Author, Author (Broché)

1880s London.
For the novelist Henry James, a decade that started promisingly draws to its end in anxiety about the failure of his books to sell, and he resolves to seek fame and fortune as a playwright. After five years of frustrating endeavour, everything depends on his make-or-break play, Guy Domville, which at last reaches the stage on 5 January 1895. That dramatic first night is the pivot of David Lodge's wide-ranging and compelling novel. Vividly depicting the build-up and sequel to what Henry James described as 'the must horrible hours of my life', and sensitively portraying his intimate relationships with the genial artist George Du Maurier and the American novelist Constance Fenimore Woolson, Author, Author explores the tensions inherent in a writer's life - artistic values versus commercial success, friendship versus rivalry, and the price both of fame and of obscurity.