Olejar Books

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 resolve to seek fame and fortune as a playwright. After five years of frustrating endeavor, 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 most 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 wrtier's life – artistic values versus commercial success, friendship versus rivalry, and the price both of fame and of obsurcity.