Author, Author

Author: (Eng) Lodge, D.
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2007-01-01
Features: A sudden and brilliant stylistic shift in David Lodge's work, a novelistic biography that blends the real and the fictional, vividly recreating the panorama of "Fin-de-Siècle" English literature. On a Sunday, the bright light of dawn had not yet entered when he woke, feeling an awful oppression in his heart, and immediately remembered why. It was impossible to go back to sleep, so he lay there, like a shipwreck survivor washed ashore on a desolate, icy, and damp pebble beach. He lay there, exhausted, dispirited, unable to climb beyond the tide line, indifferent to his own life or death, letting gloomy thoughts surge over his heart like waves breaking on the shore. What embarrassed him was that this humiliating failure had already spread or would soon spread to his large circle of acquaintances. In the coming weeks, every person he met and corresponded with would know that Henry James had been loudly cheered on the stage of St. James's Theatre. Every newspaper would report the event, and clubs, salons, and even the servants' quarters would discuss it. Gossip would even cross the ocean and borders. Every social engagement and letter exchange would become extremely awkward due to both parties' embarrassment, unsure whether to mention the incident or pretend not to, and if the former, how to bring it up.