Alice James: A Biography [Paperback]

Jean Strouse (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 15, 1999

Alice James was the sister of William and Henry, the only daughter in a family of brilliant and not a little eccentric men, and representative of the intellectually repressed nineteenth-century woman whose grief finds an outlet in neurotic illness. She kept a withering journal of her life, wrote letters, and left behind a trail needing only modern signposts. She was an integral part of a family firm of scholars and writers. But she could never seize the opportunities that a few other women of her age did. There was no air to breathe in the intoxicating atmosphere where Henry was already writing spellbinding novels and William was professing at Harvard and reinventing psychology and philosophy. Her life, then, is a singular portrait embedded in a family history that dazzled her age and still interests ours.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A triumph of exact compassion, of disciplined speculation, and of imaginative justice. (Christopher Ricks The Sunday Times [UK] )

Strouse is acquainting us with the younger sister of William and Henry James...[She has] written a Jamesian novel, subtle, evasive, embroidered, splendid. (John Leonard New York Times )

Review

Brilliant...Jean Strouse has created a fascinating picture of 'woman's place' in a family of genius and throws a searching light on the price a woman sometimes pays when reared in such a hothouse. (Leon Edel )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Harvard University Press (April 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 067401555X
• ISBN-13: 978-0674015555
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,687,931 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Enthralling!, June 2, 1999

By 

John E. Carlson "Johnny" (Everett, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Alice James: A Biography (Paperback)

I first read this book in 1991 and am still haunted by some of the words and letters of Alice James. Jean Srouse's thorough research and great prose kept me reading. It was Alice, herself, however who really touched me. This book introduced me to a cast of interesting characters who are with me still.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent biography of a fascinating lady, August 5, 2001

By 

Jan Overstreet (Murphys, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Alice James: A Biography (Paperback)

It's interesting that Alice's disabling illness has always been considered as neurotic, perhaps even a sign of envy of her successful brothers. It's occurred to me that Alice may have been suffering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, at that time an undiagnosed illness, as opposed to "brother envy". In any case, the book is beautifully written and is fascinating indeed.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Seeing the lofty sky, January 20, 2009

By 

Mary E. Sibley (Carneys Point, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Alice James: The Life of the Brilliant But Neglected Younger Sister of William and Henry James (Paperback)

The most interesting part of the book is the last chapter concerning the publication of the diary of AJ. Alice James requested that her life be judged on its own terms. Henry and William possessed real genius. Strenuous individualism had been urged on all five children in the James family. Henry James Sr. had been cured of alcoholism but not religious doubt as a young man. In the work of Swedenborg James sought a loving God, pure benevolence. James wrote and lectured about Divine Natural Humanity.

The children experienced relative freedom from parental tyranny. Alice admired her father's intellectual energy. With her brother Henry she shared a deep intellectual and spiritual kinship. In 1861 William entered the Lawrence Scientific School at Harvard. Self-strangulation took place in Alice's adolescence as she sought to subdue the passions. Her youth would have been ardent if she had not been ill. At age nineteen Alice had a nervous breakdown.

In 1872 Alice went to Europe and handled the rigors of travel without encountering problems. The European tour was a great thing for Alice. She was abroad for six months. In 1878 William's engagement and marriage precipitated another breakdown.

Alice came to know Katharine Loring as the head of the history department of the Society to Encourage Studies at Home. In 1879 Alice went with Katharine to stay at Lake Placid. She reported with humor that the cabin where they stayed was after camping the next worse thing. The two women took a number of trips together in 1879 and 1880. Katharine and Alice went to England in 1884 and rented a cottage in Hampstead Heath in 1885. Later they moved to Bolton Row and after that to Argyll Road.

Alice's reading was wide and deep. She copied relevant passages into notebooks. She began to keep a diary at age forty in 1887. She followed politics and was radical and egalitarian. Alice was too intelligent and too competitive to be content with being a failure. Her gifts were commended near the end of life and the attention was gratifying. Alice died in 1892.

The book is a life and a description of the mysterious illnesses burdening Alice James. It is one of those exercises along the lines of if Shakespeare had a sister since Alice James had substantial mental resources.