A Man of Parts

A Man of Parts

by David Lodge (Author)

Synopsis

'The mind is a time machine that travels backwards in memory and forwards in prophecy, but he has done with prophecy now...' Sequestered in his blitz-battered Regent's Park house in 1944, the ailing Herbert George Wells, 'H.G.' to his family and friends, looks back on a life crowded with incident, books, and women. Has it been a success or a failure? Once he was the most famous writer in the world, 'the man who invented tomorrow'; now he feels like yesterday's man, deserted by readers and depressed by the collapse of his utopian dreams. He recalls his unpromising start, and early struggles to acquire an education and make a living as a teacher; his rapid rise to fame as a writer with a prophetic imagination and a comic common touch which brought him into contact with most of the important literary, intellectual, and political figures of his time; his plunge into socialist politics; his belief in free love, and energetic practice of it. Arguing with himself about his conduct, he relives his relationships with two wives and many mistresses, especially the brilliant student Amber Reeves and the gifted writer Rebecca West, both of whom bore him children, with dramatic and long-lasting consequences. Unfolding this astonishing story, David Lodge depicts a man as contradictory as he was talented: a socialist who enjoyed his affluence, an acclaimed novelist who turned against the literary novel; a feminist womaniser, sensual yet incurably romantic, irresistible and exasperating by turns, but always vitally human.

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 576
Publisher: Harvill Secker
Published: 31 Mar 2011

ISBN 10: 1846554969
ISBN 13: 9781846554964
Book Overview: A moving, funny and masterful novel about the life of H.G. Wells - writer, thinker, lover and man of genius.

Media Reviews
Extraordinarily rich, wide-ranging and hugely entertaining. * Daily Mail *
Excellent... scrupulous and scholarly... It bounds along terrifically. -- Nicholas Lezard * Guardian *
As protean, elusive but compelling as it's hero, David Lodge's bio-novel about HG Wells breaks all the rules but still grips the reader - like Wells himself. -- Boyd Tonkin * Independent *
As scintillating, engaging, and multidimensional as the man whose life and character it faithfully animates. * The Atlantic *
This is his best book in years: sprawling, funny, touching, a near-perfect fusion of story and scholarship. * Mail on Sunday *
Author Bio
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.