The Master
Book description
Nineteenth-century writer Henry James is heartbroken when his first play performs poorly in contrast to Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest" and struggles with subsequent doubts about his sexual identity.
Why read it?
4 authors picked The Master as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
This novel is in the POV of Henry James, following him around England and the world during the last years of his life, watching him pick up threads of inspiration for his stories. The reader is privy to his awful, slow awareness of how he had irreparably hurt the women in his life, including his sister.
And yet, he defends the selfishness he needed to do his art. Written in his style, which he referred to as “The Mystery of the Self,” you have to love his writing to love this book, and I did. Some people don’t.
Best quote…
This is not a new book, but after listening to Tobin speak in 2022, I wanted to read his treatment of Henry James, an author who always intrigued me because of his devotion to writing, choice to live as an ex-pat, and highly intelligent, slightly crazy family. Among other things, I learned from Tobin that James’s family wasn’t just slightly crazy.
The book is a beautiful examination of the differences between solitude and loneliness, and I was fascinated to read of the many ways in which the people who mattered to James in his life found their way, reimagined, into…
How much would you be willing to give up for fame and greatness?
By 1895, Henry James had written a number of all-time classics, including Daisy Miller and The Portrait of a Lady, but had never achieved the kind of commercial or popular success he thought he deserved. So in his fifties, he started writing for the theater, hoping to break through.
The Master begins with the London opening of his play Guy Domville, which turns out to be a flop, and follows James as he comes to terms with this failure, and all the other sacrifices he has to…
From Benjamin's list on historical fiction about famous writers.
The Master is a bravura portrayal of a great writer and a complex, lonely individual. The novel begins when James is at a low point in his writing career. We often forget that great writers have these lows, but for any writer the writing life is full of insecurity and real or imagined failure and James was no exception. At the start of this novel, he has chosen to retreat from public life by buying a house in Rye, England. In this new, private existence, he endures the consequences of his need for a protected space in which to write,…
From Livi's list on historical fiction based on real people.
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