Double Star

This page is about a novel by Robert Heinlein. For other uses, see double star (disambiguation).

Double Star is a science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein. It was published in 1956 and received a Hugo Award the same year (for Best Novel).

The plot centers around a down-and-out actor. A brilliant mimic and pantomimist, Lawrence Smythe ("The Great Lorenzo") might have been another Charlie Chaplin had not his poisonous self-centeredness kept him socially isolated. Reduced to sleeping in a coin-operated cubicle, he is down to his last coin when a spaceman hires him to double for a public figure. It is only when he is reviewing the tapes for his impersonation that he realizes how deeply he was deceived.

Lorenzo grows tremendously as a person during the story, for the person he is doubling for is none other than Joseph Bonforte, literally a "good and strong" political leader. When the role he assumes becomes permanent upon the death of Bonforte (who had been kidnapped and drugged into insensibility by political opponents), Smythe puts on more and more of Bonforte's persona. Finally, Penny (Bonforte's adoring secretary) says, "I never loved anyone else." Smythe has transformed from self-centeredness to nobility.

This story, like many other Heinlein stories, inspired later works. In this case, the plot of this book (along with similar works such as Mark Twain's The Prince and the Pauper and Anthony Hope's The Prisoner of Zenda) inspired the 1993 film Dave.

Publication history

This is a partial publication history. It was also published as part of the omnibus A Heinlein Trio.

• June 1, 1956, Doubleday, hardcover, ISBN 9997412117
• October 1, 1957, Signet Books, paperback, ISBN 0451126955
• June 1, 1978, Gregg Pr, hardcover, 186 pages, ISBN 0839824467
• 1986, Grafton, paperback, ISBN 0-586-02502-2
• October 12, 1986, Ballantine/Del Rey, paperback, 256 pages, ISBN 0-345-33013-7
• March 1, 2000, Reef Audio, cassette audiobook, ISBN 0786117761
• April 1, 2000, Blackstone Audiobooks, cassette audiobook, ISBN 0786117451
• April 1, 2000, Blackstone Audiobooks, CD audiobook, ISBN 0786199024

External links

• Publication history at iSFDB