Amazon.com description: Product Description: These essays that examine eight novels, ranging from 'Le roman comique' to 'Les Liaisons dangereuses', have in common their emphasis on the literarity of the text rather than its referentiality. They draw attention not only to the structuring patterns of each novel, such as chronology and theme, but also to aspects of intertextuality (allusion, reference codes, etc.), and in particular to figuration: that is, both metaphorical constructions and function of narrative rhetoric, which provides insight into the ways the fiction text 'represents' itself.