This book contains close readings of the opening pages of 24 widely taught texts, from Robinson Crusoe to The Buddha of Suburbia. Offering a wide coverage of English literature from the 18th to the 20th centuries, Reading Fiction illustrates a diverse range of approaches to the close reading of prose fiction. Childs' analyses are to both an overview of modes of fiction over the last 300 years as well as a guide to the methods and techniques of close reading.