Reading for the Plot: Design and Intention in Narrative

A book with a very formal and academic style which uses examples from novels and plays to discuss plot and how it works in stories.

From the Preface: This is a book about plots and plotting, about how stories come to be ordered in significant form, and also about our desire and need for such orderings. Plot as I conceive it is the design and intention of narrative, what shapes a story and gives it a certain direction or intent of meaning.