The Other Henry James (New Americanists)

In his monumental biography of Henry James, Leon Edel plumbed the inner life of the writer. Decades later, scholars are finding more and more to explore in the novelist's life and work. In his 1996 biography, Henry James: The Young Master, Sheldon Novick suggested that James had actually consummated homosexual relationships (a topic that Edel had gently avoided). This was startling information for Jamesian scholars, many of whom preferred their idol to be as chaste and repressed as some of his characters. In The Other Henry James, James Carlos Rowe uses the discussion of the writer's sexuality as a starting point to explore the mysteries and the dark side of his later works (including What Maisie Knew and The Tragic Muse). But while Rowe uses James's homosexuality as a very insightful and provocative lens through which to view this work, he never allows it to become overly defining or intrusive. While the early James was critical of feminism, "foreigners," and nontraditional gender performance (think of the scheming lesbian Olive Chancellor in The Bostonians), Rowe argues that in his later career he used these subjects to critique mainstream conventions and beliefs. He writes that this change came about, in part, because of James's changing feelings about his own sexuality--and makes a terrific case for a rereading of the writer's work along these lines. --Michael Bronski