A revelatory work that examines the intricate relationship between history and literature, truth and fiction—with some surprising conclusions. Focusing on three literary masterpieces—Charles Dickens's Bleak House (1853), Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary (1857), and Thomas Mann's Buddenbrooks (1901)—Peter Gay, a leading cultural historian, demonstrates that there is more than one way to read a novel.

Typically, readers believe that fiction, especially the Realist novels that dominated Western culture for most of the nineteenth century and beyond, is based on historical truth and that great novels possess a documentary value. That trust, Gay brilliantly shows, is misplaced; novels take their own path to reality. Using Dickens, Flaubert, and Mann as his examples, Gay explores their world, their craftsmanship, and their minds. In the process, he discovers that all three share one overriding quality: a resentment and rage against the society that sustains the novel itself. Using their stylish writing as a form of revenge, they deal out savage reprisals, which have become part of our Western literary canon. A New York Times Notable Book and a Best Book of 2002.

彼得·蓋伊(Peter Gay)，美國文化史傢，德裔猶太人，1923年齣生於柏林，1939年離開德國，1941年移民美國，後加入美籍。先後就讀美國丹佛大學和哥倫比亞大學，1948～1969年執教哥倫比亞大學，1969一1993年在耶魯大學任教。現為耶魯大學斯特林榮休教授，紐約公共圖書館學者與作傢中心主任。蓋伊著作等身，論題涉及啓濛運動、中産階級等諸多社會文化史領域，以倡導“運用精神分析方法的文化史”而聞名，此外，他還緻力於探討弗洛伊德對德國文化以及曆史學研究的影響，是心理分析史學的實踐者。在其學術生涯早期，以“啓濛運動：一種解釋"第一捲(1966年版)榮獲美國國傢圖書奬，後期完成五捲本巨著((布爾喬亞經驗：從維多利亞到弗洛伊德》(1984一1998年版)。2004年，蓋伊榮獲美國曆史學會(AHA)傑齣學術貢獻奬。