David Leavitt : A Beast in the Jungle

Review of Sheldon M. Novick, Henry James : The Mature Master (Random House), at The NY Times (23.12.2007) :

Does Novick succeed in giving us a new, more “ordinary,” less cerebral Henry James? The answer, for better or worse, is yes. Indeed, the life that he describes (“The Mature Master” begins with the successful 1881 publication of “The Portrait of a Lady” and ends with James’s death in 1916) is one that, for any urban writer, will seem eerily, even tiresomely familiar. Passionately devoted to his craft, James is also burdened by the constant pressure to make money. He suffers from back pain and constipation, and often feels overwhelmed by the amount of writing he has to do: in addition to the novels, many of them published in serial form, there are the short stories, travel articles, reviews and “potboilers” from which he earns his living, not to mention the correspondence with which he feels dutybound to keep up. When in London, he attends dinner parties almost every night, at least in part because at these dinner parties, he picks up the germs — what he calls données —; from which his fictions grow. But he also travels to Europe, to Italy and France, when he can afford to take the time off and his bank account permits. Personal relationships matter intensely to him. He is close to his sister, Alice, and his brother William, though his relationship with William is intermittently barbed. He has many friends — titled ladies, political leaders, fellow writers, actresses. And then there are the young men with whom, Novick broadly hints, he has love affairs, and to whom he writes erotic letters.

“The Mature Master” is a more understated book than its predecessor. Far from making speculative claims that will raise the hackles of his fellow Jamesians, Novick here approaches his material with a once-bitten, twice-shy caution. For example, he mentions in a footnote — but does not elaborate on — the rather extraordinary detail that the “pelvic massages” that Alice James underwent as part of her treatment for hysteria were sexual in nature, leading to orgasm. “The success of the treatment,” he continues, “induced Henry to try a version of it himself. He hired a young man to administer the massages and like Alice was for a time relieved of his symptoms.” Novick also quotes again the diary entries on the basis of which he deduced that James had had a sexual encounter with Holmes. Significantly, however, he refrains in this case from commentary. The only hint that remains of a sexual episode is one rather insinuating sentence: “Holmes and James had exchanged visits, had become intimate friends.”