Author to progress repeatedly, reaching end of novel (5)
I believe the answer is:
gogol
'author' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'progress repeatedly reaching end of novel' is the wordplay.
'progress' becomes 'go' (I've seen this in other clues).
'repeatedly' shows that letters should be duplicated.
'reaching' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'end of' indicates one should take the final letters.
The last letter of 'novel' is 'l'.
'go' doubled is 'gogo'.
'gogo'+'l'='GOGOL'
'to' is the link.
(Other definitions for gogol that I've seen before include "Russian author/playwright" , "Dead Souls Russ. author" , "Russian novelist" , "Russian writer" , "Nikolai -, Russian author (Dead Souls)" .)