Henry James's cousin, Minny Temple, was the "heroine" of his youth in New England; he saw her as a free spirit, "a plant of pure American growth". The writer Constance Fenimore Woolson was a friend of his middle years in Europe, a solitary, mature woman who pursued her ambitions with an intensity that matched his own. Both had an extraordinary impact on James, even (perhaps especially) in the wakes of their premature deaths.
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Editorial Reviews
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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.
From Library Journal
Noted literary biographer Gordon (e.g., Charlotte Bronte: A Passionate Life) approaches James through two major women in his life: cousin Minny Temple and writer Constance Fenimore Woolson.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Superb book on the great Henry James,
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This review is from: A Private Life of Henry James: Two Women and His Art (Hardcover)
This absorbing book tells the story of Henry James 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. James 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. James visionary moralism was born of his merciless clairvoyance. These two wonderful independent-minded women provoked James creative attention; they figured for him creative possibilities that he celebrated in his greatest fiction. They enabled him to understand a womans 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 heroines integrity and altruism rise above the bullying interference and interests of others.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
the women in henry james' life,
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This review is from: A Private Life of Henry James: Two Women and His Art (Hardcover)
Lyndall Gordon's "A Private Life of Henry James" is a very interesting and readable book.The author argues that we can come to an understanding of what made Henry James tick by a close examination of 2 significant females in his life.These are his cousin,Minny Temple, and a contemporary American female novelist,Constance Fenimore Woolson.Gordon argues quite convincingly that Minny Temple,who died tragically very young was the model for Milly Theale,in "The Wings of the Dove" and probably also influenced other Jamesian character portraits,such as Isabel Archer in "The Portrait of a Lady".There has to be some truth in this,since the similarities are fairly obvious.Constance Fenimore Woolson was a successful writer who came to understand that Henry James was going to become one of the Greats of Literature and went to great lengths to be around him and to get close to him.She and James spent a year living together in a house in Italy,contrary to anyone's idea at the time of correct behaviour.What happened between them is the central subject of the book,which begins with the striking image of James,in a gondola in Venice,way out on the lagoon,tipping Constance's clothes into the water after her death,trying to ensure that the clothes all disappeared beneath the water.Added to this mystery is the question of how Connie died:did she fall from a balcony or did she take her own life?Was rejection by James part of the mystery?Gordon writes plausibly and her documentation is impressive.Whether we would want to go all the way with her is another question.Did James USE his cousin and his writer friend in his efforts to get "inside the heads" of the women of his day?What,if anything,did James feel about these two? Was he just cynically trolling for good ideas to put into his writings.James' sexuality is certainly an area of interest to anyone who reads and loves his books.What were his real feelings for these two remarkable women in his life?
3.0 out of 5 stars
Worth reading as a supplement,
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This review is from: A Private Life of Henry James: Two Women and His Art (Hardcover)
Henry James did his best to frustrate future biographers. He burned letters and other papers,and asked his friends to do the same. Leon Edel - who won awards for his biography of James - on several crucial points concludes, that absent evidence some things we will never know for certain.A number of James biographers have jumped in with their cast iron conclusions based on psychoanalytic analysis, which, as we all know, are "facts"? Gordon takes another approach. She has sources for her "facts", but you have to wonder: How good is the source? For example, she highlights an incident in the Venice lagoon, after Woolson died, with James trying to drown dresses that belonged to Constance Fennimore Woolson. It's a vivid and telling anecdote. IF ITS TRUE. Unfortunately, at best, the reminiscence it is based on is hearsay. Unsupported by any contemporary witness. That is a slender reed on which to rest so many conclusions. I paid full price. You can buy used. If James interests you, I wouldn't start here, but its worth a read.
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