The Death and Letters of Alice James: Selected Correspondence

Full of acerbic insights on English life and manners, Alice James' diaries have made her a feminist icon

Alice James (1848–92) was the sister of Henry and William James, as literary as her more famous brothers, but—as was typical for a Victorian woman—never formally educated and thus deprived of any opportunity for a normal “career.” In her introductory biographical essay, Professor Ruth Bernard Yeazell of Yale University argues that Alice James instead made a career of her lifelong neurasth...