This is quite an intriguing novel—it is based on a real character and Tóibín makes extensive use of the letters, works, and biographies of Henry James but fictionalises the writer’s inner life, its motives, its guilt, its anguished introspective searching. Hence, it is an example of “faction”. The Henry James of this novel is certainly very much a creation of the author and while much may well be revelatory—it remains an imaginative excursion.
To build this portrait of the author, Tóibín concentrates on the relations James had with three women: his sister, Alice, a cousin, Minny Temple, and the author Constance Fenimore Woolson.
Alice is the first death actually seen by James and it clearly has a powerful emotional impact. It is worth noting that he isn’t particularly happy to have Alice there with him.
Minny Temple is a young woman with strong proto-feminist qualities and she is admired by both Henry James and his friend Oliver Wendall Holmes. However, her death drives a wedge between the friends. Holmes, for all practical purposes, accuses James of bearing some responsibility for her early death in this dialogue:
“Do you ever regret not taking her to Italy when she was ill?” he asked. “Gray says she asked you several times.”
“I don’t think ask is the word” Henry said. “She was very ill then. Gray is misinformed.”
“Gray says that she asked you and you did not offer to help her and that a winter in Rome might have saved her.”
“Nothing could have saved her,” Henry replied.
. . . “When she did not hear from you she turned her face to the wall.” . . . When finally she knew no one would help her she turned her face to the wall. She was very much alone then and she fixed on the idea. You were her cousin and could have travelled with her. You were free, in fact you were already in Rome. It would have cost you nothing...”
But the great central focus is the betrayal of Constance by James. She and he have forged a deep emotionally sustaining relationship. While he is in London she asks him to come to Venice to be with her—evidently she is suffering from depression. James refuses to come—evidently because he is afraid of any deepening of the relationship. Shortly thereafter she commits suicide.
Toibin describes the appalling reactions of Henry James to the death of this very close friend and we get a picture of a man barren of genuine emotion, perhaps because he is simply afraid of it.
Yet these three women provide a tremendous inspiration for his novels. He creates lives in alternate realities for them. He is able to configure his responses to these women only through the use of Art. Henry James becomes a Master of the novel but this is caused somehow by his failure as a person.
This is pretty much how I see the novel. To what extent the book reflects the actual man is moot. But it is intriguing.
Personally, the book prompted me to decide to sample the novels of Constance Fenimore Woolson. They are in the public domain and excellent digital copies which include the original illustrations are available right here in the ebook section of MobileRead.
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/ebo...id=128&page=19