Alumni Services

MOOC: How to Read a Novel (#FLnovel)

The University has relaunched this popular free online course, which offers an insight into some of the books and authors shortlisted for this year’s James Tait Black Prizes, the UK’s longest -running literary awards.

A hand holding open book
Image credit: Reading by Sam Greenhalgh CC BY 2.0

What makes a great novel? How is a novel woven together? How can we best appreciate works of fiction?

Answer these questions and more with this course from the University of Edinburgh and the Edinburgh International Book Festival.

On the course you’ll discover four of the main building blocks of modern fiction: plot, characterisation, dialogue, and setting using examples from a range of texts including the four novels shortlisted for the James Tait Black fiction prize. You’ll also explore the formal strategies authors use, how they came to be, and how they affect us as readers.

Find out more and enrol at FutureLearn (external link)

FLNovel Twitter page (external link)