《Author, Author》

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.

戴维·洛奇（David Lodge），1935年在伦敦出生，早年就读于伦敦大学，伯明翰大学博士，英国皇家文学院院士，以文学贡献获得不列颠帝国勋章和法国文艺骑士勋章。从1960年起，执教于伯明翰大学英语系，1987年退职从事创作，兼伯明翰大学现代英国文学荣誉教授。 洛奇已出版12部长篇小说，包括“卢密奇学院三部曲”《换位》（Changing Places，1975年，获霍桑登奖和约克郡邮报小说大奖）、《小世界》（Small World，1984年，获布克奖提名）和《作者，作者》（Author，Author，）2004等，其中以“卢密奇学院三部曲”最为著名。他还著有《小说的艺术》（The Art of Fiction，1992年）和《意识与小说》（Consciousness and the Novel，2002年）等多部文学批评理论文集。洛奇的作品已用25种语言翻译出版。文学批评史家安东尼·伯吉斯认为，洛奇是“同代作家中最优秀的小说家之一”。 《小世界》在1988年改编为电视连续剧；洛奇本人担任编剧的《好工作》，获得1989年英国皇家电视学会最佳电视连续剧奖。