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The Life of Henry James #4
Henry James: The Treacherous Years: 1895-1901
SECOND DISCUS PRINTING. Aug. 1978 Avon mass market paperback, Leon Edel (Henry James, the Complete Biography). This book centers on six years culminating in the turn of the century, years that proved challenging for James.
381 pages, Paperback
First published April 28, 1969
57 people want to read
About the author
Leon Edel
142 books7 followersJoseph Leon Edel was a American/Canadian literary critic and biographer. Edel taught English and American literature at Sir George Williams University (now Concordia University) from 1932 until 1934, New York University from 1953 until 1972, and at University of Hawaii at Manoa from 1972 until 1978. From 1944 to 1952, he worked as a reporter and feature writer for the left-wing New York newspapers PM and the Daily Compass.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 16, 2009
Volume Four is such a gripping installment of this biography that on reaching the last page I wanted to read it all over again. It begins with James's horrific failure at the theater, when he was booed off-stage for his play, Guy Domville. He became depressed, confused and self-doubting. Aging did not help; neither did the rise of young Turks in literature and criticism, as the age of Victoria came to a close.
Edel explained, quite persuasively, that James re-lived childhood hurts in his writing of this period, in an attempt to heal his psychic wounds. Between 1895 and 1900, James wrote a series of stories about female children and adolescents.
Edel also points out that whereas the little girls usually endure and survive, the one little boy, Miles, dies when he tries to assert his masculinity in the world. James's sense of his masculinity seemed fraught with insecurities.
After completing this series of writing, James took off for Italy. There he met Hendrik Christian Andersen, an ambitious young American sculptor, and fell in love with him. Andersen stayed three days with Henry in his house at Rye, and they met thereafter about five more times. James's letters to Andersen were full of physical, tactile language. Edel is cautious in interpreting this language. While he acknowledges that the letters speak for "a certain physical intimacy in their meetings, they can be seen also as forms of endearment in one who was overtly affectionate in public." He concludes finally that we don't know if the two men shared any physical intimacy, but the character of Henry's feelings is clear.
When Hendrik's older brother died, Henry wrote to him:
Hendrik must be extraordinarily obtuse if he could not see the nature of the feelings Henry expressed in his letter. Though Edel looks steadily at Henry's relationship with the young sculptor, I am surprised that this discovery did not lead Edel to review, if not revise, his study of Henry's life. Surely this homosexual feeling could not have come from nowhere? In his account, Edel emphasizes how Henry saw his younger self in Hendrik, whose name so uncannily resembled his. The inference is that his homosexual feeling was, at least in part, a love of self. I have heard stories of men discovering late in their lives feelings for other men. Did they repress those feelings in the past, or did they develop them later? It's an intriguing question that needs asking.
The effect of his new feelings on Henry was tremendous. Though the longing was agonizing, it was also energizing. It gave Henry a new motivation for life and art. The palace of art was insufficient; human desire must have its place. Falling in love enabled Henry to imagine love in his great late novels. Isabel Archer, who aims to cultivate the beautiful, gives way to Kate Croy, who risks all for the sake of love.
Edel explained, quite persuasively, that James re-lived childhood hurts in his writing of this period, in an attempt to heal his psychic wounds. Between 1895 and 1900, James wrote a series of stories about female children and adolescents.
. . . There has been a revisiting of earliest childhood following the recoil from the horror of public rejection and the destruction of self-esteem. . . . In resuming the disguise of a female chid, the protective disguise of his early years, James performed imaginative self-therapy. The record of these stories can be seen as the unconscious revisiting of perceptions and feelings, to minister to adult hurts. As his old feelings and imaginings had defended his childish self long ago against the brutal world, they now served as aid against the new brutalities.
Edel also points out that whereas the little girls usually endure and survive, the one little boy, Miles, dies when he tries to assert his masculinity in the world. James's sense of his masculinity seemed fraught with insecurities.
After completing this series of writing, James took off for Italy. There he met Hendrik Christian Andersen, an ambitious young American sculptor, and fell in love with him. Andersen stayed three days with Henry in his house at Rye, and they met thereafter about five more times. James's letters to Andersen were full of physical, tactile language. Edel is cautious in interpreting this language. While he acknowledges that the letters speak for "a certain physical intimacy in their meetings, they can be seen also as forms of endearment in one who was overtly affectionate in public." He concludes finally that we don't know if the two men shared any physical intimacy, but the character of Henry's feelings is clear.
When Hendrik's older brother died, Henry wrote to him:
The sense that I can't help you, see you, talk to you, touch you, hold you close and long, or do anything to make you rest on me, and feel my participation--this torments me, dearest boy, makes me ache for you, and for myself; makes me gnash my teeth and groan at the bitterness of things. . . . I wish I could go to Rome and put my hands on you (oh, how lovingly I should lay them!) but that, alas, is odiously impossible. . . . I am in town for a few weeks but I return to Rye April 1st, and sooner or later to have you there and do for you, to out my arms round you and make you lean on me as on a brother and a lover, and keep you on and on, slowly comforted or at least relieved of the first bitterness of pain--this I try to imagine as thinkable, attainable, not wholly out of the question. There I am, at any rate, and there is my house and my garden and my table and my studio--such as it is--and your room, and your welcome, and your place everywhere--and I press them upon you, oh so earnestly, dearest boy, if isolation and grief and the worries you are overdone with become intolerable to you. . . . I will nurse you through your dark passage. . . . I embrace you with almost a passion of pity.
Hendrik must be extraordinarily obtuse if he could not see the nature of the feelings Henry expressed in his letter. Though Edel looks steadily at Henry's relationship with the young sculptor, I am surprised that this discovery did not lead Edel to review, if not revise, his study of Henry's life. Surely this homosexual feeling could not have come from nowhere? In his account, Edel emphasizes how Henry saw his younger self in Hendrik, whose name so uncannily resembled his. The inference is that his homosexual feeling was, at least in part, a love of self. I have heard stories of men discovering late in their lives feelings for other men. Did they repress those feelings in the past, or did they develop them later? It's an intriguing question that needs asking.
The effect of his new feelings on Henry was tremendous. Though the longing was agonizing, it was also energizing. It gave Henry a new motivation for life and art. The palace of art was insufficient; human desire must have its place. Falling in love enabled Henry to imagine love in his great late novels. Isabel Archer, who aims to cultivate the beautiful, gives way to Kate Croy, who risks all for the sake of love.
May 26, 2023
In which Young Henry confronts the traumas of his past — the trauma of being, of falling in love with another man, of childhood, of feeling inadequate next to his brother, of the eternal search for the distinguished Thing which has no name — and, having been divested of the need for clear answers, learns to accept the vicissitudes and forks of love in all their hazy glory — just in time to write those storied late masterpieces, THE SACRED FOUNT (the breakthrough), and then AMBASSADORS, WINGS OF THE DOVE, and THE GOLDEN BOWL.
Late Henry James: "The port from which I set out was, I think, that of *the essential loneliness of my life* — and it seems to be the port also, in sooth, to which my courser again finally directs itself! this loneliness (since I mention it) — what is it still but the deepest thing about one? Deeper, about *me*, at any rate, than anything else; deeper than my 'genius,' deeper than my 'discipline,' deeper than my pride, deeper, above all, than the deep counterminings of art."
Edel: "Of all writers, Henry James was the novelist perhaps most in tune with what people said behind the masks they put on. The aggressive emotion that masquerades as a cutting witticism; the euphoria that disguises depression; the sudden slip of the tongue that reveals the opposite of what is intended — James had learned long ago to read 'psychological signs ... What's ignoble is the detective and the keyhole.' But in THE SACRED FOUNT, there seems to be a distinct uneasiness: 'Have I been right? How can I be sure?' A little voice whispers that omniscient novelists can be wrong as well as right."
Late Henry James: "The port from which I set out was, I think, that of *the essential loneliness of my life* — and it seems to be the port also, in sooth, to which my courser again finally directs itself! this loneliness (since I mention it) — what is it still but the deepest thing about one? Deeper, about *me*, at any rate, than anything else; deeper than my 'genius,' deeper than my 'discipline,' deeper than my pride, deeper, above all, than the deep counterminings of art."
Edel: "Of all writers, Henry James was the novelist perhaps most in tune with what people said behind the masks they put on. The aggressive emotion that masquerades as a cutting witticism; the euphoria that disguises depression; the sudden slip of the tongue that reveals the opposite of what is intended — James had learned long ago to read 'psychological signs ... What's ignoble is the detective and the keyhole.' But in THE SACRED FOUNT, there seems to be a distinct uneasiness: 'Have I been right? How can I be sure?' A little voice whispers that omniscient novelists can be wrong as well as right."
February 8, 2018
a glimpse of a prolific Author life--one phase of it
February 23, 2015
This was perhaps my favorite of the first four volumes so far (on to the final volume). Henry James survives his struggle to be success in the theater to return to his prior success at fiction. He settles down into a house where I think he spends the rest of his life.
Edel grapples with many important questions, such as how James copes with his loneliness, his ambiguous relationship with the sculptor Henrik C. Anderson, and his increasing age.
I love this work best when it is talking about James's life, more than when Edel is reviewing the actual fiction. Reviewing James's life, and its weekly occurrences, provides an interesting reflection on the end of the Victorian era and an insight into a brilliant mind.
On to the final book!
Edel grapples with many important questions, such as how James copes with his loneliness, his ambiguous relationship with the sculptor Henrik C. Anderson, and his increasing age.
I love this work best when it is talking about James's life, more than when Edel is reviewing the actual fiction. Reviewing James's life, and its weekly occurrences, provides an interesting reflection on the end of the Victorian era and an insight into a brilliant mind.
On to the final book!
November 28, 2017
This is the fourth volume of five. I have rated the first three quite highly, as well, but this volume is absolutely the best so far. I never had a strong appreciation for the fiction of Henry James, but I have been coupling the reading of this multivolume biography with reading many of his short stories and novellas, and I have developed a strong fondness for his work and an inclination to read more. Soon, I intend to start working on some of his longer novels, as well.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews