“It’s a truism that great novels have something to tell us not only about life but about our own lives. But for decades literary criticism has neglected or scorned this useful truth in favor of ‘theory’ and its barbarous jargon. How refreshing then to read a study which dwells without apology, and with genuine insight, on the ways in which novels impinge upon our own experience. This is Edward Mendelson’s ‘The Things That Matter: What Seven Classic Novels Have to Say About the Stages of Life’.”