Henry James: The Imagination of Genius, A Biography

by Fred Kaplan

Overview

One of the most influential novelists, Henry James led a life that was as rich as his writing. Born into an eccentric and difficult family, he left the United States for Europe, where he quickly became a fixture of the expatriate writing community. Fred Kaplan recreates the world of Henry James: his friendships with Edith Wharton and Joseph Conrad, his love of all things exquisite—including exquisite writing—and his quest for understanding human nature. As James himself advocated and would have wanted, this is an artful, dramatic biography, placing the chronological narrative of James's life in the historical context of his times.

"The twenty-one-year-old Henry James, Jr., preferred to be a writer rather than a soldier. His motives for writing were clear to himself, and they were not unusual: he desired fame and fortune. Whatever additional enriching complications that were to make him notorious for the complexity of his style and thought, the initial motivation remained constant. Deeply stubborn and persistently willful, he wanted praise and money, the rewards of recognition of what he believed to be his genius, on terms that he himself wanted to establish. The one battle he thought most worth fighting was that of the imagination for artistic expression. The one empire he most coveted, the land that he wanted for his primary home, was the empire of art."—from Henry James: The Imagination of Genius

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801862717
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	11/05/1999
Pages:	672
Product dimensions:	7.30(w) x 9.50(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Fred Kaplan is the author of Miracles of Rare Devices, Dickens and Mesmerism, Thomas Carlyle, A Biography (nominated for the 1983 National Book Critics Circle Award and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize), Sacred Tears, and Henry James: A Biography, and is the editor of Charles Dickens' Book of Memoranda. A past recipient of Guggenheim and NEH Fellowships, he has also served as editor of the Dickens Studies Annual.

Table of Contents

	Illustrations	ix
Chapter 1	Remembered Scenes, 1843-1855	3
Chapter 2	Belonging, 1855-1860	27
Chapter 3	"Garlands and Lights," 1860-1867	46
Chapter 4	"An Absolute Remedy," 1867-1870	79
Chapter 5	"Cats and Monkeys," 1870-1875	118
Chapter 6	"Permanent Headquarters," 1875-1878	158
Chapter 7	"The Sentimental Traveller," 1878-1881	195
Chapter 8	"Never to Return," 1881-1883	231
Chapter 9	"The Great Money-Question," 1883-1888	265
Chapter 10	"Miss Grief," 1886-1891	305
Chapter 11	"The Dark Abyss," 1888-1895	346
Chapter 12	Passionate Friendships, 1894-1900	387
Chapter 13	The New Century, 1900-1904	430
Chapter 14	"Closing the Gates," 1904-1910	478
Chapter 15	The Imperial Eagle, 1910-1916	522
	Notes	567
	Acknowledgments	597
	Index	599

Editorial Reviews

A good up-to-date one-volume life of Henry James was long overdue; Fred Kaplan . . . has done the job splendidly with Henry James: The Imagination of Genius . . . Here, at last, is a thoughtful, balanced book to give us a consistent and persuasive account of the writer's life and his development as an author.
—Miranda Seymour, New York Times Book Review

From the Publisher

A good up-to-date one-volume life of Henry James was long overdue; Fred Kaplan . . . has done the job splendidly with Henry James: The Imagination of Genius . . . Here, at last, is a thoughtful, balanced book to give us a consistent and persuasive account of the writer's life and his development as an author.

New York Times Book Review - Miranda Seymour

"A good up-to-date one-volume life of Henry James was long overdue; Fred Kaplan... has done the job splendidly with Henry James: The Imagination of Genius... Here, at last, is a thoughtful, balanced book to give us a consistent and persuasive account of the writer's life and his development as an author."—,

— Miranda Seymour

New York Times Book Review