On Moral Fiction is a book-length essay by the American novelist John Gardner published in 1978. (ISBN 0-465-05225-8)

In this work, Gardner attacks what he sees as contemporary literature's lack of morality

Morality

Morality is the differentiation among intentions, decisions, and actions between those that are good and bad . A moral code is a system of morality and a moral is any one practice or teaching within a moral code...

, which he calls the highest purpose of art and defines in the book. According to Gardner, morality is not an arbitrary construct of society, but an eternal truth, taking on different forms but not essentially changing through the ages.