Book Description

This volume, the conclusion of Leon Edel's splendid edition, rounds off a half century of work on James by the noted biographer-critic. In the letters of the novelist's last twenty years a new Henry James is revealed. Edel's generous selection shows us, as he says, a "looser, less formal, less distant" personality, a man writing with greater candor and with more emotional freedom, who "has at last opened himself up to the physical things of life."

The decade embracing the turn of the century is the most productive period of James's career. Happily settled in an English country house and now dictating to a typist, he is able to write The Ambassadors, The Wings of the Dove, and The Golden Bowl in three years. The letters show clearly how his fiction turned from his world-famous tales of international society to the life of passion in his last novels.

His new friends and correspondents include Conrad, H. G. Wells, Stephen Crane, Edith Wharton, and several young men to whom he writes curious, half-inhibited love letters. Mrs. Wharton, with her chauffered "chariot of fire," introduces him to the thrill of motoring and welcomes him into her cosmopolitan circle; to him she embodies the affluence and driving energy of the America of the Gilded Age. For the first time in over twenty years he revisits his homeland, traveling not only in the East but through the South to Florida and west to California. He is dismayed by the materialism he finds and the changed ways of life. Back in England, he plunges into several projects; for the New York edition of his works he revises the early novels and writes his famous prefaces. His relations with agents and publishers as well as family and friends are fully documented in the letters, as are his trips to the Continent and visits with Edith Wharton in Paris.

His last years are darkened by a long siege of nervous ill health and by the death of his beloved brother William. But he carries on, moves back to London, and continues to work. Among the most eloquent of all his letters are those describing his anguished reaction to the Great War. To show his allegiance to the Allied cause, he becomes a British citizen, six months before his death. The volume concludes with his "final and fading words" dictated on his deathbed.

Book Description
Here at last is the first volume of the long--awaited edition of Henry James letters by the world's foremost Jamesian scholar. James was a superlative letter-writer; his correspondence constitutes one of the greateat self-portraits in all literature. In this edition Mr. Edel, respecting James's view that only the best of a writer's letters deserve publication, skims the cream of the fifteen thousand letters collected or discovered, many by the biographer himself, since the novelist's death in 1916. In volume one, the first of a projected four, he provides a general introduction and a necessary minimum of annotation, and prefaces each section-- Boyhood and Youth; Beginnings; The Grand Tour; A Season in Cambridge; Travel and Opportunity; and The Choice--with an informative account of James's attitudes and activities during the period in question. The volume closes, appropriately, with James's decision in 1875, at age thirty-two, to move permanently to Europe. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Misleading Advertisement
Why is Amazon listing this book, Henry James:Complete Stories 1874-1884 as available new? I ordered it in February and never received it.Amazon notified me frequently of continuing delays and, then, a few weeks ago cancelled the order, the book being unavailable.

I have since ordered a used copy and received it without delay!

The stories, of course, all five volumes, are perfection, delight, wondrous!The edition is beautiful and feels good to hold:print is very small and on thin paper but still easy to read.The hardback bindings hold the pages together securely yet allow the reader to hold the book open without a lot of effort. The little ribbon marker is a nice touch.

19 mini-masterpieces
The Library of America has published 5 volumes of Henry Jame stories, covering 1864 - 1910, and I'm hooked.Henry James has to be read slowly; every word he writes seems to matter to the story.He is a master craftmanof the English language, and can say so much without being explicit.

James wrote most of these 19 short stories while living in London andvisiting the continent.This volume of his stories starts with"Professor Fargo" and ends with "The Author of'Beltraffio'".But, perhaps the most famous of the stories includedhere is "Daisy Miller:A Study."Few, if any, of these storieswill disappoint a 20th century reader.

Unlike some fortunate reviewers,who have had careers as librarians or who have degrees in EnglishLiteratue, I started reading authors like Henry James on my own.Iapproach a author just for the pleasure of reading his/her work.I startedreading Henry James with these short stories and have graduated to hisnovels.At first his writing seemed slow and stiff.But, once I settledinto the cadence of his writing, I concluded that this suited the formalityof the upper classes he wrote about.Now, I can't seem to put down one ofhis stories until the end.

James wrote so much during his life that itseems impossible to read all that he wrote, but I think I'll try. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Easy reading but his stories are not always fulfilling
You get the impression that you are shortchanged at the end on several of his stories; some endings do not bring a lot of satisfaction. Others float here and there without really getting anywhere and there's rarely any action. But when it does occur it's usually at the end. It's not to say that I really do not like Henry James, quite the contrary. I like him because he shows the values that were important in his time.And there is enough variation in the stories to make it worth purchasing and reading. This is a book to bring on vacation.You can read through one story in about two sitting depending on how fast you read.The type is a bit small for me, it would be nice if it were a bit bigger.

Great Short Story Book
This book was purchased as part of the required reading of selected short stories for a Retirement Learning at Vanderbilt course on the art of the short story.

The book is a nice size with excellent type and format and is one of a series of Henry James' short stories catalogued by date.The book has a classy look and has additional information about the other books in the series and lists the stories in each.

There is a wonderful Chronology in the back of the book which tells all about Henry James, his travels and life in general.

The only draw back is that the pages are thin so the book can hold a lot and they can sometimes be a little difficult to separate when turning.

All in all a great volume at a modest price. ... Read more

Book Description

"A good up-to-date one-volume life of Henry James was long overdue; Fred Kaplan... has done the job splendidly with Henry James: The Imagination of Genius... Here, at last, is a thoughtful, balanced book to give us a consistent and persuasive account of the writer's life and his development as an author." -- Miranda Seymour, New York Times Book Review

One of the most influential novelists, Henry James led a life that was as rich as his writing. Born into an eccentric and difficult family, he left the United States for Europe, where he quickly became a fixture of the expatriate writing community. Fred Kaplan recreates the world of Henry James: his friendships with Edith Wharton and Joseph Conrad, his love of all things exquisite--including exquisite writing--and his quest for understanding human nature. As James himself advocated and would have wanted, this is an artful, dramatic biography, placing the chronological narrative of James's life in the historical context of his times.

"The twenty-one-year-old Henry James, Jr., preferred to be a writer rather than a soldier. His motives for writing were clear to himself, and they were not unusual: he desired fame and fortune. Whatever additional enriching complications that were to make him notorious for the complexity of his style and thought, the initial motivation remained constant. Deeply stubborn and persistently willful, he wanted praise and money, the rewards of recognition of what he believed to be his genius, on terms that he himself wanted to establish. The one battle he thought most worth fighting was that of the imagination for artistic expression. The one empire he most coveted, the land that he wanted for his primary home, was the empire of art." -- from Henry James: The Imagination of Genius

Customer Reviews (2)

amusing and wrongheaded
Fred Kaplan is a determined Freudian. His greatest joy appears to be linking James's novels, stories, and plays to his quasi-sexual relationships with his family. This is not entirely implausible, given the sexual oddness of most of the James clan. However, Kaplan could have written a much shorter and more engaging book had he refrained from prurient speculation that rarely adds anything to the elegance of James's work. He ought to have played to his strengths -- a devoted scholar of James's correspondence, he's pulled many amusing and enlightening bits from the great volume of letters James left behind. Particularly good fun are James's judgments on fellow writers like George Eliot and Flaubert. Who knew the creator of such beauties as Isabel Archer was so good at describing ugliness? For celebrity snark, circa 1910, check out "The Imagination of Genius." But for a decent biography, stick with "Henry James: A Life" by Leon Edel.

Henry James Not Seen
I've read a considerablenumberof Fred Kaplan's articles,
and am impressed by his insightful writing.Ialwayscome
awaywiththesensethathereis not only a thoughtful
writer, but also a good guy.So I bought his biographies of
Dickens and Henry James, andreadJames first.

It took me until page 387 to finally get holdofwhatwas
thematterwiththisbiography. IfI'mon, it's very
simple.Kaplan doesn'tlikeJames. Hedoesn't like the
man. Hedoesn'tevenseem to like James's works
particularly, or certainly as much as a Professor of English
wouldbe expected to like them.Or if he does, he's hiding
it pretty well. Onlyoccasionallydoesone see any real
appreciation of James's works.There isrelativelylittle
positive discussion of the luminous language,the
intertwinedsubtleties,the profundityofempathyand
insight,theremarkableevocationoftimeand place.
James'svariousstories,andeventhe great novels, are
dealtwithlargelyinterms of how much money James made
fromeach,orwhich of his familyorfriendsare
characterized there.

Buttheproblem isn't one of weak or wrong-headed literary
criticism. Itseems,rather, tobeoneofpersonal
antipathy.That is pretty odd, to say the least,sinceit
isdifficulttoimagine someone deciding to write a major
work on a major figurewithout at least a reasonable degree
of admirationandpersonalregardfortheman. Here,
instead,there is a strange undercurrent of resentment that
colors and shapes the slant, the emphasis, the
interpretationsofarangeofJames'sexperiencesand
choices.It isn't the resentmentof envy for the genius of
James's work.It doesn't seem to be about the work atall.
Rather,itseemstobeabout the way James chose to
live his life.There'snoroom here to carefully document
it, but I think a reader can readily see it by watchingfor
quotationsfrom a letter or note of James, and then looking
for Kaplan's tiny, very slightly jarring negative spin, each
tiny distortion piled on top ofthe last until, after a few
hundred pages or so, what's going onbecomesclearer.

Ihadread Toibin's graceful novel on James, which made me
want to read next a scholarly biography that told more about
the lifeofthisgentle,refinedmanwhosebeautyof
language reveals, with brilliant precision, what is actually
happeningbeneath the surfaces.I wanted to be able to see
more clearlywhatJamessaw. Kaplan'sbookisn't that
biography.I'm reading the classic work by LeonEdel,and
things are much better now.

I hope Kaplan likes Dickens. ... Read more

Book Description
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Customer Reviews (1)

The Short Stories of Henry Jame: Worth the Effort
The short stories of Henry James are a microcosm of his novels: bafflingly complex, syntactically convoluted, and thematically multi-layered.He wrote more than 100 between 1864 and 1910, of which perhaps a few dozen are much read today. Complicating any discussion of his short prose is to define "short." Many of his short stories are long enough to qualify as novellas but regardless of the length, any fiction of Henry James promises to take the reader into the world of the microverse, a highly stylized and internalized arena where action counts less than thought and "how" far more than "what." For those who come to his short fiction after having read, say THE GOLDEN BOWL or THE AMBASSADORS, such readers have learned patience, secure in the knowledge that the inner workings of the mind are surely more interesting than the slam-bang world of reality.

There are a few themes that James uses often both in his short and long fiction.He likes to place cultured and intelligent protagonists in an alien environment just to watch them squirm on a foreign alter, or what is more sinister, to maintain them in a familiar ground, only to change the laws of physics or rationality--and then watch them squirm. He employs the doppelganger, or double of the protagonist, one who might be his present or future version, or again more sinister, one who might be a spectral reincarnation. Many of James' heroes fear marriage and must battle an encrusted society that demands it.James was also fascinated with innocence, especially in children and child-like adults. In such stories, the world exists only to corrupt such innocence. Finally, James rarely used one theme in isolation. He much preferred to onion his stories with overlapping themes, all of which are centered on James' rich and allusive prose style, allowing him to meld the complexity of content with the complexity of style.I have chosen a few of his short prose fiction as examples of the quintessential Henry James.

In "The Aspern Papers," James writes of a narrator who must balance the need to obtain art (the papers of the deceased American poet Aspern) while maintaining his ethics while so doing.The narrator travels to Venice for these papers only to discover that their current owners are quite unwilling to give them up. He promises to marry one of them in return for their delivery to him, thinking all the while they are too naïve to see through his scheme. In the end, he tries to steal them, only to learn that they have burned them, one page at a time.James' narrator is one of a long series of such who speak of integrity more than show it.

In "The Jolly Corner," James uses the "double" of the protagonist to point out how one man's life could have been had things been different. Spencer Brydon, an American expatriate returns to America, only to meet his ghostly alter ego, one who Brydon might have become had he stayed at home. Perhaps James had in mind Lambert Strether of THE AMBASSADORS, who is also the model of what the alter ego might have been: a money-grubbing capitalist with no one to tell him "Live!"

James uses "The Pupil" to depict the loss of childhood innocence. The caddish and grifting transplanted American Moreen family hires fellow American Pemberton to tutor their son. They refuse to pay him agreed on wages, all the while exhorting him with the nobility of his task.They offer him custody of their son, which he understandably refuses, but the boy is crushed since he favors Pemberton over his parents.

Art versus life come into conflict in "The Real Thing."The narrator is hired by a couple, punningly named the Monarchs, to paint them as exemplars of the "real thing" of nobility.It is his realization that the reality of their claim does not allow him to create the illusion of a second-rate knock off. He is unwilling to further society's need to measure a life by glorifying its phony aspect.

In these stories and in Henry James' others, he presents the reader with a subjective examination of the inner workings of the mind. For those readers who wish to enter such a microverse, they will find that James' admittedly baffling style will be seen as more as a part of that journey than an impediment.


... Read more

Book Description
The Cambridge Companion to Henry James is intended to provide a critical introduction to James' work. Throughout the major critical shifts of the past fifty years, and despite suspicions of the traditional high literary culture that was James' milieu, as a writer he has retained a powerful hold on readers and critics alike. All essays are written at a level free from technical jargon, designed to promote accessibility to the study of James and his work. ... Read more

Book Description
This terse and startling novel, written just before The Spoils of Poynton and What Maisie Knew,is the story of a struggle for possession—and of its devastating consequences. Three women seek to secure the affections of one man, while he, in turn, tries to satisfy them all. But in the middle of this contest of wills stands his unwitting and vulnerable young daughter. The savage conclusion of The Other House makes it one of the most disturbing and memorable of Henry James's depictions of the uncontrollable passions that lie beneath the polished veneer of civilized life.

Oh blest Other House, which gives me thus at every step a precedent, a divine little light to walk by... —Henry James ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

A surprisingly quick read
It's hard to believe that James's theatrical turn of the late 19th century ended with his audience "booing" him off the stage.This novelized play reads quickly and delightfully.I've read more than twenty of his novels, and this was the quickest of them all.

The plot is simple enough (at least for James): two houses, apparently back to back, in Wilverley, a small English village, set the scene.One contains a widow, the other a young married couple.The young wife widows the young husband, and he becomes Wilverley's "most eligible bachelor," except for the fact that he promised his dying wife that he would never marry again, at least not during the life of his child.So somebody has to kill the child, right?

Enter James's genius for character.There's Paul, the huge, infinitely imperturbable son of the wealthy Mrs. Beever; the diminutive and impetuous Dennis Vidal; Tony Bream himself, a remarkably good-natured but insensitive fool; and the powerful Mrs. Beever, whose awful determination cows every one else before her.Like James's best writing, his characters become interesting on their own; his fictions become an opportunity to satisfy curiosity.I think that's what makes this book a "page-turner"; the characters are interesting enough that I want to know what's going to happen.

In the end, I suppose, what makes this book succeed is what would have made the dramatic version fail: James's endless fascination with the workings of the human mind must have become either painfully boring or just incomprehensible to a theatrical audience.However it came about, I recommend it unequivocally.

real, rounded characters
This book is a novelization of the play by the same name. And you can see the stageplay - the characters are continually coming and going - and there's stage business -all of which I think shows some stiffness - yet about half way through the novel I was startled at how much the characters were real, rounded - I could just about see them - they ached with life - I was always aware of the stage during the novel - the story itself is rather shocking - it's a mystery novel! - it's all very well done - it's short - and it's very psychological

Unexpected Page Turner--Timeless
I am impressed with The New York Review's revival of this unexpectedly non-Jamesian title. A truly unique James choice to bring back to life--it's been done so with a cover so compelling (I'm not a tradional James fan) Iopened the book which I found locally in a brick and mortar as they are nowcalled, book shop. The internet cannot do justice to the thoughtfulsophistication of this book's packaging. (But I can purchase another copyhere more easily!) The publisher's comments about the work were alsocompelling and complimentary to the cover art. The Other House is amystery, a detective story, a love triangle with more than three angles--atrue page turner--with a timelessly human plot and "modern"characters. Anyone thriller fan would be enchanted with it. And turningevery page, holding the book, is a sensory thrill. Paper, writing, art--allrepresentative of what any literary rebirth deserves. If it's worthbringing back--do it with quality, I say! They did--along with a wholemarvelous collection of equally intriguing books, with well written newintroductions. Good choices--the pieces themselves, the introductionauthors and the book artist designers. Truly timeless in all ways!

When does the movie come out?
A trusted friend sent me a copy of this new edition of The Other House, insisting that I'd enjoy it. It looked intriguing. I felt obligated to at least give it a try. I still trust the friend! I can't believe this is whatis known as a Classic. I thought they were all very boring. I couldn't waitto get back to this plot and I'd never have thought it was written in theuptight Victorian era. It's more like a movie special of the week or one ofthe top ten best selling novels. Read it then recommend it and impress yourfriends with your literary depth. ... Read more

Product Description
James is the acknowledged master of the psychological novel, which profoundly influenced the 20th-century literary world. The power of his prose and the skill with which he marshals seemingly insignificant details to accomplish his purpose sustains the listener's interest and compels continued contemplation. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An excellent narration of James' classic...
I admit I listened to the audiobook after I saw the movie version of "Washington Square" with Jennifer Jason Leigh, as well as "The Heiress," with Olivia de Havilland. I did not particularly enjoy what sounded like undisguised contempt for women in James' writing, but I love Dickens and heaven knows his understanding of women is limited. The characters of Catherine, Dr. Sloper, and Townsend are vivid and unforgettable. There is something compelling about the sad creature Catherine: She exerts a hold on you. You turn away from her, you love her, you turn away again. Although some have seen certain touches in the novel as comedic, I can't agree. Nearly all involved seem fatally flawed, damaged and damaging to others. As for this recording, the narration and sound quality are excellent. I was glad I listened to the book instead of reading it, as I doubt I would have finished it. Lloyd James' reading was very well done indeed. ... Read more

Book Description
The Complete Notebooks of Henry James opens a clear window into the private workshop of America's master novelist.Leon Edel, James' highly-acclaimed award-winning biographer, and Lyall H. Powers, critic and editor of James' letters to Edith Wharton, have assembled and edited this
definitive volume.
It contains the nine scribbler-notebooks originally published by Oxford in 1947, with considerable updating and annotations that both correct the identification of stories developed by James from his various notes and reveal many noted Victorians whom he concealed through the use of initials.
Edel and Powers have also restored certain previously omitted portions of the notebooks, as well as including over 20,000 words of new material.This new material consists of a series of James' pocket diaries in which, amid appointments and luncheon dates, he jotted down observations and ideas for
his fiction and commented on his personal relations.They also provide some fugitive dictated notes, in which James offered an autobiographical meditation on the "turning point" in his life and the "working out" of a story based on a passion murder by an American aquaintance in the south of France.
That's not all; Edel and Powers also give us James' long out-of-print statements for his unfinished novels The Ivory Tower and The Sense of the Past, scenarios for unfinished plays, notes on his "cash accounts," and the writer's deathbed dictation, as well as a long outline of The Ambassadors
and jacket cover notes now identified as James' own writing.An appendix provides a substantial, and previously unpublished, fragment of Hugh Merrow, a story he never completed.Through all these collected writings never intended for the public eye, we see the artist at work.His private prayers
to his Muse and exhortations to himself make for exhilarating reading. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description
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Customer Reviews (1)

A Great Deal, for James lovers and newbies
This is a tremendous book - some of the greatest stories ever written, attractively packaged and reasonably priced.These are not really "short stories", as most of them are longer than 50 pages, andthey all require careful attention, but the effort is well worth it. Whilesome are better than others, there is not a weak story in the book. ... Read more

Book Description
This fourth volume in the Library of America edition of the complete novels of Henry James contains the four novels he wrote after a failed attempt to forge a career as a playwright on the London stage. Together they mark the beginning of the brilliant period in the novelist's career known as the late phase.

The Other House (1896) shows James incorporating an act of murder into the heart of his narrative. Long neglected, the novel is a fascinating glimpse into a very different side of Henry James, as he explores the violent implications of jealousy and possessiveness. In The Spoils of Poynton (1897), the artworks conserved in the manor house of the title become the object of a protracted power struggle between the mother and the fiancée of the heir to the house. The struggle, in this most tightly constructed of James's late novels, hinges ultimately on the sensitivities of a third woman.

What Maisie Knew (1897) recounts the aftermath of a divorce through the eyes of the couple's daughter. James adopts what he described as "the consciousness, the dim, sweet, scared, wondering, clinging perception of the child." Similarly experimental, The Awkward Age (1899) maps the interrelations of a large cast of characters, a group of old friends and their children, almost entirely through dialogue. The ambiguity of childhood innocence is central to both of these novels. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Intended for an extended shelf life
Compiled and edited by Myra Jehlen (Board of Governors Chair of Literatures at Rutgers University), Henry James: Novels 1896-1899 is the fourth volume in The Library of America edition of the complete novels of Henry James and contains the four novels written after James failed in his attempt to create a professional career as a playwright on the London stage. The novels include "The Other House" (1896); "The Spoils of Poynton" (1897); "What Maise Knew" (1897); and "The Awkward Age" (1899). Like all more than 150 titles published by The Library of America, Henry James: Novels 1896-1899 is printed on high quality paper, intended for an extended shelf life, and is a mandatory addition to University and College library collections. ... Read more

Book Description
Nine of James's most important tales, including (new to the second edition) "In the Cage," a tale that engages James's complicated attitudes toward gender, class, and the rise of information technology. "The Author on His Craft" again reprints James's critical essay "The Art of Fiction" and related passages from his notebooks, including a new passage on "In the Cage." "Criticism" has been entirely updated and includes ten new essays by critics who during the last twenty-five years have helped to establish the lines of debate about James's tales.

About the series: No other series of classic texts equals the caliber of the Norton Critical Editions. Each volume combines the most authoritative text available with the comprehensive pedagogical apparatus necessary to appreciate the work fully. Careful editing, first-rate translation, and thorough explanatory annotations allow each text to meet the highest literary standards while remaining accessible to students. Each edition is printed on acid-free paper and every text in the series remains in print. Norton Critical Editions are the choice for excellence in scholarship for students at more than 2,000 universities worldwide. ... Read more

Book Description
This collection of Henry James's letters-more than half of which have never been published-offers a vivid picture of his life of passionate creation and the complex world in which he lived. Through his exchanges with writers such as William Dean Howells, Henry Adams, Robert Louis Stevenson, H. G. Wells, and Edith Wharton, as well as presidents, prime ministers, bishops, painters, and great ladies and actresses, we gain a fascinating glimpse of James's views on sex, politics, and friendship as well as his novels and the art of writing. These letters constitute a landmark of James scholarship and the real and best biography of this most complex and compelling artist. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The best introduction to the subject
Now that the University of Nebraska Press has undertaken to publish the complete James correspondence, these one-volume samplers can be relieved of the artificial responsibility to do the impossible - that is, tell the whole story in 600 pages or less.

Horne's effort suffers in comparison to Edel's by its self-imposed mandate to favor previously unpublished letters. (Personally, I found these almost invariably of lesser interest. It looks like Edel skimmed the cream.) But his cannily selected interstitial material makes it a far more rewarding reading experience. I would say this now stands as the best introduction to the subject.

And for what it's worth: the Penguin Classics paperback edition is a very nice piece of manufacture - comfortably sized in dimension and font. ... Read more

Amazon.com
If you thought that previous biographers of Henry James had exhausted the field, think again. Lyndall Gordon--whose earlier work includes lives of T. S. Eliot and Charlotte Brontë--narrows her focus to examine the relationships James had with two women, a decade apart. The first was his cousin, Minny Temple, who contracted tuberculosis when she was 22. As she neared death, the vivacious, intelligent young woman dropped discreet hints to James in her correspondence that she would love to accompany him to Europe. He withdrew, and she died in 1870, only 24 years old. He would later use her as the template for such characters as Daisy Miller and Isabel Archer. Then, in 1880, James met the commercially successful author Constance Fenimore Woolson. During their 14-year relationship, the two not only inspired various characters in each other's fiction, but, Gordon suggests, Woolson set James on the path of writing metaphorically about the artist's life. But their relationship ended badly: he wrote a condescending essay about her in Harper's, which ensured her literary downfall; she ultimately fell to her death from a bedroom window (most likely, based on the evidence Gordon assembles, of her own volition). A Private Life of Henry James offers an unflinching look at its subject, demolishing the myth of James's solitary genius while respecting the complexity of his circumstances.Book Description
The lasting influence on the master's work of twoindependent, fiercely intelligent women. Henry James's cousin, MinnyTemple, was the "heroine" of his youth in New England; he saw her as afree spirit, "a plant of pure American growth." The writer ConstanceFenimore Woolson was a friend of his middle years in Europe, a solitary,mature woman who pursued her ambitions with an intensity that matched hisown. Both had an extraordinary impact on James, even (perhaps especially)in the wakes of their premature deaths. In this beautifully written andeye-opening biography, Lyndall Gordon gives us a remarkable portrait oftwo strongly individual women, both ahead of their time, and theircreative intimacy with Henry James: "ties more intimate than sex, closerthan those of family and friends." Through these women we see some of themost protected aspects of the man more clearly. As Gordon writes, "Jamesinvented himself, but he could not have written as he did withoutpartners-female partners, posthumous partners-in that unseen space inwhich life is transformed into art." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Superb book on the great Henry James
This absorbing book tells the story of Henry Jamesý friendships with Minnie Temple and Constance Fenimore Woolson. Minnie inspired James to create the characters of Isabel Archer, the heroine of The Portrait of a Lady, and of Milly Theale, the heroine of The Wings of the Dove.

Both Minnie and Constance looked to James for more than he was prepared to give. He drew them into communion, then left them exposed when he withdrew into the sanctuary of his writing. Minnie died of tuberculosis in 1870 at the age of 25, after James rejected her pleas for a closer relationship; her consequent loss of morale accelerated her death. After fifteen years of friendship with James, Constance killed herself in 1894 at the age of 52. Their tragic deaths spurred his creativity.

Jamesý greatest achievements depended on their generosity: the idea of the solitary genius is just a myth: genius cannot emerge in a void. He paid them the supreme artistic tribute of portraying them forever as heroines, but he paid them too little attention as real women. He rejected what few but he knew that they offered. He understood the claims that they made on life, but would not, could not, meet them. Jamesý visionary moralism was born of his ýmerciless clairvoyanceý.

These two wonderful independent-minded women provoked Jamesý creative attention; they figured for him creative possibilities that he celebrated in his greatest fiction. They enabled him to understand a womanýs point of view, a perspective that became central to his art. Like George Eliot and Charles Dickens, James exposed the social corruption and moral bankruptcy of the bourgeois men and women of his time. But only James and Eliot, with Dorothea Brooke in Middlemarch and Gwendolen Harleth in Daniel Deronda, created heroines who transcended the limits of their society. In each of these novels, the heroineýs integrity and altruism rise above the bullying interference and interests of others. ... Read more