Tales from a Master's Notebook: Stories Henry James Never Wrote

by Various

When Henry James died he left behind a series of notebooks filled with ideas for novels and stories that he never wrote. Now ten of our best contemporary authors and James enthusiasts have written new short stories based on these 'germs' of ideas. Differing dramatically in setting and style, these stories are modern interpretations of the richly suggestive and enticing notes that Henry James left behind, offering a fresh and original approach to a canonical literary author.

Professor Philip Horne, a renowned authority on Henry James, has edited and introduced this collection, which also includes transcripts of James’s original jottings allowing readers to trace the raw ideas through to their modern-day interpretations.

Contains stories by Colm Toibin, Rose Tremain, Jonathan Coe, Paul Theroux, Amit Chaudhuri, Giles Foden, Joseph O'Neill, Lynne Truss, Susie Boyt and Tessa Hadley.

WITH A FOREWORD BY MICHAEL WOOD

Genres: Short Stories, Anthologies

Kindle Edition

Published April 5, 2018

About the author

Various is the correct author for any book with multiple unknown authors, and is acceptable for books with multiple known authors, especially if not all are known or the list is very long (over 50).

If an editor is known, however, Various is not necessary. List the name of the editor as the primary author (with role "editor"). Contributing authors' names follow it.

Note: WorldCat is an excellent resource for finding author information and contents of anthologies.

Reviews

[Dannii Elle · Rating 4 out of 5]

The intriguing title initially peaked my interest for this anthology, and I then discovered a synopsis that told of a concept too exciting to pass over:

"When Henry James died he left behind a series of notebooks, fascinating records of his thinking and working life, which include around sixty ideas, or what James called 'germs', for fictions he didn't write. Professor Philip Horne, a renowned authority on Henry James, has commission ten authors and Jamesian enthusiasts to write new short stories based on these 'germs'."

I had previously only read from one of the collected authors here, Colm Toibin, and was pleased to sample a broad and largely unknown to me collection of writers. I have definitely added a few of the assembled names to my list of authors to hopefully, one day, read more from.

Short story collections penned by a variety of authors are always going to receive a mixture of opinions, due to the personal preference of the varied styles of penmanship. So whilst I can not say that each story in this anthology was a four star read for me, overall this star rated reflected both my enjoyment of the stories read as well as the marvellous concept that bound them all together.

Breakdown of each, individual star rating:
Father X by Paul Theroux - 2/5 stars
Silence by Colm Toibin - 4/5 stars
Is There Anybody There? by Rose Tremain - 3/5 stars
Canadians Can't Flirt by Jonathan Coe - 4/5 stars
Old Friends by Tessa Hadley - 3.5/5 stars
The Road to Gabon by Giles Foden - 2/5 stars
Testaments by Lynne Truss - 4.5/5 stars
Wensleydale by Amit Chaudhuri - 2/5 stars
People Were So Funny by Susie Boyt - 4/5 stars
The Troll by Philip Horne - 4/5 stars

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to the editor, Philip Thorne, and the publisher, Vintage Classics, for this opportunity.

[Sarah Anjum Bari · Rating 3 out of 5]

In addition to his 20 completed novels and 112 short stories, Henry James left "germs of ideas" in his notebooks which he never ended up transforming into actual stories. It was James scholar Philip Horne's idea to assign each of these prompts to contemporary writers. The result is this wonderful collection in which authors like Amit Chaudhuri, Jonathan Coe, Tessa Hadley, Colm Toibìn, and many others each add their unique twists to James' ideas.

None of them were asked to stick to Jamesian themes or settings - Horne himself takes his story to the cutthroat world of present day literary criticism, to explore how one can feel differently about someone as a writer vs as a person. Giles Foden travels with his photographer protagonist to Ebola-ridden Gabon, where they test the limits of "traumati[ing] oneself in the name of art". And Rose Tremain and Joseph O'Neill's stories feel most blatantly Jamesian with their themes of intangible horror and the unreliability of memory. But despite the varied styles and settings, the influence of James is palpable, because each of these stories leave an abundance of space for the reader to arrive at her own meaning, and they're all, at the core, experiments in the joy and potential of storytelling.

I liked some of the tales more than the others, and they all play rather safe in terms of structure and subject matter. I also would've liked to see more stories set outside of the west explore James' influence elsewhere in the world, or stories thought up by younger, more experimental writers. What I did love was jumping ahead to the appendix to read the corresponding entry in James' notebook which inspired each story.

In Colm Toibìn's "Silence", my absolute favourite from the collection, a woman bored out of her mind in marriage strikes up an affair with her husband's friend. Exposure would mean total social annihilation for her, but just to feel heard, she suggests her experience (wrapping it up as hearsay) as a story idea to Henry James, whom she meets at a dinner party. In his real life diary entry, James mentions hearing the idea from a woman at a party, but his gut tells him there was more to the story than what she shared with him. How wonderful is that?

[Danielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Some really good short stories in here. Each inspired by a different note written by Henry James, ideas for stories he never got round to writing.
I think more enjoyable as they didn’t try to imitate James, they just used his note as a jumping off point.