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Author! Author! (Paperback)

by David Lodge (Author)
3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
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Product details

  • Paperback: 400 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin (7 Jul 2005)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0141018224
  • ISBN-13: 978-0141018225
  • Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.8 x 2.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 100,955 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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    #17 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > L > Lodge, David

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Product Description

AMAZON.CO.UK

Since the death of Malcom Bradbury, David Lodge remains unquestionably the finest comic novelist working in the English language – with fierce intelligence matching the sardonic wit. Author, Author is not quite a new departure (the great novelist Henry James was a presence in Lodge’s much-acclaimed Thinks…), but here The Master is the central character in a brilliantly vivid picture of the man and his times.

Those who find James’ own abstruse sentences too impenetrable for their taste may fear that Lodge is aiming for a recreation of James' allusive 19th century style, but that's definitely not the case. When Lodge has James speak, it is, of course, exactly as we would expect the famous chronicler of suppressed emotion to speak – anything else would be a failure (Peter Ackroyd carried off a similar act of ventriloquism in The Lat Testament of Oscar Wilde), but the style of the novel is very much Lodge's own: humorous, sensitive to all aspects of human behaviour, rich in authentically recreated period detail. Needless to say, the effect is nothing like that of Lodge’s contemporary novels such as the wonderfulNice Work and Small World; for some, that will be a cause for disappointment, but for readers prepared to follow Lodge on this journey into another century, the rewards are considerable.

Author, Author begins with the Great Man’s death, surrounded by worried servants (struggling to cope with his growing irrationality); then we are shown his remarkable life, including his friendship with the affable Punch illustrator George Du Maurier. The literary success and the American ex-pat James’ social lionising by the cream of London society are strikingly conveyed, as is the man’s sexual repression. The most powerful passages involve James’ disastrous failure as a playwright, and this section crowns Lodge’s achievement. Lodge fans may prefer his customary style, but there are riches here. --Barry Forshaw --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.



Product Description

Framed by a dramatic and moving account of Henry James’s last illness, Author! Author! begins in the early 1880s, describing James’s friendship with the genial Punch artist, George Du Maurier, and his intimate but problematic relationship with fellow American novelist Constance Fenimore Woolson. At the end of the decade Henry, worried by the failure of his books to sell, resolves to achieve fame and fortune as a playwright while Du Maurier diversifies into writing novels. The consequences that ensue mingle comedy, irony, pathos, and suspense. As Du Maurier’s novel Trilby becomes the bestseller of the century, Henry anxiously awaits the opening night of his make-or-break play, Guy Domville. This event, on January 5, 1895, and its complex sequel form the climax to Lodge’s absorbing novel. Thronged with vividly drawn characters, some of them with famous names, Author! Author! presents a fascinating panorama of literary and theatrical life in late Victorian England. But at its heart is a portrait, rendered with remarkable empathy, of a writer who never achieved popular success in his lifetime or resolved his sexual identity, yet wrote some of the greatest novels about love in the English language.
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Customer Reviews

6 Reviews
5 star:
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4 star:
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3 star:
 (1)
2 star:
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Average Customer Review
3.8 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting insight into gifted yet complex man., 12 Dec 2004
This review is from: Author, Author (Hardcover)
Despite what felt to be a slow start, David Lodge provides a lively and interesting insight into an incredibly gifted yet complex man, the late Victorian writer Henry James.

By writing the story as "fiction", Lodge uses his great skill of capturing his characters essence without historical records clouding what is a man of great contrasts and depth. Some James purists may find this style offensive but that is not the intention of the author - he provides a more human insight to James than may otherwise have been achieved due to the subject's deeply personal nature and a lack of personal records.

Henry James was an incredibly skilled and accomplished author who was not greatly appreciated in his own time yet arguably was the father of the modern novel. Lodge deals sympathetically with James's perceived failure of his work, his intense craving for reward both adulatory and financial that always seemed within reach, be it in periodicals, books or the stage and that yet was always just out of reach or dashed by events outside his control. He also deals deftly with the issue of James' sexuality through his relationships with contemporaries, friends and past experiences - in particular his inability to reciprocate emotions and feelings to others, especially those closest to him.

Definitely worth buying if you have read and liked Lodge's earlier work.

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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Not missing a sentence, 22 Oct 2004
This review is from: Author, Author (Hardcover)
David Lodge's individual sentences are a tribute to Henry James - I reread any sentence that I feared I had missed in my haste to get to the next paragraph. The whole book is a pleasure - well structured, and such smooth flow. Apropriate for any Henry James admirer, or David Lodge admirer, and ideal for any dual admirer!
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10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars The personification of Henry James is a triumph!, 12 Dec 2004
By Peter Swanson (Oxfordshire, England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Author, Author (Hardcover)
The personification of revered author Henry James is a triumph for David Lodge. For many, James' novels are rather impenetrable; skilfull prose which is hard work! Taking us behind the writing, Lodge introduces us to an endearing and definitively Victorian character, in many ways more British than American. Rigidly confined by the social mores of the time and his own self-discipline, he nevertheless resolves into a surprisingly simple character, who inspires admiration, some pity and, occasionally, frustration. Lodge avoids the ploy of some historical novelists, who name drop famous characters in order to define the period and score credibility points; he slips in appearances by well-known James' acquaintances and historical events with consumate skill and a total lack of artifice. In particular, George Du Maurier is a delight. A very fine novel, and a revelation to those, like me, who knew nothing about the background of Henry James.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Lodge should get the same treatment as James in his final bow
Auwgh what a boring book. Incredible. I usually just love Lodge's books, but this time he just kills me with this tedious story of a an ever more boring author. Read more
Published 12 months ago by John Hultberg

5.0 out of 5 stars A novel based oh the life of Henry James
"Author, Author", like Colm Toibin's "The Master", tells of a particular period of Henry James' life. Read more
Published on 28 Oct 2007 by Philippe Horak

3.0 out of 5 stars Frustrating, unsatisfying ... but worth reading
Comparisons with Toibin's "The Master" will be inevitable, and Toibin's book is undoubtedly the finer of the two. Read more
Published on 13 April 2005

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