The Master

Synopsis: In January 1895 Henry James anticipates the opening of his first play, "Guy Domville", in London. The production fails, and he returns, chastened and humiliated, to his writing desk. The result is a string of masterpieces, but they are produced at a high personal cost. In "The Master", Colm Toibin captures the exquisite anguish of a man who circulated in the grand parlours and palazzos of Europe, who was astonishingly vibrant and alive in his art, and yet whose attempts at intimacy inevitably failed him and those he tried to love. It is a powerful account of the hazards of putting the life of the mind before affairs of the heart.

Review: This is a beautifully written and hypnotic book. I've never read anything about Henry James or by him so I can't say if this novelisation of his life is authentic or not but it felt authentic, it felt for all the world like Henry James was pouring out his thoughts, feelings and reminiscences onto the pages. The story starts off with a failure, it's 1895, Henry is 52 and his play 'Guy Domville' has opened in London to a less than warm welcome from the audience (to say the least, the play and the playwright are jeered.) In contrast Oscar Wilde's 'An Ideal Husband' is enjoying great success ... Henry is crushed and so are his aspirations to be a successful playwright. As Henry reflects on this failure, and his career so far, he travels back in his mind and we learn about his childhood, his adolescence, his move from America to England and his literary career. The man we come to know is a solitary, lonely figure. He has friends and some close relationships with women which could have gone on to blossom into something more but Henry always seems to withdraw before becoming too close, with devastating consequences in the case of fellow writer Constance Fenimore Woolson (although this may be supposition on Toibins part.) It's a story really of a closet homosexual (and these are dangerous times for homosexuals .. as the trial and subsequent imprisonment of Oscar Wilde soon makes clear) but Henry's homosexual tendencies seem to be confined to his thoughts and feelings only. For one reason or another they are not acted upon and it's this perhaps that makes the writer, for all his literary success, seem to be a melancholy and lonely figure.

He's not particularly at home in the great drawing rooms and dining halls of the rich and priviledged, although as a famous writer these are the situations that he increasingly finds himself in. He see's all their petty conceits and snobbery all too clearly but he uses all situations as grist for his stories. He's a great observer of people and someone who's not afraid to draw on the characters of family and friends to supply his writing, thus his sister Alice becomes the model for a character in 'The Turn of the Screw' and his cousin Minny the template for 'Daisy Miller' and so on. Even his brother Wilky's fresh war wounds provide the sort of detail that Henry relishes.

It's quite slow going but I didn't find it plodding or tedious just reflective. It's the sort of book that draws you so completely into the world of it's subject that it's like losing touch with a friend when you've finished. His voice is so clear. I must read some of his novels now which are so thoroughly explored and talked over here.

I probably did fall into the trap of believing every word written and perhaps shouldn't have because some artistic license is always used in biographical/historical fiction but this was because Colm Toibin's writing was just so believable and detailed. Everything rang true, but I am interested to find out more about Henry James and will try and read a more accurate account of his life at some point in the future.