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Author, Author

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About this listen

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.

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.

©2004 David Lodge (P)2006 W F Howes Ltd Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Witty
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David Lodge, the author of numerous excellent campus novels, has departed here into a part memoir and part historical novel about the life and times of the Anglo-American literary giant Henry James. Part highly funny, part moving, part intellectually challenging, but always engrossing, this is a fantastic read. And beautifully narrated too.

What a remarkable achievement!

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lovely engaging and witty pairs nicely with man of parts thought provoking yet a compulsive read

fascinating

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Nobody writes as cleanly and beautifully as Lodge and his subject here is one for whom he clearly has much admiration. A very fine read that you won't want to end.

absolutely superb

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it was David Lodge's misfortune to bring out his biography of Henry James around the same time as Colm Tobin's The Master. II have listened closely to both and judge the latter to be superior in so many ways. Lodge's James is alsmost a figure of fun, whereas Tobin's James jumps from the page fully intact with. the respect he deserves, and Tobin's account homes in on the key and most important episodes in James' life, giving them seriously considered attention whilst Lodge pads out the life with digressions eg with Du Moriere and the servants' shenanigans. Tobin is a far better novelist who depicts the human condition with great empathy. Compare, for example, each author's account of the removal of Constance's clothes to the lagoon. Lodge almost laughingly recoounts this with a few brushstrokes whilst Tobin gives an account that will stay in my memory for a very long time..
The performance of The Master is 5*. I have given this one 3* as the voices of the servants are pantomimic.

Inferior to Tobin's The Master

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