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Havelock Ellis: A Biography by Phyllis Grosskurth
Grosskurth, Phyllis
512 pages, Paperback
Published March 1, 1985
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 12, 2011
It wasn't easy to be a pioneering sexual investigator born in the hey-day of Victorian Britain, particularly not if you were married to a lesbian, and if your own sexual interests focused on "urolagnia" (look it up). But Havelock Ellis was nothing if not resourceful, and he managed to have a full, productive, and generally satisfying life.
Grosskurth isn't a particularly good writer; this biography isn't graceful, and probably contains too much information for most readers. But it gets the job done, and leaves you appreciative for the courage and obstinacy of Ellis, who didn't mind going against the mainstream of British society and culture of his time.
Grosskurth isn't a particularly good writer; this biography isn't graceful, and probably contains too much information for most readers. But it gets the job done, and leaves you appreciative for the courage and obstinacy of Ellis, who didn't mind going against the mainstream of British society and culture of his time.
April 12, 2024
I picked up this book having never heard the name of Havelock Ellis after flicking through it at a second-hand bookshop and landing on the chapter heading "Australia." How could what the dustcover described as a sagely, penetrating and prolific thinker be shaped by the same landscape that I find so inhospitable to human life and thought? Like many travellers in Australia, Ellis turned inward, but by some miracle the isolation he experienced was not that of a brute animal, but the rarer, refining kind.
Grosskurth's writing is clear and entertaining, full of respect for her subject but never falling into hagiography. There are some occasions where commits mistakes common to biographers, repeating anecdotes or following them to the point that the chronology becomes confused. Personally I found Ellis an interesting man, though the essential wishy-washiness of his character makes it hard for the author to pin down his thoughts. I found that the character I admired at the beginning of the book, inquisitive, determined and iconoclastic without being tainted by the progressive zealotry of his milieu, became more and more pathetic as he aged. In the later letters sent between Ellis and his admirers, the comes off and cloying and sneaky, repeating the same lines to each young woman who came to him in search of a deeper understanding of their own confused selves. I think that if there was a greater focus on Havelock's professional and personal friendships with other men this impression might have been lessened, but Grosskurth has put her focus on the women in his life, and probably for good reason - there is no doubt that he was a man who valued female company over male's.
All in all a good introduction to the man, but not his works. I don't begrudge that of a biographer, but I have the suspicion that Ellis' own Studies in the Psychology of Sex might have been more interesting than the man who wrote them.
Grosskurth's writing is clear and entertaining, full of respect for her subject but never falling into hagiography. There are some occasions where commits mistakes common to biographers, repeating anecdotes or following them to the point that the chronology becomes confused. Personally I found Ellis an interesting man, though the essential wishy-washiness of his character makes it hard for the author to pin down his thoughts. I found that the character I admired at the beginning of the book, inquisitive, determined and iconoclastic without being tainted by the progressive zealotry of his milieu, became more and more pathetic as he aged. In the later letters sent between Ellis and his admirers, the comes off and cloying and sneaky, repeating the same lines to each young woman who came to him in search of a deeper understanding of their own confused selves. I think that if there was a greater focus on Havelock's professional and personal friendships with other men this impression might have been lessened, but Grosskurth has put her focus on the women in his life, and probably for good reason - there is no doubt that he was a man who valued female company over male's.
All in all a good introduction to the man, but not his works. I don't begrudge that of a biographer, but I have the suspicion that Ellis' own Studies in the Psychology of Sex might have been more interesting than the man who wrote them.
July 6, 2022
A good biography of Ellis, with notable excerpts from letters and explanation of motivations.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews