The Year of Henry James: The story of a novel: With other essays on the genesis, composition and reception of literary fiction

Description

The story of a novel - with other essays on the genesis, composition and reception of literary fiction In 2004, Henry James featured as a character in no less than three novels - David Lodge's Author, Author was one of them. With insightful and amusing candour, here he traces the history of his book from conception to publication, pondering the mystery - and indeed the anguish - of so many novels about James appearing at the same time. Lodge's reflections on his own creative practice are accompanied by studies of the genesis, composition and reception of key works by James himself, as well as other novelists from George Eliot to Vladimir Nabokov, and J.M. Coetzee to Graham Greene.

David Lodge (CBE)'s novels include Changing Places, Small World and Nice Work (shortlisted for the Booker) and, most recently, A Man of Parts. He has also written plays and screenplays, and several books of literary criticism. His works have been translated into more than thirty languages. He is Emeritus Professor of English Literature at Birmingham, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and is a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Full of fascinating stuff... Lodge has the fineness of judgment that James himself thought indispensable * Guardian * An absolutely invaluable document of the modern literary life * Independent * Lodge has fashioned a wise and provocative study...far more than the sum of its parts -- John Banville * Irish Times *