Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Henry James

What did you think of how Coibin portrayed Henry James? Did it jibe with what you already knew/thought about him? What did you think of how he hinted at James's (probable) closeted sexuality?
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1 comment:

kc said...

I read Leon Edel's biography of Henry James in college, and I also had an American Realism class that was taught by a James scholar (Alfred Habegger, who may still have been at KU when you were there), and this novel completely jibed with everything I knew about him, especially the sense of an austere, highly refined, well-traveled man who nevertheless seemed cloistered and emotionally guarded. One way this differed is that Habegger had a theory (pretty convincing) that James was not only secretly gay but that he was deeply hostile to and disdainful of women, especially women writers. In the novel, I don't get the sense of sexism so much as just an inability to deeply connect with anyone at all. He just seemed incapable of the kind of personal disclosures that can make us vulnerable to, but also close to, other people.

11:51 AM, March 28, 2012

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