Henry James: The Imagination of Genius: A Biography

Beschreibung:

Former library book; Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers G0688090214I3N10

Diesen Artikel melden

Inhaltsangabe:

Rezensionen: Biographer Kaplan ( Dickens: A Biography , LJ 9/1/88; Thomas Carlyle: A Biography , LJ 11/15/83) brings us a lucid and vibrant account of the novelist's creative imagination as well as his renowned personal life. Concentrating on the genesis and inspiration for James's creative output, Kaplan for the most part avoids strict literary criticism that would slow down the fast-moving pace of the biography. He relies almost exclusively on the letters and diaries of James and his associates to convey both James's spirit and the background for his work. Though not as all-encompassing as Leon Edel's five-volume opus ( Henry James , 1953-72), this volume is a highly recommended alternative to the one-volume condensation, Henry James: A Life ( LJ 10/15/85) and a good companion to the biographical study of the James family by R.W.B. Lewis ( The Jameses: A Family Narrative, LJ 8/1/91). See The Correspondence of William James . Vol . 1: William and Henry, 1861-1884 reviewed above.--Ed.-- Martin R. Kalfatovic, Natl. Museum of American Art/Natl. Portrait Gallery Lib., Smithsonian Inst., Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Similar in its emotional complexity and cunning insights to James's own novels, this remarkably vivid biography offers a nuanced portrait of the author as an ambivalent Victorian, a voluntary expatriate who paid the price for his independence in lonelliness and alienation. As portrayed here, James (1843-1916) took "the feminine role in his sexual identity, his social life, and his fiction." Generally repressing his homoerotic desires--though he fell in love with numerous men--James was haunted by the fear that his renunciation of sexuality had kept him from experiencing life's depths . Kaplan, biographer of Dickens and Carlyle and professor of English at Queens College in New York City, illuminates the psychodynamics of James's troubled family: his father, an energetic handicapped philosopher, starved himself to death; Alice, the novelist's mentally ill sister, looked to brothers William and Henry as husband substitutes. Kaplan persuasively shows how James projected his inner conflicts and obsession with repressed sexuality onto his fictional characters. Photos.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.