Author, Author

In David Lodge's last novel, THINKS... the novelist Henry James was invisibly present in quotation and allusion. In AUTHOR, AUTHOR he is centre stage, sometimes literally. The story begins in December 1915, with the dying author surrounded by his relatives and servants, most of whom have private anxieties of their own, then loops back to the 1880s, to chart the course of Henry's 'middle years', focusing particularly on his friendship with the genial Punch artist and illustrator, George Du Maurier, and his intimate but chaste relationship with the American writer Constance Fenimore Woolson. By the end of the decade Henry is seriously worried by the failure of his books to 'sell', and decides to try and achieve fame and fortune as a playwright, at the same time that George Du Maurier, whose sight is failing, diversifies into writing novels. The consequences, for both men, are surprising, ironic, comic and tragic by turns, reaching a climax in the years 1894-5. As Du Maurier's Trilby, to the bewilderment of its author himself, becomes the bestseller of the century, Henry anxiously awaits the first night of his make-or-break play, Guy Domville... Thronged with vividly drawn characters, some of them with famous names, others recovered from obscurity, AUTHOR, AUTHOR presents a fascinating panorama of literary and theatrical life in late Victorian England, which in many ways foreshadowed today's cultural mix of art, commerce and publicity. But it is essentially a novel about authorship - about the obsessions, hopes, dreams, triumphs and disappointments, of those who live by the pen - with, at its centre, a characterisation of one writer, rendered with empathy.

About the Author :
David Lodge's novels include Changing Places, Small World, Nice Work, Therapy and, most recently, Thinks... He has also written stage plays and screenplays, and several books of literary criticism, including The Art of Fiction, The Practice of Writing, and Consciousness and the Novel.

Review :
"Great skill is shown, and affection." "a work of immense sympathy" "Not only does Lodge capture the kindliness and humour of the Master, but his novel is a rare portrait of friendship between men It enlarges the spirit as well as entertaining the heart and is a really fine novel." " perceptive and moving marvellously illuminating" "Stylistically genial and socially panoramic"