The Master
1 journaler for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by jesmondgirl from Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear United Kingdom on Thursday, September 22, 2005
John Carey, Sunday Times
‘Toibin makes James seem more human than, for me, Leon Edel’s famous biography ever did.’
Anne Chisholm in Sunday Telegraph, November 2004
In its quiet way, this novel's imaginative truthfulness crosses boundaries and challenges biographers.
Independent
Exquisitely crafted and full on finely nuanced psychological observation. It is profoundly moving.
Gary Sheffield in BBC history magazine
Hastings creates a compelling picture of the end of the Third Reich. Armageddon is a triumph, raw and powerful.
Synopsis
It is January 1895 and Henry James's play Guy Domville, from which he hoped to make a fortune, has failed on the London stage. The Master opens with this disaster and takes James through the next five years, as having found his dream retreat, he moves to Rye in Sussex. It is there he writes his short masterpiece, The Turn of the Screw, in which he used much of his own life as an exile in England and a member of one of the great eccentric American families. He is impelled by the need to work and haunted by sections of his own past, including his own failure to fight in the American Civil War, the golden summer of 1865, and the death of his sister Alice. He is watchful and witty, relishing the England in which he has come to live and regretting the New England he has left.
‘Toibin makes James seem more human than, for me, Leon Edel’s famous biography ever did.’
Anne Chisholm in Sunday Telegraph, November 2004
In its quiet way, this novel's imaginative truthfulness crosses boundaries and challenges biographers.
Independent
Exquisitely crafted and full on finely nuanced psychological observation. It is profoundly moving.
Gary Sheffield in BBC history magazine
Hastings creates a compelling picture of the end of the Third Reich. Armageddon is a triumph, raw and powerful.
Synopsis
It is January 1895 and Henry James's play Guy Domville, from which he hoped to make a fortune, has failed on the London stage. The Master opens with this disaster and takes James through the next five years, as having found his dream retreat, he moves to Rye in Sussex. It is there he writes his short masterpiece, The Turn of the Screw, in which he used much of his own life as an exile in England and a member of one of the great eccentric American families. He is impelled by the need to work and haunted by sections of his own past, including his own failure to fight in the American Civil War, the golden summer of 1865, and the death of his sister Alice. He is watchful and witty, relishing the England in which he has come to live and regretting the New England he has left.
Journal Entry 2 by jesmondgirl from Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear United Kingdom on Friday, December 1, 2006
I found this book an interesting read and cleverly put together but it does not, as I am sure is intended, make one warm to the character of Henry James at all. He rather reminded me of my late great uncle Max who did not allow anything to disturb his routine in any way at all and whom I did not meet until I was nine as he did not like small children at all!! Can't really say it has made me very curious to read James either.
