Connie G's Reviews > The Master

"The Master" is a psychological portrait of Henry James set in the late 19th Century with flashbacks to his earlier life. Henry James came from an intellectual American family that traveled widely through Europe during his formative years. James spent time in the great European cities of London, Paris, Venice, Rome, and Florence. He enjoyed socializing, and often based characters in his books on people he met. But he also needed private, quiet time to think and write, and he found that solitude when he bought the Lamb House in Rye near the English coast.

"For so many years now he had had no country, no family, no establishment of his own, merely a flat in London where he worked. He did not have the necessary shell, and his exposure over the years had left him nervous and exhausted and fearful. It was as though he lived a life which lacked a facade, a stretch of frontage to protect him from the world. Lamb House would offer him beautiful old windows from which to view the outside; the outside, in turn, could peer in only at his invitation."

James was a person who kept some distance between himself and his close friends which included writer Constance Fenimore Woolson and sculptor Hendrik Andersen. James is portrayed as a man who repressed his sexuality.

His relationships with his family members were interesting. He had a difficult father, a protective mother, and a brilliant invalid sister. There was rivalry with his older brother, and a feeling of guilt from witnessing the bravery of his younger brothers who fought in the Civil War.

Author Colm Toibin shows Henry James as a complex, intelligent man who was a close observer of people, but very private about revealing his life to others. The book was an interesting look at James' midlife while ideas of his next novels were percolating in his mind. Toibin's writing is lovely, and dwells on the inner life of his subject.