First chapter of Harper Lee second novel "Go Set aWatchman" fuels excitement

NEW YORK (AFP).- Scout is an independent woman living in New York with a childhood friend whowants to marry her back home in Alabama. Her brother is dead and her father, Atticus, suffers fromrheumatoid arthritis.

These are the tantalizing plot details revealed in the first chapter of Harper Lee's second novel, "GoSet a Watchman," whose release next Tuesday is one of the biggest events in publishing history.

Pre-orders have already made the new novel a best-seller and HarperCollins has reportedly ordereda first printing of two million copies, an astonishing number in an increasingly digital age.

Lee's only previous novel, "To Kill a Mockingbird," is considered a 20th century masterpiece thatdefined racial injustice in the Depression-era South and became standard reading in classrooms.

Controversy continues to rage over whether the 89-year-old novelist, who avoids the media and livesas a recluse in an Alabama nursing home, was manipulated into publishing the novel.

"Watchman" lay hidden for years after being written in the 1950s, when an editor told Harper torecast the book from the childhood perspective of Scout, which eventually turned into"Mockingbird."

But the publication on Friday of the first chapter by The Wall Street Journal and Guardiannewspapers, and an audio version by Oscar-winning actress Reese Witherspoon, whetted appetites --and had reviewers both salivating and sharpening their knives.

The book begins with Scout, or Jean Louise Finch, taking the train home to Maycomb County on herfifth annual visit from New York.

As she nears her destination, Scout ruminates on the scenery, the history of Maycomb and herfamily, all bittersweet when read in 2015 -- more than 60 years after it was originally written.

Much of the chapter is dominated by playful banter between Jean Louise and Henry Clinton, wholoves her and wants to marry her. But Jean Louise is less sure. She is "almost in love," the reader istold.

"'Henry', she said primly, 'I'll have anaffair with you but I won't marry you.'"

Scout discovers that her 72-year-old fatherhas rheumatoid arthritis, which made himunable to collect her.

Bombshell

But the biggest bombshell for fans was that Scout's brother Jem, who played a prominent role in"Mockingbird," had suddenly died.

In a careful first review, The New York Times said the novel "shares literary DNA" with Lee'smasterpiece -- "the same wry humor, biting banter and finely drawn characters."

The Guardian described the opening chapter as "gorgeous" and said the intervening decades had"worked a bittersweet magic... it carries us, bewitchingly, deep into the past."

But The Telegraph was biting. The chapter, the British newspaper wrote, had "interest as a work inprogress, the first step to a literary masterpiece.

"But perhaps it would have been a greater kindness to Lee's reputation, and to the millions whocherish 'To Kill a Mockingbird,' not to have published it at all," it sneered.

"Mockingbird" won a Pulitzer prize, became standard reading in schools the world over, wastranslated into more than 40 languages and adapted into an Oscar-winning film starring GregoryPeck.

The impending publication of "Watchman" left fans both delighted and taken aback, after thecelebrated novelist had for so long said there would never be another novel.

Surprise quickly degenerated into concern that perhaps Lee, who has poor eye sight and is deaf,may not have been of sound mind.

An Alabama government department even opened an investigation into whether Lee had beencoerced or abused into publishing the book.

HarperCollins said the manuscript had been recently re-discovered by her lawyer and in a statementreleased by HarperCollins, Lee said she was "humbled and amazed" that it would be published.

She said she had thought "Watchman" a "pretty decent effort" but as a first-time writer "did as I wastold" and recast the manuscript.

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