Reading Henry James

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This slim book, whose title was not the inspiration for the name of this web site, is described as a “companion to Henry James.” Auchincloss, who passed away last week, long admired James, as well as Edith Wharton (he edited a couple of volumes of Wharton for the Library of America). In this book, Auchincloss gives uncritical overviews of many of James’ works, paying particular attention to the later novels, but also discussing James’ notebooks, his theater, and his late American tour.

Dedicated to “Leon Edel, fiend and mentor,” this book has a decidedly Edelian feel. Written in 1972, James’ was more or less “owned” by Edel, the author of the first serious biography of Henry. I won’t go into this book in detail, but I will refer to it from time to time when I discuss Henry’s works. I would recommend that any serious fan of James grab a copy, especially because used copies are available from Amazon.com for just a few dollars. I doubt this book will ever be reprinted, unless, perhaps, the Library of America decides to published some of Auchincloss’ work.

The Washington Post is reporting that author Louis Auchincloss has died at age 92. I’ve never read his fiction, but he is the author of a slim book, Reading Henry James, which is a sort of reader’s guide to the fiction of James. It’s not very deep, but gives a nice overview of James’ fiction. (It’s not why I chose the name for this blog, in case you’re asking.)

I was planning on reviewing this book soon, as I got a used copy from an on-line bookseller. It’s been out of print for some time, but used copies seem to be widely available.

Oddly, much of Auchincloss’ work is out of print, including his fiction. He’s written dozens of books, and a quick search on Amazon shows only a few available.

I guess I deserve it; I set up this website, and find that Real Life prevents me from starting on my journey of reading Henry James. I’ve had a lot of work this past month, and, to be fair, a couple of other books have grabbed my attention. First was John Irving’s new novel, Last Night in Twisted River. I’m a big fan of Irving, and while I don’t like all of his books, he has written some true masterpieces. This one was, I hate to say, a bit of a let-down. While Irving’s prose glimmers with genius, the story was not very interesting. It was a bit of meta-fiction, and was very auto-biographical, and, in the end, not very memorable.

The next book to grab me – or that will be grabbing me, as I just got it today – is Stephen King’s latest novel, Under the Dome. Now you may scratch your head in wonder; why is a fan of Henry James reading Stephen King? Well, first, remember that Henry wrote some ghost stories (Turn of the Screw, etc.). But beyond that, King is a true master of prose. You may not care for his subject matter, but in my opinion, King will be seen, in 100 years’ time, as the Dickens of the 20th century. Some of his works are relatively minor, but when he’s at the top of his form – with such classics as The Stand, or his seven-volume fantasy epic The Dark Tower, he is as good as it gets. I respect anyone who says they don’t like “that kind of book,” but anyone who’s read a lot of King has to agree that he’s a master wordsmith.

In addition to those novels, and my day job, I’ve got a couple of books about Henry that I’ve been reading. I’ll post more about them soon, with reviews or book notes. I found an old book entitled Reading Henry James, by Louis Auchincloss, which is a kind of reader’s guide to the main works; and, no, that’s not why I chose the same name for this blog. I also got a volume of his complete plays, as well as a biography that I hadn’t read.

So I’ll be getting to my reading soon. Sorry I couldn’t start as quickly as I wanted, but I hope you’ll stick around, if only by using my RSS feed to keep up on what I post.

I’ve had a lot of work these past couple of weeks, so I haven’t been able to get started with my reading. However, I did get a Kindle, and have it packed for return. I was hoping to read some Henry James on the Kindle, but I’ll settle for reading on my iPod touch.

Read my thoughts about the Kindle on my other website, Kirkville.

More Henry coming soon; promise!

Amazon has started shipping its international Kindle. I wrote about it here, on my other blog, Kirkville, and I previously wrote here and here about using the Kindle on an iPod touch. (The international Kindle concerns me because I live in France.)

I’ve stated here that I’m planning to read all of Henry’s work in the Library of America editions – at least as long as I can, because they haven’t yet published the last two novels. But I also mentioned perhaps listening to some works as audiobooks, and why not reading some on a Kindle.

For I haven’t yet decided whether I want to buy a Kindle. If you check out Kirkville, you’ll see that my day job is writing about computers and technology. As such, it’s only natural that I get a Kindle to learn more about ebooks. (Actually, ebooks aren’t new to me; I did a fair amount of work for a French ebook publisher more than ten years ago.) But the Kindle does what ebook readers didn’t do before: it makes it possible to buy books easily. It’s the iPod of ebook readers; for now. And that’s why I’m hesitant about buying one. Rumors about Apple releasing a tablet have been floating around the Internet for some time, and intensifying in recent months, and if anyone can do it right, it’s Apple. With the iTunes Store to distribute books, an Apple ebook reader / tablet would be a true game-changer.

Anyway, I’m thinking about getting a Kindle, and if I do, I would certainly read some Henry James on it. I’ll post more if I decide to buy it, and if I start reading some Henry on it.

Meanwhile, I plan to start my reading soon, with Henry’s first story, A Tragedy of Error. Stay tuned.