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David Lodge

David Lodge Books

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Therapy

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Author, Author

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Nice Work

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Small World

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“London, December 1915. In the master bedroom (never was the estate agent's epithet more appropriate) of Flat 21, Carlyle Mansions, Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, the distinguished author is dying - slowly, but surely. In Flanders, less than two hundred miles away, other men are dying more quickly, more painfully, more pitifully - young men, mostly, with their lives still before them, blank pages that will never be filled. The author is seventy-two. He has had an interesting and varied life, written many books, travelled widely, enjoyed the arts, moved in society (one winter he dined out 107 times), and owns a charming old house in Rye as well as the lease of this spacious London flat with its fine view of the Thames. He has had deeply rewarding friendships with both men and women. If he has never experienced sexual intercourse, that was by his own choice, unlike the many young men in Flanders who died virgins either for lack of opportunity or because they hoped to marry and were keeping themselves chaste on principle.”

SocietyDyingBooksAuthorBedroomVirginsFriendshipsArtsSexual IntercourseFlanders
Book:Author, Author
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“Life was transparent, literature opaque. Life was open, literature a closed system. Life was composed of things, literature of words. Life was what it appeared to be: if you were afraid your plane would crash it was about death, if you were trying to get a girl into bed it was about sex. Literature was never about what it appeared to be about, though in the case of the novel cosiderable ingenuity and perception were needed to crack the code of realistic illusion, which was why he had been professionally attracted to the genre (even the dumbest critic understood that Hamlet wasn't about how the guy wanted to kill his uncle, or the Ancient Mariner about cruelty to animals, but it was surprising how many people thought Jane Austen's novels were about finding Mr Right).”

LifeDeathLiteratureSexNovelCriticismJane Austen
Book:Changing Places
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“La desgracia de Adam Appleby era que, en cuanto despertaba del sueño, su conciencia se inundaba inmediatamente de todo aquello en lo que menos deseaba pensar. Tenía la impresión de que otros hombres se enfrentaban a cada nuevo amanecer con la mente y el corazón renovados, llenos de optimismo y decisión; o bien de que se arrastraban ganduleando durante la primera hora del día en un estado de bendito sopor, incapaces de pensar en nada, ni agradable ni desagradable. Pero, agazapados como arpías en torno a su cama, los pensamientos desagradables esperaban para asaltarle tan pronto como Adam parpadease y abriera los ojos. En aquel momento se veía obligado, como alguien que se ahoga, a examinar su vida entera, dividido entre lamentaciones por el pasado y miedos futuros.”

British Museum1965David LodgeMuseo Británico
Book:The British Museum Is Falling Down
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“Adam había sacado la conclusión que, de todas las industrias del país, la reparación de vespas era la que representaba una mayor sobredemanda respecto a la oferta. En teoría, a quien se dispusiese a satisfacer esa demanda le esperaba una fortuna; pero en el fondo de su corazón Adam dudaba de que las vespas fuesen reparables, en el sentido normal del término; eran las mariposas de la carretera, organismos frágiles que tardaban mucho en ser fabricados y muy poco en morir.”

British Museum1965David LodgeMuseo BritánicoScooterVespa
Book:The British Museum Is Falling Down
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“Cambiando de postura en el sillín, Adam pensó que la forma en que su humilde vida seguía los moldes de la literatura tenía algo como de metempsicosis. ¿O quizá -se preguntó, hurgándose la nariz- era consecuencia de estudiar tan detenidamente las estructuras de las frases de los novelistas ingleses? Uno se había resignado a no tener ya un lenguaje privado, pero se aferraba melancólicamente a la ilusión de poseer los hechos de su vida.”

VidaLiteraturaBritish MuseumDavid LodgeMuseo BritánicoMetempsicosis
Book:The British Museum Is Falling Down
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“Niciodata n-am visat mult. Ceea ce inseamna din cate inteleg ca pur si simplu nu-mi amintesc visele, fiindca de visat visam tot timpul cat dormim sau cel putin asa se spune. E ca si cum as avea un televizor la care nu se uita nimeni si care imi palpaie in cap cat e noaptea de lunga. Canalul viselor. As vrea sa pot sa trag toata chestia asta pe video. Poate ca atunci mi-as da cat de cat seama ce se intampla cu mine. Si nu ma refer la genunchi, ci la cap. La minte. La suflet.”

Vise
Book:Therapy
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“whhheeeEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! The scream of jet engines rises to a crescendo on the runways of the world. Every second, somewhere or other, a plane touches down, with a puff of smoke from scorched tyre rubber, or rises in the air, leaving a smear of black fumes dissolving in its wake. From space, the earth might look to a fanciful eye like a huge carousel, with planes instead of horses spinning round its circumference, up and down, up and down. Whhheeeeeeeeeee!”

WorldLooksMightEyeEarthBlackSpaceAirHugeHorseLeavingRoundsFlightSmokePlanesAviationEnginesScreamUp And DownSpinningJetRubberEvery SecondGreat AviationPuffRunwayDissolvingCrescendoCarouselsTyresJet Engines
Book:Small world: an academic romance
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“Language is the net that holds thought trapped within a particular culture. But if one could only strike the ball with sufficient force, with perfect timing, it would perhaps break through the netting, continue on its course, never fall to earth, but go into orbit around the world.”

IfsWorldEarthFallCultureCoursesLanguageForcePerfectBreakParticularBallsStrikesAround The WorldSufficientTrappedTimingBreak ThroughOrbitPerfect Timing
Book:The Campus Trilogy: Changing Places; Small World; Nice Work
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“That's the attraction of the conference circuit: it's a way of converting work into play, combining professionalism with tourism, and all at someone else's expense. Write a paper and see the world! I'm Jane Austen - fly me!”

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Book:The Campus Trilogy: Changing Places; Small World; Nice Work
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“Paraphrase, in the sense of summary, is as indispensable to the novel-critic as close analysis is to the critic of lyric poetry. The natural deduction is that novels are paraphrasable whereas poems are not. But this is a false deduction because close analysis is itself a disguised form of paraphrase.”

FormPoetryLiteratureNaturalNovelCriticsAnalysisIndispensableDeductionsSummaryParaphraseLyric Poetry
Book:Language of Fiction: Essays in Criticism and Verbal Analysis of the English Novel
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“to read is to surrender oneself to an endless displacement of curiosity and desire from one sentence to another, from one action to another, from one level of a text to another. The text unveils itself before us, but never allows itself to be possessed; and instead of trying to possess it we should take pleasure in its teasing”

ShouldTryingActionDesirePleasureLevelsCuriosityOneselfSentencesSurrenderEndlessPossessedTeaseDisplacementOne Sentence
Book:Small World
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