apple 103 CHAPTER FIVE: A Simple Heart: Felicite and the Holy Parrot 133 Acknowledgments 145 Notes 147 Index 167

About the Author

Myra Jehlen is the Board of Governors Professor of Literature at Rutgers University. Her books include American Incarnation and Readings at the Edge of Literature.

Reviews

"If her Readings at the Edge of Literature did not reveal Jehlen as a formidable critic, this study of five novels should. The book defies easy categorization as it probes and interrogates reality and its truths."--Choice "Five Fictions in Search of Truth is wise to attend to writers' confrontations with reality, since such moments, once give a form as style, afford readers an unequaled perspective on truths that never quite seem to be overcome by prevailing skepticism and disbelief."--Larry T. Shillock, Bloomsbury Review