Passionate Muse

The emotions a character feels--Hamlet's vengefulness when he realizes his uncle has killed his father Anna Karenina's despair when she feels she can longer sustain her life Marcel's joy when he tastes a piece of madeleine cake--are vital aspects of the experience of fiction. As Keith Oatley points out it's not just the emotions of literary characters such as these in which we are interested. If we didn't ourselves experience emotions we wouldn't go to the play or watch the film or read the book. In <em>The Passionate Muse</em> Oatley who is both a prize-winning novelist and a distinguished research psychologist offers a hybrid book that alternates sections of an original short story One Another with chapters that illuminate the psychology of emotion and fiction. Oatley not only provides insight into how people engage in stories he also illuminates the value of emotion and the importance of stories for our psychological well-being. Indeed he offers evidence that the more fiction we read the better is our understandings of others. Through fiction we come to know more about the emotions of others and ourselves.<br>