When is a biography not a biography but a novel based on a life's work and correspondence? When it’s a brilliant novel by Colm Toibin - its really a great thing to do , base a novel on the life of a great writer , Henry James , use a lot of his own letters and correspondence and try to get inside the mind of someone long gone from us. Freed from the straight jacket of a biography Toibin can really give life to James as he sees him and paints for the reader a brilliant portrait of a Victorian writer from the USA living and travelling around Europe. I knew nothing of Henry James before I read this though I had looked up some things on the internet and I had read online his play Turn of the screw, I don't have a great deal of time so I was only able to give it a glance though there would be no need to know anything of James before reading this novel. After reading it however I'm fired up to look for information about his life and works.
The author in this Booker short listed novel has attempted to cast some light on the private life of James by attempting to bring us his private thoughts and feelings. There is meant to be unresolved speculation about James's sexuality and these private areas are featured very tenderly in the narrative leaving me for one really feeling for the quiet intensely private character of James as portrayed by Toibin. We travel with James through Victorian England and Europe as he lives in Paris and Venice writing novels and short stories whilst being feted by rich society socialites doing the then popular Grand Tour of Europe. All the time he is trying to find some inner peace and solitude. We are taken back to the USA in his early years and the terrible effects of the Civil war in the 1860's both on his family and those around them.
We get some quite detailed insights into his struggle with badly behaved housekeepers and servants and into the minutiae of Victorian manners and life. The delicacy of the writing makes for thought provoking and actually very relaxing reading as Tobin's portrayal of James's search for inner peace through work and solitude has much to tell us today even if we only take the authors view at face value. Richly detailed views are given to us of James's house in Rye, which is still there and owned I think by the National Trust, of his loyal servants who actually existed as well as the names and places he visited. All in all a leisurely paced book that at first appears quite vague but then clears and I for one was left feeling quite rewarded from reading it . I shall be looking out for other Toibin books if they are as good as this.
The author in this Booker short listed novel has attempted to cast some light on the private life of James by attempting to bring us his private thoughts and feelings. There is meant to be unresolved speculation about James's sexuality and these private areas are featured very tenderly in the narrative leaving me for one really feeling for the quiet intensely private character of James as portrayed by Toibin. We travel with James through Victorian England and Europe as he lives in Paris and Venice writing novels and short stories whilst being feted by rich society socialites doing the then popular Grand Tour of Europe. All the time he is trying to find some inner peace and solitude. We are taken back to the USA in his early years and the terrible effects of the Civil war in the 1860's both on his family and those around them.
We get some quite detailed insights into his struggle with badly behaved housekeepers and servants and into the minutiae of Victorian manners and life. The delicacy of the writing makes for thought provoking and actually very relaxing reading as Tobin's portrayal of James's search for inner peace through work and solitude has much to tell us today even if we only take the authors view at face value. Richly detailed views are given to us of James's house in Rye, which is still there and owned I think by the National Trust, of his loyal servants who actually existed as well as the names and places he visited. All in all a leisurely paced book that at first appears quite vague but then clears and I for one was left feeling quite rewarded from reading it . I shall be looking out for other Toibin books if they are as good as this.
