I was expecting this to be like "The Magician", but it is decidedly unlike it in just about every way. It does not encompass Henry James's entire life, just a short period of about 5-6 years in the mid to late 1890's. I have read many James novels starting with "The Portrait of a Lady" in college. Almost everyone in the class hated it, and I remember the professor saying that James was "a very weird bird." I didn't hate it, although it was really hard to get emotionally invested in a heroine who acts as stupidly as Isabel. However, none of that stopped me from going on to read "Washington Square", "The Golden Bowl", "The Wings of the Dove", "The Ambassadors", "What Maisie Knew", "The Awkward Age", and a bunch of others. Toibin conjures a Henry James who is just as buttoned up in his personal and public life as you might imagine from reading his prose. The unstated motives, complex and conflicting emotions, understated language hiding deep feelings -- all those things that come out in the novels originated in many of the life events Toibin describes. James was a gay man in a world that persecuted anyone who dared to be out and proud (Oscar Wilde figures prominently in one especially good section.) Needless to say, the flamboyant Wilde is contrasted with a James who is so closeted, even to himself, that he never in his life (apparently) did one overtly sexual thing, though Toibin guesses that he appears to have longed for a close romantic relationship. I also liked much of the story of James's early life in New England, and the descriptions of his interactions with parents and siblings. Love, hate, and rivalry, especially with older brother William. On, the whole, as someone who finds James interesting, I enjoyed this. I wonder if there will be a sequel? ( )

Toibin delves into the mind of American-British author Henry James, his preoccupations and influences, exploring what might have been his inner thoughts and emotions in the 1890s. These were his years as a failed playwright and when he composed some of his best known work. It reads like a sequence of linked short stories, each an episode from a month or more of Henry's life. They serve as vignettes that allow Toibin to isolate and focus on specific elements of James' life at this time: the death of his sister Alice, the trial of Oscar Wilde, the suicide of Constance Woolson, and the relationship with his brother William, among others. In reality these things must all have overlapped one another more than what's implied, but taken separately they become a manageable way of analyzing how James may have been affected by each.

The novel's title is enigmatic, but may refer to James' 1888 novella "The Lesson of the Master", in which an older author preserves a younger one from focusing on love rather than career. A recurring theme in practically every chapter is the repression of his homosexuality. Henry confounds his desire at every turn, but what it costs him - if anything - is too subtle for my detection. The emerging portrait is of a self-reliant man who thrives on self-control, particularly emotional control, one who is quick to address any weakening of the mental structure he's surrounded himself with. He can be wounded, impacted, but he is always quick to marshal his strengths and repel the invading guilt, tenderness or offer of assistance. He is an extreme kind of introvert, ready to appear in society but never to rely on or court it, prioritizing his independence and solitude.

The reading style is light and engaging, at least when compared to Henry James' work (but then, what isn't?). There's little that addresses James' penchant for complex sentences and his serious quest to remove the presence of the narrator, other than a brief exchange with William near the end. But quite a lot about his preferred choice of subject matter and what he found inspiring versus derisible. ( )

Read this twice, more or less by accident. A good piece of bio-fiction for those not immersed in James, otherwise I would recommend instead the Leon Edel biography, James' letters or for a one volume wonder, [b:Portrait of a Novel: Henry James and the Making of an American Masterpiece|13812161|Portrait of a Novel Henry James and the Making of an American Masterpiece|Michael Gorra|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1344800567s/13812161.jpg|19446630] ( )

Around the turn of the twentieth century, two famous brothers, Henry and William James, converse in Henry’s seaside home in Rye, East Sussex. William, philosopher, psychologist, and lecturer (in public life and private), says, “Harry, I find I have to read innumerable sentences you now write twice over to see what they could possibly mean. In this crowded and hurried reading age you will remain unread and neglected as long as you continue to indulge in this style and these subjects.”

Even — especially — as an admirer of Henry James, I have to laugh. I used to share William’s criticism of his brother's prose, as probably many readers do today. But in this biographical novel of an author perhaps more closely attuned to social nuance and unspoken truth than any other of English expression, James’s world opens up with impressive clarity, poignancy, and depth. You see how the master thinks, observes, derives his fictions, absorbs tragedy and setbacks and — always tentatively — ventures beyond himself, almost invariably to retreat.

Consequently, The Master delivers the story of how a writer’s mind works, the stuff that anyone who writes will recognize — the bits of life that beg to be set down, impatience for tiresome guests to depart so that you can get to work, the pains of failure, the glories when a reader picks up your work for the first time and tells you how much she likes it. (Notice how long my sentences are getting; be it known that Toíbín’s aren’t, for he hasn’t tried to write James, only about him.)

But there’s much more, for Toíbín focuses on how a man who observes so keenly often remains an observer, and why. James’s fear of emotional entrapment conveys a figure who feels constantly under siege, though he might not say so. He worries that the world he knows is fast disappearing.

There’s little plot in The Master, yet there’s much activity, all laden with meaning. As the novel begins in 1895, Henry tries to circumvent his anxieties about the first performance of his play in London by attending a nearby theater showing Oscar Wilde’s comic drama, An Ideal Husband.

James, who could be a prig, finds Wilde’s work completely vulgar and resents his success, more so after his own play fails miserably. But months later, when Wilde sues his lover’s father for slander over accusations of homosexuality, James takes a renewed interest in Wilde. It’s not schadenfreude but the first intimation that James has homosexual attractions and desires he’s never acted on.

Throughout, Toíbín handles that theme with the delicacy befitting his protagonist. How sad that this man, whose instincts are kindly and sensitive, who has many friends who clamor for his company, who understands children and easily befriends them, suppresses the longing that might have made him happier. Granted, no one’s more keenly aware of societal disapproval and pressure than Henry James, yet you sense that tact and discretion might have permitted more leeway than he allows himself.

But Toíbín also reveals Henry’s less attractive facets, such as his selfish refusal to help a couple dear friends in dire need. Or, earlier in his life, how his parents somehow decide the Civil War has nothing to do with him—startling, considering that the Jameses are staunch New England abolitionists, as are their friends. Two of Henry’s brothers enlist and serve as officers in a famous Black regiment; one is grievously wounded.

Those failures point to how his parents have arranged Henry’s life for him (and William’s, to some extent), though it’s Henry who never escapes that confinement.

The Master may not be for everybody. But you don’t have to be a fan of Henry James to appreciate its breadth and poignancy. ( )

I read this after finishing The Portrait of A Lady, and in addition to being a great read, it helped me understand that novel. ( )