Practice Of Writing, The: Essays, Lectures, Reviews&a Diary

Description:
In his first critical work since the highly successful 'The Art of Fiction' (0140174923), David Lodge writes principally about Grahame Greene, Kingsley Amis and James Joyce, and from there goes on to tackle two questions: the value of creative writing, and the task of dramatizing literary works for TV and the stage. He is uniquely qualified as a novelist, critic and academic to write this book, and approaches his subject with a fine wit and accessible style.

Table of Contents:
Part 1 Novelists, novels and 'the novel': the novelist today - still at the crossroads?; fact and fiction in the novel - an author's note; the lives of Graham Greene; 'Lucky Jim' revisisted; sex, creativity and biography - the young D.H. Lawrence; Henry Green - a writer's writer's writer; Joyce's choices; the making of 'Anthony Burgess'; what kind of fiction did Nabokov write? - a practitioner's view; creative writing - can it/should it be taught?; the novel as communication. Part 2 Mixed media: novel, screenplay, stage play - three ways of telling a story; adapting 'Nice Work' for television; adapting 'Martin Chuzzlewit'; through the 'No Entry' sign - deconstruciton and architecture; Harold Pinter's 'Last to Go' - a structuralist analsyis; playback - extracts from a writer's diary.

Author Biography:
David Lodge was for many years Professor of English at Birmingham University,where he still lives. As well his works of critical and literary theory, he has also published many bestselling novels, most recently THERAPY (0140253580). He writes frequently for tv, including an adaptation of MARTIN CHUZZLEWIT.