A Man of Parts by David Lodge READING GUIDE

Book Synopsis Sequestered in his blitz-battered Regents 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. Once he was the most famous writer in the world, the man who invented tomorrow, now he feels like yesterdays man, deserted or disparaged by readers, and depressed by the collapse of his utopian dreams for mankind. He recalls his unpromising start in life, and early struggles; his plunge into socialist politics; his belief in free love, and energetic practice of it. Arguing with himself about his conduct, he relives his relationship with two wives and many mistresses, especially the brilliant student Amber Reeves and the gifted writer Rebecca West, both of whom bore his children, with dramatic and longlasting consequences. Unfolding this astonishing life story, David Lodge achieves a riveting portrait of a man who embodied as many contradictions as he had talents: a socialist who enjoyed his affluence, a feminist womaniser, sensual yet incurably romantic, irresistible and exasperating by turns, but always vitally human. Reviews Excellent... scrupulous and scholarly ... It bounds along terrifically Guardian Consistently absorbing and enjoyable. I doubt whether a better way could have been found to bring the phenomenon that was H. G. Wells to life Standpoint Curiously engrossing. Its power is cumulative: there are no flashes of startling moments, just a slow unfolding of friendships and feuds, plots and counter plots Daily Telegraph A clever kind of half-genre, somewhere between fiction and fact, very much back in vogue with British writers ... funny and powerful GQ A treat of a read, not least because of the wonderful, rolling ease with which Lodge writes. Or, rather, with which it reads - prose like this does not come without effort Daily Mail David Lodges novel goes straight to the heart of the story... it is pure fun Evening Standard Author Biography David Lodge was born in South London in 1935. He studied at London University and Birmingham University, where he started teaching English Literature in 1960, the same year as his first novel, The Picturegoers, was published. He has published 15 novels, including Changing Places, Small World, Nice Work, Author, Author and Deaf Sentence, and numerous works of non-fiction. He has been twice shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

Starting Points for your Discussions Who would read a novel if we were permitted to write biography all out? asked H.G. Wells in 1934. A Man of Parts is a biographical novel. Why might the author choose to write about a real persons life in this fictional form? What freedoms might imaginatively exploring the gaps between biographical facts allow? All the characters in this novel are real, but many of their encounters and exchanges are imagined. What do you think about this blurring of fact and fiction? How does it affect your enjoyment of the novel, not knowing what the author has invented and what is based on research and fact? At the beginning of the novel an ageing H.G. Wells looks back on his life. The author employs a question and answer format that sees H.G. interview himself about the decisions he has made in his life. Did you find this method effective? How does H.G. view his own history and are we being presented with an untrustworthy or unreliable viewpoint? Did you empathise with the ageing H.G.? The novel focuses primarily on the period between the publication of The Time Machine in 1895 and Outline of History in 1919. Is the H.G Wells revealed here the man you might have imagined from reading his early science fiction novels like The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds, The Invisible Man and The Island of Doctor Moreau? What have you learnt from the novel about H.G. Wellss life and writing that surprised you? H.G Wells is depicted as a champion of socialism and womens rights but also a seducer of young women who courted scandal with his open marriage. What other contradictions do we find in the novel? What was your response to the depiction of the women in the novel? Are they a comic catalogue of innocents in thrall to the successful and scholarly Wells? Or are they feisty, intelligent women exploring sexual liberation at the dawn of socialism? How did you feel about Wells long-suffering wife, Jane? David Lodge is regarded as one of our great comic writers, and is well-known for satirical novels such as Small World and Nice Work. Did you find humour in A Man of Parts? Did it make you laugh? Suggested Further Reading and Resources Experiment in Autobiography by H.G. Wells Tono-Bungay by H.G. Wells Ann Veronica by H.G. Wells The Correspondence of H.G. Wells edited by David C. Smith Henry James and H.G. Wells: a Record of their Friendship, their Debate on the Art of Fiction and their Quarrel edited by Leon Edel and Gordon N. Ray) Author, Author by David Lodge The Year of Henry James: The Story of a Novel by David Lodge The H. G. Wells Society website: http://hgwellsusa.50megs.com/ Daily Telegraph interview with David Lodge about the novel: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/ books/authorinterviews/8466845/A-Page-in-the-Life-David-Lodge.html

Bibliography (all available from Vintage Books or Vintage Classics) A Man of Parts 9780099556084 Changing Places 9780099554172 Small World 9780099554165 Nice Work 9780099554189 The British Museum is Falling Down 9780099554226 Ginger, Youre Barmy 9780099554134 How far Can You Go? 9780099554141 Out of the Shelter 9780099554158 Paradise News 9780099554233 Therapy 9780099554196 The Art of Fiction 9780099554240 The Practice of Writing 9780099554257 The Campus Trilogy 9780099529132