Friday, December 15, 2006

Edel's Henry James

I have lately gotten a desire to read biographies. I recently read T.S. Eliot: An Imperfect Life by Lyndall Gordon, which I enjoyed. Now I am reading Henry James: A Life by Leon Edel, Edel's 1985 one-volume condensation of his five-volume James biography. It's very good. James knew everyone who was everyone. It's interesting to see which 19th-century authors have been forgotten (Paul Bourget?), which ones are remembered but not read today (Robert Louis Stevenson) and who shines brightly (Flaubert).

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