The Life of Henry James: A Critical Biography Peter Collister

The Life of Henry James: A Critical Biography Peter Collister – Ebook Instant Download/Delivery ISBN(s): 9781119483076,1119483077

Product details:

• ISBN 10: 1119483077
• ISBN 13: 9781119483076
• Author: Peter Collister

In The Life of Henry James: A Critical Biography, Peter Collister, an established critic and authority on Henry James, offers an original and fully documented account of one of America’s finest writers, who was both a creative practitioner and theorist of the novel. In this volume, James’s life in all its personal and cultural richness is examined alongside a detailed scrutiny of his fiction, essays, biographies, autobiographies, travel writing, plays and reviews.

James was a dedicated and brilliant letter-writer and his biographer make judicious use of this material, some of it previously unpublished, evoking in the novelist’s own words the society within which he moved and worked. His gift for friendship, often resulting in close relationships with both men and women, are sensitively explored. Near the beginning of his long and highly productive life, James left America to immerse himself in European culture and history – a necessity, he felt, for the developing artist. In an ironic symmetry he witnessed in his youth the effects of the American Civil War and in his last days, finally becoming a British citizen, despaired at the unfolding tragedy of the Great War in Europe. Sustained, nevertheless, by his own creative energy, he never ceased to believe in the capacity of the arts to enhance and give significance to life.

Table of contents:

Part I The Early Years 1

1 ‘Wondering and Dawdling and Gaping’ in New York City (1843 –1855) 3

2 Europe and Newport: In Search of a ‘Sensuous Education’ (1855 –1861) 26

3 Civil War and ‘a Consecration to Letters’ (1861–1869) 49

Part II Independence and Europe 71

4 Italy and the ‘Complex Fate’ of Being an American (1869 –1872) 73

5 Return to Italy and ‘an Incalculable Number of Gathered Impressions’ (1872 –1873) 93

6 Rome and Paris: Roderick Hudson: An Experiment in Journalism (1873 –1876) 110

7 ‘The Wheel of London Life’ and Early Novels (1876 –1879) 134

8 Friendships Begin and End: The Achievement of The Portrait of a Lady (1879–1881) 156

Part III The Lure of the Theatre 181

9 Family Deaths: New Friendships in Europe (1881–1884) 183

10 A Range of Novels: Robert Louis Stevenson and Constance Fenimore Woolson (1885–1887) 209

11 ‘The Sawdust & Orange-peel Phase’ Begins: The Tragic Muse (1887–1891) 229

12 Deaths and Losses: Theatrical Ventures (1891 –1895) 248

Part IV The Later Years 269

13 Return to ‘The Sacred Fluid of Fiction’ (1895 –1899) 271

14 A Roman Encounter: ‘Letting Yourself Go’ (1899 –1902) 297

15 ‘Dearly Beloved’ Young Men: The Final Novels (1902 –1904) 323

16 The ‘Agreeable and Absorbing Adventure’ of America: The New York Edition and Last Stories (1904 –1909) 343

17 Loss of William, ‘So Shining a Presence’: Autobiographical Writing: The Great War and Death (1909 –1916) 369

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