What do you think?
Rate this book
The Life of Henry James #1
Henry James: The Untried Years: 1843-1870
The James family will never lose its unique fascination. Much has been written about them; but in the case of Henry James, it has remained for Leon Edel to project the biography that will, for this generation at least, be definitive. A few years ago Edmund Wilson wrote that Mr. Edel "is probably now the foremost authority on Henry James." This authority is the result of a close study continuing over more than twenty years. The present volume, which gives the first complete account of the youth of Henry James, brilliantly confirms Edmund Wilson's statement.
350 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1953
10 people are currently reading
84 people want to read
About the author
Leon Edel
142 books7 followersJoseph Leon Edel was a American/Canadian literary critic and biographer. Edel taught English and American literature at Sir George Williams University (now Concordia University) from 1932 until 1934, New York University from 1953 until 1972, and at University of Hawaii at Manoa from 1972 until 1978. From 1944 to 1952, he worked as a reporter and feature writer for the left-wing New York newspapers PM and the Daily Compass.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
June 22, 2017
This is the first volume of Leon Edel's monumental and exhaustive biography of Henry James. Consisting of five volumes and over 2000 pages, it took Edel almost twenty years to complete, as the first volume was published in 1953 and the last in 1972.
I have read, and continue to read, many biographies of authors. Most of them I really enjoy, while some are not so great. For example I recently tried to read Persona: A Biography of Yukio Mishima, and gave up after 200 pages as it just didn't hold my interest. This biography of Henry James, however, was a pleasure to read, with the writing flowing beautifully. So I look forward to reading the remaining volumes. I own volumes 2,4 and 5, and have checked out the other two volumes from the Vancouver library.
I must admit, I have only read two of the novels by Henry James: The Wings of the Dove, which I found pretty heavy going, and The Princess Casamassima, which I really enjoyed. I do plan on reading all of his work, which is quite substantial, as in addition to novels, he wrote numerous short stories, travel memoirs and literary criticism, as well as plays, which I shall probably skip as I don't enjoy reading plays.
Anyway, if you are a fan of Henry James and you haven't read these biographies, I'm sure you would find them of interest.
I have read, and continue to read, many biographies of authors. Most of them I really enjoy, while some are not so great. For example I recently tried to read Persona: A Biography of Yukio Mishima, and gave up after 200 pages as it just didn't hold my interest. This biography of Henry James, however, was a pleasure to read, with the writing flowing beautifully. So I look forward to reading the remaining volumes. I own volumes 2,4 and 5, and have checked out the other two volumes from the Vancouver library.
I must admit, I have only read two of the novels by Henry James: The Wings of the Dove, which I found pretty heavy going, and The Princess Casamassima, which I really enjoyed. I do plan on reading all of his work, which is quite substantial, as in addition to novels, he wrote numerous short stories, travel memoirs and literary criticism, as well as plays, which I shall probably skip as I don't enjoy reading plays.
Anyway, if you are a fan of Henry James and you haven't read these biographies, I'm sure you would find them of interest.
February 17, 2023
This is the first volume of Leon Edel's five volume biography of Henry James. It was published in 1953. I read when it was re-issued as a $2.95 paperback in 1978. All five volumes were published then in paperback. I read and enjoyed them all, which is surprising because I am not much of a fan of Henry James' writing, and he did not lead a very exciting life.
I remember reading and enjoying the series, but I was amazed at how little I retained. For example, When Henry James' father was 13, he was burned in a fire and had one leg amputated above the knee. For the rest of his live he limped with a wooden or cork leg. How could I forget that Henry James' father, who was also named Henry James, only had one leg?
It is typical of Edel's approach that at several points in this volume he explores, without being overly reductive or sappy, what effect his father's injury had on HJ's life and writing,
Edel sets out to show, not tell, how the family, region, country, intellectual world and times all contributed to the formation of this peculiar author. This is a deeply researched and well thought out book.
It is filled with interesting bits. I never realized that Dickens was a big influence on the young HJ. I did not remember that HJ spent a year at Harvard Law school before he realized he was not cut out for that. (It is especially surprising that I don't remember that, since I was in law school the first time I read this book.)
I forgot that there is a raging controversy about whether HJ was castrated in an accident. He wrote several times about a mysterious injury he suffered while helping to fight a fire, which is also how his father was injured. He is typically vague about exactly what his "horrid, even if obscure" injury was. Some scholars are convinced he was accidently castrated. Edel is firmly on the non-castrated side of the issue.
I could not have known in Law School that HJ would live for several years with his family on Ashburton Place in Boston, just about exactly at the location of my office for the last 29 years.
The Library of America has issued the collected novels, short stories and nonfiction of HJ in twelve volumes of 500 or 600 pages each. There is almost no violence in those twelve volumes and absolutely no description, or even really suggestion, of sex. The novels and stories are all relentlessly set in the current age. There is no historical fiction. Edel sets out to explain what lead to that huge and peculiar life's work.
Edel is an elegant writer. His sentences are balanced and judicious. He is committed to telling the story of this odd life sympathetically but fairly. He also gives us a sense of life in the particular milieu of the comfortably wealthy Eastern intellectuals. HJ did not come from the hard streets of anywhere, but he was not wealthy enough to avoid worrying about money.
I had the pleasant sensation of reading this excellent book as if I had never read it before, combined with the unpleasant sensation of wondering how I could have forgotten so much.
I remember reading and enjoying the series, but I was amazed at how little I retained. For example, When Henry James' father was 13, he was burned in a fire and had one leg amputated above the knee. For the rest of his live he limped with a wooden or cork leg. How could I forget that Henry James' father, who was also named Henry James, only had one leg?
It is typical of Edel's approach that at several points in this volume he explores, without being overly reductive or sappy, what effect his father's injury had on HJ's life and writing,
Edel sets out to show, not tell, how the family, region, country, intellectual world and times all contributed to the formation of this peculiar author. This is a deeply researched and well thought out book.
It is filled with interesting bits. I never realized that Dickens was a big influence on the young HJ. I did not remember that HJ spent a year at Harvard Law school before he realized he was not cut out for that. (It is especially surprising that I don't remember that, since I was in law school the first time I read this book.)
I forgot that there is a raging controversy about whether HJ was castrated in an accident. He wrote several times about a mysterious injury he suffered while helping to fight a fire, which is also how his father was injured. He is typically vague about exactly what his "horrid, even if obscure" injury was. Some scholars are convinced he was accidently castrated. Edel is firmly on the non-castrated side of the issue.
I could not have known in Law School that HJ would live for several years with his family on Ashburton Place in Boston, just about exactly at the location of my office for the last 29 years.
The Library of America has issued the collected novels, short stories and nonfiction of HJ in twelve volumes of 500 or 600 pages each. There is almost no violence in those twelve volumes and absolutely no description, or even really suggestion, of sex. The novels and stories are all relentlessly set in the current age. There is no historical fiction. Edel sets out to explain what lead to that huge and peculiar life's work.
Edel is an elegant writer. His sentences are balanced and judicious. He is committed to telling the story of this odd life sympathetically but fairly. He also gives us a sense of life in the particular milieu of the comfortably wealthy Eastern intellectuals. HJ did not come from the hard streets of anywhere, but he was not wealthy enough to avoid worrying about money.
I had the pleasant sensation of reading this excellent book as if I had never read it before, combined with the unpleasant sensation of wondering how I could have forgotten so much.
December 30, 2008
Figure in the Carpet
Edel takes a chronological approach to his subject, beginning with sharp portraits of Henry James Sr. and Mary Walsh, before taking in the years of their son's life, from 1843 to 1870. The first installment of this five-volume work ends with the death of Minny Temple, James's beloved young cousin, and with his return to Boston after a year's travel in Europe.
The chronological narrative is occasionally interrupted by sidebar discussions of significant events in young James's life, for instance, his nightmare based on his experience of the Louvre. These discussions highlight what Edel sees as the themes of this writer's life. The nightmare, illuminated by other incidents, illustrates the fierce sibling rivalry between William and Henry, the latter obsessed with being second born, and so with being inferior to the elder.
Another theme is James's fear of female sexuality, a fear his biographer lays at the door of--not quite persuasively--his mother's "vampirish" consumption of his father's energies. The same fear emasculates any possible courtship of Minny Temple, and genuine though Henry's grief was for this young woman her death also provided his mind and his art with an ideal image. I am disappointed that Edel does not discuss James's sexual feelings for men.
A third theme is Henry's "obscure hurt," which Edel settles in favor of a lower back injury, and not, according to rumors that solidified into fact, castration. Henry--or Harry as he was nicknamed, partly to distinguish him from his dad--suffered his injury at the outbreak of the Civil War, which he, like his older brother, sat out. His younger brothers, Bob and Wilkie, did enlist, and this probably strengthened Harry's self-conception of feminized passivity.
In lucid prose Edel's story-telling is well-paced, though the seemingly endless succession of European hotels and houses through which Henry was dragged up by his father is a little wearying to read. Edel makes copious but not non-critical use of James's own memoirs Notes of a Son and Brother and A Small Boy, as well as letters written by James and various family members and friends. Where appropriate, he points out the links between life and art, such as the governess who probably inspired the same character in "The Turn of the Screw," or, more obviously, Minny Temple who was the inspiration for Milly Theale in The Wings of a Dove.
Beyond characters, Edel is also quick to trace in James's carpet of writing the patterns in the life. Such explanations, of life and art, are what we have come to expect of biographies, but their effect runs counter to Edel's avowed aim, as given in an epigraph quoting James: "To live over people's lives is nothing unless we live over their perceptions, live over the growth, the change, the varying intensity of the same--since it was by these things they themselves lived." To explain is not quite the same as to live over. What is wonderful in James's writing is the tone, the shape, the size of his perceptions, and explanation, like narrative, must baffle itself before it can touch perception.
Edel takes a chronological approach to his subject, beginning with sharp portraits of Henry James Sr. and Mary Walsh, before taking in the years of their son's life, from 1843 to 1870. The first installment of this five-volume work ends with the death of Minny Temple, James's beloved young cousin, and with his return to Boston after a year's travel in Europe.
The chronological narrative is occasionally interrupted by sidebar discussions of significant events in young James's life, for instance, his nightmare based on his experience of the Louvre. These discussions highlight what Edel sees as the themes of this writer's life. The nightmare, illuminated by other incidents, illustrates the fierce sibling rivalry between William and Henry, the latter obsessed with being second born, and so with being inferior to the elder.
Another theme is James's fear of female sexuality, a fear his biographer lays at the door of--not quite persuasively--his mother's "vampirish" consumption of his father's energies. The same fear emasculates any possible courtship of Minny Temple, and genuine though Henry's grief was for this young woman her death also provided his mind and his art with an ideal image. I am disappointed that Edel does not discuss James's sexual feelings for men.
A third theme is Henry's "obscure hurt," which Edel settles in favor of a lower back injury, and not, according to rumors that solidified into fact, castration. Henry--or Harry as he was nicknamed, partly to distinguish him from his dad--suffered his injury at the outbreak of the Civil War, which he, like his older brother, sat out. His younger brothers, Bob and Wilkie, did enlist, and this probably strengthened Harry's self-conception of feminized passivity.
In lucid prose Edel's story-telling is well-paced, though the seemingly endless succession of European hotels and houses through which Henry was dragged up by his father is a little wearying to read. Edel makes copious but not non-critical use of James's own memoirs Notes of a Son and Brother and A Small Boy, as well as letters written by James and various family members and friends. Where appropriate, he points out the links between life and art, such as the governess who probably inspired the same character in "The Turn of the Screw," or, more obviously, Minny Temple who was the inspiration for Milly Theale in The Wings of a Dove.
Beyond characters, Edel is also quick to trace in James's carpet of writing the patterns in the life. Such explanations, of life and art, are what we have come to expect of biographies, but their effect runs counter to Edel's avowed aim, as given in an epigraph quoting James: "To live over people's lives is nothing unless we live over their perceptions, live over the growth, the change, the varying intensity of the same--since it was by these things they themselves lived." To explain is not quite the same as to live over. What is wonderful in James's writing is the tone, the shape, the size of his perceptions, and explanation, like narrative, must baffle itself before it can touch perception.
May 6, 2018
The Fire that Fueled the Writings of Henry James
This review of the first volume of Edel's biography covers James’s childhood and young manhood up to 1870 when, in his late twenties, he had thoroughly settled on a career as a writer.
Edel has a strong, carefully documented thesis: Henry James suffered from second brother syndrome. Since he could never precede the arrival in the world of his older brother (the future philosopher William James) he thought of himself as incapable of ever surpassing William in any way at all. Henry therefore felt of necessity inadequate, especially as a man. Also, he saw his father as weak compared to his mother because when she died, Henry Senior could hardly carry on without her. Henry Junior imagined that if he himself ever married, his father’s incapacity might take hold of him as well. Hence the fear of women, the marriage bed and marriage itself that afflicts so many of the heroes of Henry James’s fiction.
Henry’s two younger brothers Wilkie and Bob, along with two of his youthful male friends, Oliver Wendell Holmes (the future Supreme Court Justice) and John Chipman Gray (later a distinguished jurist) all served in the Civil War. Henry, who did not, admitted that during a stay in New Hampshire’s White Mountains he felt hopelessly lacking in masculinity by comparison with the heroic veterans Holmes and Gray. That was especially true when the three of them were in the company of Mary (Minny) Temple, the head tossing woman who appears to have inspired the portraits of so many of James’s most attractive fictional heroines (Isabel Archer, for example.)
James’s tactic in dealing with his sense of sexual inadequacy was to develop what Edel calls a “façade of passivity”—an image of non-competitive observation, as though he were above the mate finding fray.
In preparation for his anticipated literary career Henry fed his restrained sexual energy with a staggering amount of reading and the discipline of long hours of writing. As 1870 approached and he decided definitely on being a writer, he gradually poured out his damned up energy in the flood of lifelong productivity that constitutes his work.
This review of the first volume of Edel's biography covers James’s childhood and young manhood up to 1870 when, in his late twenties, he had thoroughly settled on a career as a writer.
Edel has a strong, carefully documented thesis: Henry James suffered from second brother syndrome. Since he could never precede the arrival in the world of his older brother (the future philosopher William James) he thought of himself as incapable of ever surpassing William in any way at all. Henry therefore felt of necessity inadequate, especially as a man. Also, he saw his father as weak compared to his mother because when she died, Henry Senior could hardly carry on without her. Henry Junior imagined that if he himself ever married, his father’s incapacity might take hold of him as well. Hence the fear of women, the marriage bed and marriage itself that afflicts so many of the heroes of Henry James’s fiction.
Henry’s two younger brothers Wilkie and Bob, along with two of his youthful male friends, Oliver Wendell Holmes (the future Supreme Court Justice) and John Chipman Gray (later a distinguished jurist) all served in the Civil War. Henry, who did not, admitted that during a stay in New Hampshire’s White Mountains he felt hopelessly lacking in masculinity by comparison with the heroic veterans Holmes and Gray. That was especially true when the three of them were in the company of Mary (Minny) Temple, the head tossing woman who appears to have inspired the portraits of so many of James’s most attractive fictional heroines (Isabel Archer, for example.)
James’s tactic in dealing with his sense of sexual inadequacy was to develop what Edel calls a “façade of passivity”—an image of non-competitive observation, as though he were above the mate finding fray.
In preparation for his anticipated literary career Henry fed his restrained sexual energy with a staggering amount of reading and the discipline of long hours of writing. As 1870 approached and he decided definitely on being a writer, he gradually poured out his damned up energy in the flood of lifelong productivity that constitutes his work.
January 24, 2022
My sad interest, love, obsession, sympathy, and morbid fascination for the abyss of Henry James is stoked by this magnificent biography, the first of five episodes. On top of having broken his back as a child and suffering from the injury his entire life, on top of a big sibling whose thumb he's perpetually stuck under, we learn that Mr. James had a smothering mother who keeps begging him to return home to her, but he's too busy soaking up Life in Europe. He hates U.S. provincialism, but you can't change your roots, so he makes this the great theme of his life. He's disgustingly shy, ill-spoken, and un-coarse when it comes to romance. The first love of his life dies a horrifyingly swift death consisting of coughing her lungs up at his age, 24, and he spends the rest of his life searching for her in the crevices of his imagination—never finding her, but always, always nearing. And on top of all that, he decides to become a critic for New York publications in the hopes that he'll someday practice what he'll preach in his fiction proper. Doesn't sound familiar at all!!!!
(H. James' "vampirism" theme greatly fascinates me. Also the "Ledward-Bedward-Dedward" thing is just pure brilliance — score one for the psychoanalysts.)
(H. James' "vampirism" theme greatly fascinates me. Also the "Ledward-Bedward-Dedward" thing is just pure brilliance — score one for the psychoanalysts.)
December 6, 2020
It must be said of Leon Edel that he was an author who embarked on a quest to snatch what can never be grasped. I will demonstrate the truth of this proposition in the following way: by citing numerous sentences that open the biography, we can sense immediately that Edel is highly conscious of that which is not present. Haunted by an absence that must be filled, he will elaborate a search for Henry James over four more volumes. All references are to the Avon Books paperbacks, 1953/1978. Let us begin:
1. "So large an artist becomes visible only by degrees after his death." (11)
As I claim here, the way to find Henry James is by looking for a man who has passed away. Normally we understand those who have passed as "absent from the scene." Yet, it might be said that a person is not complete until after they have died, reducing any further activity on their part. With death a sort of final form is achieved which can no longer be disturbed. Impressive as James's achievement is and given the broach scope of his work it remains the case that death has eclipsed all of that effort.
2. "those who knew him as an old man...embalmed for posterity the heavy-lidded talkative Master of Rye and Chelsea."
3. [they] "totally lost sight of the shy but purposeful...creative young American..."
4. "Few have gone in search of...[now Mr. Edel will correct that] the small boy..."
5. "The working Henry James was utterly lost from sight...and not until the notebooks...that he became unveiled..."
Let's recollect: death, passed away, looking for, eclipsed, embalmed, lost sight of, in search of, utterly lost from sight...
Do these expressions suggest the ghostliness that James himself celebrated so often, especially in The Altar of the Dead?
1. "So large an artist becomes visible only by degrees after his death." (11)
As I claim here, the way to find Henry James is by looking for a man who has passed away. Normally we understand those who have passed as "absent from the scene." Yet, it might be said that a person is not complete until after they have died, reducing any further activity on their part. With death a sort of final form is achieved which can no longer be disturbed. Impressive as James's achievement is and given the broach scope of his work it remains the case that death has eclipsed all of that effort.
2. "those who knew him as an old man...embalmed for posterity the heavy-lidded talkative Master of Rye and Chelsea."
3. [they] "totally lost sight of the shy but purposeful...creative young American..."
4. "Few have gone in search of...[now Mr. Edel will correct that] the small boy..."
5. "The working Henry James was utterly lost from sight...and not until the notebooks...that he became unveiled..."
Let's recollect: death, passed away, looking for, eclipsed, embalmed, lost sight of, in search of, utterly lost from sight...
Do these expressions suggest the ghostliness that James himself celebrated so often, especially in The Altar of the Dead?
April 19, 2022
I used to think it was important (and possible) to find forms that would never go out of fashion and thus would be timeless. Architecture, interior design, fashion, hair, books—if I could only be careful and considered and well-educated enough, I would not regret my choices in twenty, thirty, or fifty years. This turns out to be impossible, like most dreams of my youth. That living room from 1993 looks like a sadly dated living room from 1993. My hair looks weird in photos as recently as 2001. And this biography, this seminal work, this monumental achievement…well, it often reads like a product of its time. I don’t mean that it isn’t deeply researched and informative and intelligent, but it has a Freudian angle (as others have noted) that feels intrusive and suspect to me, and the way that Edel refers to Henry James not by name but by modifier (e.g. “the innocent young man”) feels old-fashioned, too, as if James were a character in a novel from the 50s. I wish that Edel had died without being told, in an argument published in Slate, that his work was no longer relevant, and yet I can see how biography has changed and how we judge people’s motives differently now. Something to notice as you read, but not a reason to skip this book.
August 26, 2016
I read the condensed version of Edel's biography of Henry James "Henry James: A Life", but felt I could not in all good conscious work academically with James and not read the full, 5 volume biography. As brilliant a biography as this is, and it is, I remembered why I find Edel a little annoying.
Henry James was and unbelievably detailed novelist, sensitive, prolific, and a true artistic force. He was also a very fascinating man - but he was just a man. Edel loves to portray Henry, and the rest of his family, as some otherworldly or mythic figure. In discussing Henry and William's relationship, Edel compares them to Esau and Jacob. Then proceeds to say that "The parallels are there because the ancient story touched upon eternal truths" (241). My exact margin note was "fuck off, Edel". Henry and William's relationship was not Esau and Jacob, nor is there eternal truth. That kind of parallel doesn't have a place in a biography, it does make a great story though. This volume, at the very least, was an entertaining read.
So, if you enjoy James' work, and find the man a fascinating figure, then do read the 5 volumes. The single condensed version is just as good and much of the "biblical" James is thankfully absent. On to volume 2.
Henry James was and unbelievably detailed novelist, sensitive, prolific, and a true artistic force. He was also a very fascinating man - but he was just a man. Edel loves to portray Henry, and the rest of his family, as some otherworldly or mythic figure. In discussing Henry and William's relationship, Edel compares them to Esau and Jacob. Then proceeds to say that "The parallels are there because the ancient story touched upon eternal truths" (241). My exact margin note was "fuck off, Edel". Henry and William's relationship was not Esau and Jacob, nor is there eternal truth. That kind of parallel doesn't have a place in a biography, it does make a great story though. This volume, at the very least, was an entertaining read.
So, if you enjoy James' work, and find the man a fascinating figure, then do read the 5 volumes. The single condensed version is just as good and much of the "biblical" James is thankfully absent. On to volume 2.
September 27, 2012
Henry James the Untried Years makes reading the telephone book appear to be a scintillating delight of plot twists. This is a shame. I have read several Henry James novels and enjoyed them greatly. Unfortunately this biography covering his birth to his early manhood is a mirror of a rather pampered and uninteresting life. Maybe later in his life he took up bullfighting, crime and drunken debauchery – anything interesting – but as far as I can tell a great mind does not necessitate a great life. Borrrrrrrring.
December 29, 2007
If you're really into Henry James, this is the biography to go for. This is the first volume in a multi-volume work. It's easy to tell that Edel is enthusiastic about James and his work.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews