Author Topic: Author! Author!  (Read 360829 times)

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1160 on: October 18, 2010, 12:39:24 PM »


Welcome to Author! Author!  

This is a game in which the contestants match their wits with a  challenger, who suggests a character in literature, non- fiction or fiction. The challenger may or may not provide more clues, his prerogative,, and never more than one a day.


Once a day the challenger will say if the guesses are correct or not. The winning contestant gets lots of acclaim and the chance to pose the next challenge. If he does not want to post a new challenge he can say so and whoever does can begin a new game.

Of course you could look these up on google in an instant, what challenge is that? The  idea is to rack one's brain to try to remember where this particular character appeared and who wrote about him/ her. Should be great fun.

The challenger also has the option not to mention the name of the character, but only a description.


Authors used so far:

Author, Book, Character, Challenger, Post#

Atwood, Margaret, The Blind Assassin, Gumtree, #277
Austen, Jane, Pride and Prejudice, Mary Bennett, #158
Baum, L. Frank, The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy, JoanK, #342
Blackmore, Richard, Lorna Doone, Lorna Doone, Frybabe, #462
Bronte, Emily, Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff, Gumtree, #252
Buchan, John, 39 steps, Richard Hannay, PatH, #396
Carroll, Louis, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Alice, JoanK, # 426
Cervantes, Don Quijote, Don Quijote, PatH, #701
Christie, Agatha, Hastings, JoanK, # 127
Christie, Agatha, Death on the Nile, Hercule Poirot, JoanK, #752
Clancy, Tom, Hunt for Red October, Frybabe, #553
Collins, Wilkie, The Moonstone, Rachel Verinder, PatH, #311
Conrad, Joseph, Heart of Darkness, Marlow, Gumtree, #226
Cronin, A. J., The Citadel, Andrew Manson, JudeS, #1085
Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan, Study in Scarlet, Dr. Watson, PatH, #380
Dumas, Alexandre pere, The Three Musketeers, D'Artagnan, PatH, #939, 941
Eliot, George, Daniel Deronda, Gumtree, #190
Eliot, T. S., Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, Bustopher Jones, PatH, #110
Essex, Karen, Leonardo's Swans, Isabella d'Este, Mippy, #591
Galsworthy, John, The Forsyte Saga, Irene, PatH, #615,620
George, Elizabeth, Lynley and Havers, Tomereader1, #168
Gilbert, W. S., The Savoy Operas, Frederick, or the Pirate King, #1108, 1111, 1112
Goodman, Carol, The Night Villa, the slave girl, Gumtree, # 1165
Greene, Graham, The Third Man, Holly Martins, PatH, ##1175, 1179
Grey, Zane, Riders of the Purple Sage, Frybabe, #294, 299
Henry, O. Mammon and the Archer, Anthony Rockwall, Ginny  #537
James, Henry, Washington Square, straudetwo, #981, 982
James, Henry, Wings of a Dove, Kidsal, #83
Keller, Helen, The Story of my Life, Anne Sullivan, JoanK #958
Lagerlof, Selma, The Wonderful Adventures of Nils, Nils Holgersson, JudeS #899
LeFanu, Sheridan, Carmilla, roshanarose, #769
McCourt, Frank, Angela's Ashes, Frank McCourt, JoanK, #1062
Melville, Herman, Moby-Dick, the whale, PatH, #482
Miller,Arthur, Death of a Salesman, Gumtree, #1005, 1006
Milton, John, Paradise Lost, Frybabe, #413
Mitford, Nancy, roshanarose, #839, 840
Nabokov, Vladimir, Lolita, Lolita, JudeS, #1124
O’Brian, Patrick, Master and Commander, Jack Aubrey, JudeS, #319
Orwell, George, Frybabe, #97
Peterson, Roger Tory, Field guide to the Eastern Birds, Mockingbird, JoanK #202
Plutarch, ----, Themistocles, roshanarose, #1025, 1027
Rand, Ayn, We the Living, Frybabe, #498, 502
Scott, Sir Walter, Ivanhoe, Ginny, #602
Shelley, Mary, Frankenstein, the monster, PatH, #451
Smith, Alexander McCall, Mma Ramotswe, JudeS, #145
Spark, Muriel, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Miss Brodie, Gumtree, #671, 672
Steinbeck , John, Journal of a Novel, Gumtree, #53, 60
Stoker, Bram, Dracula, Jonathan Harker, JudeS, #631, 632
Stone, Irving, Depths of Glory, Camille Pisarro, Gumtree, #802
Tolkien, J. R. R., Lord of the Rings, Frodo, PatH, #238, 241
Trollope, Joanna, The Best of Friends, Sophie, Mippy, #218
Tyler, Anne, Digging to America, Maryam Yazdan,Mippy, #735
Vreeland, Susan, The Forest Lover, Emily Carr, Mippy, #364
Weir, Alison, Innocent Traitor, Lady Jane Gray, roshanrose, #883
Wethers, Beck, Left for Dead, Ginny, #29
Windsor, Kathleen, Forever Amber, Amber, Traude, #927, 928
Wodehouse, P. G., Bertie Wooster, PatH, #1046, 1048
Woolfe, Virginia, Orlando, Orlando, PatH, #1141
Xenophon, Frybabe, #173












;D
Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1161 on: October 18, 2010, 08:36:45 PM »
This is very frustrating.  I keep thinking of people who fit most but not all of the clues--the latest are Robert Graves and Margaret Yourcenar.  Aaaak.

roshanarose

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1162 on: October 18, 2010, 09:29:03 PM »
Has the book been made into a movie, Gum? 

The word "cult" is causing me some grief.  The only one I can think of is Scientology.  But, I think you are right, I have probably not read it.  However, it sounds like a good read.
How can you prove whether at this moment we are sleeping, and all our thoughts are a dream; or whether we are awake, and talking to one another in the waking state?  - Plato

straudetwo

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1163 on: October 18, 2010, 09:44:11 PM »
Gumtree,   so we can  take clue # 3 ("I am a present-day author" literally ?

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1164 on: October 19, 2010, 06:44:38 AM »
Guesses are good but way off the mark. There hasn't been a movie made of the book so far as I'm aware. And yes, literally a present day author - the author lives and breathes today and writes of the present as well as the past.


Author: 1. I am an acclaimed novelist but began my literary career writing short stories and award winning poetry.
                       2. My work has been translated into eight languages and I am a contributor to literary journals.
                       3. I am a present day author and I also teach.
Sometimes I draw on my partner's work and include it in my novels.
                       4. I took inspiration for this story from several visits to an ancient site and a chance remark from a teaching colleague.
                       5. My books also draw on my academic training in the language and literature of the ancients.

Book 1. This is an evocative tale of intrigue, romance and treachery - a complex and lyrical literary thriller.
                    2. There are stories within the story and abundant plots and sub-plots.
                    3. The book is a melding of contemporary life, ancient history, research, mythology, religion/cult worship, mysteries - which are contrasted and paralleled in the telling.
                    4.  For the most part the novel has an idyllic setting among ancient ruins. For the rest it is set in Texas.
                     5.  Whilst the team of archaeologists, historians uncover new material using the latest computer techology, members of a mysterious cult will stop at nothing to obtain the long lost manuscripts they seek.

Character 1. I am a strong willed person who desires and actively seeks personal freedom.
                           2. I am a real-life person though my story is told through the diary of a fictional character.
                           3. I belong to a cult which became influential and widespread. Other characters are involved in other cults.
                           4. My lover is a learned older man who has a penchant for recording everything he sees in the places he visits. Sometimes he is more than a trifle pompous but fundamentally he is a good and decent man.
                            5. When my personal freedom was compromised I took my case to the law courts and won.
                            6. I am not the protagonist but my story has parallels with at least two other characters in the story
.


Extra Extra: There was a brilliant discussion of this book here not so very long ago. Some players were among the participants.



Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

roshanarose

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1165 on: October 19, 2010, 08:43:52 AM »
"Here" is where?  Which discussion?  Sounds like a Da Vinci Code type story.  Where are the ancient ruins?  Delphi; Acropolis; Colloseum - Greek, Etruscan, Roman or maybe Mayan?  Come on Gum - or should I just give up acknowledging the fact that I haven't read the book - I hate giving up!  It's not "The Night Villa" by Carol Goodman, is it?  I am half way through this book, upon which I blame my bad habit of reading five books at once.  The Modern Pythagoreans - do they really exist? 
How can you prove whether at this moment we are sleeping, and all our thoughts are a dream; or whether we are awake, and talking to one another in the waking state?  - Plato

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1166 on: October 19, 2010, 10:04:53 AM »
Don't give up, roshanarose, you just got it!  As soon as I saw today's clues, the light bulb lit up, but luckily for me you got in first.  Now I'm kicking myself for not having got it sooner.

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1167 on: October 19, 2010, 10:36:32 AM »
The Night Villa it is and you sure did just get it Roshanarose
In fairness though, I couldn't say exactly where the setting was or name any of the several cults without giving it all away too soon - though I was getting to those clues.

As you're reading it at present you might like to check out the Archives of the book discussions which has the full discussion of Night Villa - we read it in June 2009 and Carol Goodman participated as well. Lots of interesting stuff came up in relation to the ancient world.

PatH: I expected to see your bulb light up after today's clues.

We've not yet named the character - but I now declare Roshanarose the winner and the next IT





 
Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

roshanarose

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1168 on: October 19, 2010, 09:27:17 PM »
Gum : Thank you for your encouraging words.  What I wrote when guessing it was actually a kind of "stream of consciousness".  That is, I just typed what I was thinking.  Sometimes answers come to me via those means.

Gum, I have been thinking about you and your eyes.  I have managed to contract a viral infection in my right eye, and this morning, I notice I now have it in the left eye as well.  Bloody nuisance and very uncomfortable, not including how horrible I look with two eyes resembling two raw eggs in buckets of blood.  I am going back to the GP today or tomorrow.  I will drive there as the surgery is only three blocks away, but I can't see very well.  How are your eyes now?  Did you have something similar, or more chronic wrong with your eyes?

The upshot of all this is that I cannot be IT.  My eyes are just too sore to read, even typing this is difficult.  Can another kind soul be convinced to fill my shoes?  I will make up for it later.  Sorry  :'(
How can you prove whether at this moment we are sleeping, and all our thoughts are a dream; or whether we are awake, and talking to one another in the waking state?  - Plato

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1169 on: October 20, 2010, 03:18:35 AM »
Roshanarose Get yourself to the GP ASAP - and take good care to do exactly as he says. If it is affecting both eyes it sounds more like some kind of conjunctivitis (or probably a zillion other things).

 Mine was only in one eye and was the sort of virus that affects only one side of the body - like shingles. The problem was that my immune system is pretty much shot to pieces and when it kicked in to help it tried to kill me instead of the infection. It took a hefty dose (every 90 minutes) of cortizone steroid stuff to get it under control. I'm still not quite out of the woods and have some scarring on the cornea yet to be dealt with - maybe January he said. In the meantime I'm on drops every 2-4 hours and ointment at night.

So take great care and see the doctor immediately - just in case. I'm sure someone else will pose the next challenge.

Are there any volunteers?
Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1170 on: October 20, 2010, 09:23:14 AM »
I'll do it, since I would have guessed correctly if I'd arrived before roshanarose.  Give me a bit to come up with one.

Take care of yourself, roshanarose.

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1171 on: October 20, 2010, 10:47:17 AM »
Thanks PatH You're a Trojan - and I don't mean the virus  :D
Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1172 on: October 20, 2010, 05:37:50 PM »
OK, here goes.  If someone guesses it as quickly as my last one, I won't be on the hook for long.

Author: My travels were an important inspiration for my books.

Book: Pictures a city in turmoil.

Character: Friendship got me in trouble.

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1173 on: October 20, 2010, 10:36:57 PM »
H'mmm......
Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1174 on: October 21, 2010, 04:45:05 PM »
No takers?  OK, round 2:

Author: My travels were an important inspiration for my books.
     My religious beliefs color my writings.

Book: Pictures a city in turmoil.
     Was made into a successful movie.

Character: Friendship got me in trouble.
     I'm somewhat naive.

rosemarykaye

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1175 on: October 21, 2010, 05:19:15 PM »
All I can think if is Graham Greene - I don't suppose it's the Quiet American?

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1176 on: October 21, 2010, 06:49:01 PM »
WOW!  Right on the author, but not the book.  You might very well not have read it, but seen the movie.

JudeS

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1177 on: October 21, 2010, 09:26:59 PM »
A city in turmoil- so, perhaps Havana?
Our Man in Havana?

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1178 on: October 21, 2010, 09:39:14 PM »
Good guess, Judy, but wrong.

straudetwo

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1179 on: October 21, 2010, 11:43:34 PM »
How about The Third Man - Vienna after the war, Orson Welles, Joseph Cotton, Alida Valli ?

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1180 on: October 22, 2010, 09:22:24 AM »
That's it, Traude!  One tends to forget it's a novella as well as a screenplay.

If anyone wants to bother with the character, it should be a snap, since there's only one naive person.

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1181 on: October 22, 2010, 09:29:07 AM »
Rosemarykaye and straudetwo, you have the honor of figuring out who does the next one.  Rosemary, if you want to do it, the hard part is trying to think of something you hope people have read, but isn't too easy, then making obscure clues.  All the authors that have been used are in the heading--the one at the top of this page is the only one that's up to date.  And we're not fussy about having a book and a character.  For instance, when I did Bertie Wooster, I didn't bother to pick a specific book, since they're so similar.

rosemarykaye

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1182 on: October 22, 2010, 09:58:14 AM »
I'm more than happy to let Traude do it for now - I think I need a few goes to get the hang of it!

Rosemary

straudetwo

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1183 on: October 22, 2010, 03:27:24 PM »
PatH, OK, I'll be IT, but Rosemary provided the spark. Thank you, Rosemary, and welcome!

Carol Reed's film based on the novella and screenplay by Graham Greene was brilliant,  and so was the international cast.  The haunting score by Anton Karas, featuring only the zither, still reverberates with me -- perhaps because it was the instrument my father played in happier times.

Joseph Cotten played the role of the well-intentioned naïf,  a pulp fiction author, and his "friend", Orson Welles, a racketeer.  At the end of W II, Vienna, like Berlin, was occupied by the Allies, each with their own district or zone to administer, mercifully not nearly as long as Berlin.

Another film comes to mind  that as made about that era. It was called "Four in a Jeep",  and followed the MPs of the US, Britain, France and the USSR,  as they patrollied their respective districts.  The actress Viveca Lindfors was in it, but I remember little else.  

Sending good wishes to Roshanarose, hunting for the next puzzle.
Traude






Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1184 on: October 23, 2010, 01:39:02 AM »
Traude The Third Man - one of those classics - you didn't mention the haunting music of The Harry Lime Theme

 I can't remember the last time that Viveca Lindfors crossed my radar. I remember her well - can't think of any of her movies except one about Dreyfus - she may have played Mrs. Dreyfus. I think she was  Scandinavian -  Swedish? Classic bone structure - and she could act.


Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1185 on: October 23, 2010, 03:53:02 AM »
Just for the record,let's give the character his name, which is Holly Martins.  I re-watched the movie a couple of years ago, and it's still good.

Are you aware that the novella has a different ending than the movie?  Harry Lime's girl doesn't reject Martins, though it's hinted that this will only be a passing affair.  A rare example of an ending being un-prettied for a movie.  Greene wrote the screenplay too.

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1186 on: October 23, 2010, 07:00:42 AM »
Greene was a pretty handy guy with a pen.
Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

straudetwo

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1187 on: October 24, 2010, 05:49:12 PM »
The last forty-eight hours brought some unwelcome excitement, and that has made me late.

My granddaughter, Hannah, who is 11, was rushed to the ER late Friday evening.  She  had an appendectomy early Saturday afternoon. It was done laparoscopically and over in 26 minutes.
She was discharged today and is on the mend.

In re The Third Man,  I had meant to mention the protagonists' names, Holly Martins and Harry Lime, but in revising the text, that detail got away from me.  And I left out Trevor Howard, a marvelous actor who as Major Calloway  told Holly Martins (and I paraphrase) "If you are sensible, you go home ...".

Gumtree, I did mention the haunting musical score by Anton Karas in my # 1183. The Harry Lime theme resonated with the people still traumatized by the war and its aftermath, and jumped to the top of the international  record charts.
 
I could and swould like to say a few words about Alida Valli, (1921-2006),  one of the finest actresses of the 20th century who, according to a French critic, "was the only actress who can be compared with Marlene Dietrich and Garbo".  She made more than 100 films over seven decades.  But I'll resist the temptation and pose a new puzzle instead.




  

straudetwo

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1188 on: October 24, 2010, 06:43:17 PM »
New Puzzle.

The author wrote novels,  works of philosophy, plays,  collections of poetry. 

The novel for which we are looking  touches on the world of magic, illusion and power.

The central character is writing his memoir.


PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1189 on: October 24, 2010, 10:16:42 PM »
Darn.  I have the perfect answer except that the author wrote no poetry whatever.  Not really any philosophy either.

Frybabe

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1190 on: October 24, 2010, 11:17:11 PM »
Aldus Huxley comes to mind, but I don't think he included magic in any of his books.

rosemarykaye

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1191 on: October 25, 2010, 02:33:40 AM »
Wilkie Collins?  But I'm not sure that he wrote any poetry.

R

rosemarykaye

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1192 on: October 25, 2010, 02:34:27 AM »
Sorry, just realised you've already done him!  Thinking again.....

rosemarykaye

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1193 on: October 25, 2010, 02:52:52 AM »
Angela Carter?

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1194 on: October 25, 2010, 04:13:50 AM »
My mind is a blank on this one - so what's new?
Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

roshanarose

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1195 on: October 25, 2010, 06:33:17 AM »
Here I am, back, with one eye working. I had haemorrhagic conjunctivitis - and yes it is just as ghastly as it sounds.  Thanks for your words of encouragement - they were most welcome.

I am thinking John Fowles, or Aleister Crowley.  But I need to delve further into book/character.  Fowles did write some poetry and so did Crowley, but there is no guarantee I am on the right track.  Enlighten me, Straudetwo?
How can you prove whether at this moment we are sleeping, and all our thoughts are a dream; or whether we are awake, and talking to one another in the waking state?  - Plato

straudetwo

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1196 on: October 25, 2010, 12:34:49 PM »
Thank you for the enthusiastic participation.
The guesses are all excellent.  None is a match, yet.  Doubtless  that will change, and soon. :)

More clues.

The author's career spanned four decades.

The novel exposes the jumble of motivations of its characters.

The main character was convinced he was 'god's gift to the world'.



Roshanarose,  thank you for sharing your good news, and welcome back !

JudeS

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1197 on: October 25, 2010, 02:49:29 PM »
Could it be "The Sea, The Sea" by Iris Murdoch?
The character is Charles Arrowby.

This may not be right because I know nothing  about the author herself.

straudetwo

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1198 on: October 25, 2010, 09:26:09 PM »
Jude,  that is the answer.  Congratulations !

Iris Murdoch was awarded the Man Booker Prize for The Sea, the Sea in 1978.  

The central figure is Charles Arrowby, a self-satisfied, tyrannical playwright and director.  In order to write his memoir he secludes himself in a house by the sea.  Unexpectedly he meets his first love again, Mary Hartley Fitch,  whom he hasn't seen in 40 years. When she rejects him, he becomes absurdly obsessed with her.  

The Dublin-born Murdoch took a keen interest in politics; like Doris Lessing, she leaned toward communism early on.  Among her philosophical works is an essay on Jean Paul Sartre. There are two collections of poetry, but the bulk of her creative output are her 26 novels.  

For the last three years of her life she suffered from Alzheimer's and died at 80.  A movie of her life featured the actresses Kate Winslet (the young Iris) and Judi Dench (the aging Iris).

Ten years ago we had an absorbing discussion of this novel; Lorrie was te DL.  It is preserved in the Archives.


  


roshanarose

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1199 on: October 25, 2010, 09:30:39 PM »
Fantastic work JUDE

I am not out of the woods yet - I ran out of drops last night and foolishly thought that I need not buy more.  The way my eyes feels now, I will have to get more drops.  The doctor said that the discomfort and redness can last up to a month.  Gee - Happy Days:-(
How can you prove whether at this moment we are sleeping, and all our thoughts are a dream; or whether we are awake, and talking to one another in the waking state?  - Plato