'How much elation I got out of savage and precise wit!'

Nicholas Dames' masterclass on prose style; the best-written NBCC novel of the century; and the best from this year's shortlist

In today’s post:

— Part I of Nicholas Dames’ extraordinary discussion of prose style, one of the finest pieces we’ve yet published. We chose Dames’ The Chapter as the best-written book on the shortlist for this year’s National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism.

On Tuesday we’ll post our pick from the shortlist for the NBCC’s John Leonard Prize for a first book. The NBCC winners are announced on the 21st of March.

— Our pick of the best-written book from the shortlist for this year’s NBCC Award for Fiction. In July we chose the same book as the best-written recent release in literary fiction.

— Our pick of the best-written book among the previous winners of the NBCC’s award for fiction. This is part of our project to identify the best-written novel of the century to date.

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