First Novel by Oscar Winner

British screenwriter Julian Fellowes, who won an Academy Award for his Gosford Park screenplay, has returned to the world of high society for a first novel he calls Snobs, just bought at St. Martin's from its British publisher. It's about a commoner who marries an earl, then has to decide if it's him or his title and trappings she really loves. SMP publisher Sally Richardson and executive editor Hope Dellon jointly did the "significant"-sized deal with Susan Howe at Orion for U.S. rights and will probably publish next winter. Fellowes, who has also written the forthcoming movie of Thackeray's Vanity Fair, knows whereof he speaks when it comes to the lordly life; he's married to an English princess's lady-in-waiting.