Alice James: A Biography (New York Review Books Classics)

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As they reached young adulthood, some of the sons were sent uptown to Columbia College, and several of the young Walshes were seized with a passionate Presbyterian piety. Young Hugh Walsh soon decided to be trained for the Presbyterian ministry and enrolled at the Princeton Theological Seminary. There, in , he met a fellow student, from Albany, called Henry James.

The two had a great deal in common — including prosperous fathers and Presbyterian catechisms — and quickly became friends. Together they argued over the teachings of the seminary, found them unsatisfactory, and in both young men abandoned their studies at Princeton.

Just 'Alice': The Portrait Of A James Sister

Walsh returned to his family in New York to take up the study of medicine. Henry James, after a summer trip to the home of his ancestors in Ireland, also went to New York, but with no clear plan for further study or a career. He read widely on religion, politics, and philosophy, and he spent a great deal of time with the family of his friend Hugh, now at 19 Washington Square, where Elizabeth Walsh had had a house built for herself and those of her children who remained at home.

Hugh's sisters, Mary and Catharine, were captivated by the intensity and originality of their brother's friend. Walsh, too, was intrigued by this energetic young talker who argued so good-heartedly against her religious beliefs that she grew fond of him, though she remained unconverted. Her daughters, however, were convinced. In the comfortable parlor of Washington Square the young women listened quietly to Henry James's denunciations of Presbyterian theology, and they soon withdrew from the Murray Street Church.

Walsh, described by her friends as prudent rather than generous, had raised her daughters carefully in her own image. Mary and Catharine were serious, practical women. They were not young — Mary was thirty in , and Catharine twenty-eight. They ought to have married. Neither had artistic or intellectual aspirations: Both were charmed by the young man from Albany who paced their drawing room as he argued, and when Mary agreed to marry him in , her decision came as no surprise to her family.

Many years later, Henry James, Sr. She was not to me 'a liberal education,' intellectually speaking, as some one has said of his wife, but she really did arouse my heart, early in our married life, from its selfish torpor, and so enabled me to become a man. Charles Bovary, Country Doctor: Portrait of a Simple Man. September 7th, 0 Comments. The Tidings of the Trees. September 6th, 0 Comments. The Silence of the Girls. September 5th, 0 Comments. August 31st, 2 Comments. August 30th, 0 Comments. Lee Monks February 27, at 8: Leave a Reply Cancel reply. Toggle Sliding Bar Area.

Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. Strouse has scoured all available sources and woven her findings into a compelling narrative of Alice James' life, the distortions of personality and emotion that male James inflicted upon the women in their families and households, and Alice's life-long resistance to their attempts to impose a conventional self and identify upon her as well as her struggle to define and invent herself - an achievement she accomplished only after her parents' deaths and her acquiring a room of her own in London.

A fascinating story of the life of a very brave woman. The biography is called "Alice James" but the story necessarily encompasses the James family with Alice as a part of it. As a consequence, she absorbed the Jamesian attitudes, learning, curiosity and insular attitudes.

There is not enough about Alice in what is expected to be her biography. She is seen through the eyes of her friends and brothers. An invalid for most of her life, she produced a diary upon which all the accolades of "brilliance" are based. But you won't find that in this book.

Even in much of her diary, she quotes other people. Since I haven't read it, that is only what the author has to say about it. The best diary compilation, according to Strouse, is the version published and edited by Leon Edel. You have to be intensely interested in the James family to make it through this over-long study which essentially does what it says it hopes not to do and that is to make Alice an extension of her brothers.

In this book, too, she is like an afterthought. I will, obviously, read almost anything about the James family, but Strouse's writing redeemed the bio genre for me. It's possible to write biography like this? To not be carried away by your nervous, repellent, unsavory topic? Strouse writes a book about ideas, not people. This book never goes in for sheer gossip and is such a delight to read because of it. Also, the footnote layout is incredible. Long paragraphs, all on one page! Jan 07, M. A bit too heavy on the family, the famous two older brothers, and the social scene. More focus on Alice James would have been preferred.

The last quarter of the biography was marvelous, so much so that the diary Alice wrote during the last four years of her life is definitely in my future as another assigned reading. Jan 27, Rachel Haselden rated it liked it. This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Not particularly easy to read yet kept going as it was such an interesting read of a family life and gender politics of the mid to late s in the US and Britain. It's a biography of Alice James who's known as a diarist of the famous brothers, Henry James novelist and William James psychologist. Her mental and physical illness and expectations of the times for women keep her life very restricted. She was a very intelligent woman who became a diarist later in life.

Another brother, Robert Not particularly easy to read yet kept going as it was such an interesting read of a family life and gender politics of the mid to late s in the US and Britain. Another brother, Robertson James, wrote after Alice's death: This is nothing beautiful in a life that has nothing to overcome. And she overcame more than any of us can ever know.

Aug 31, Arlene rated it it was amazing. This is what an historical biography reads like in its finest form. The details are not historical tedium but rather poignant and fascinating.

Jean Strouse: Alice James: A Biography – The Mookse and the Gripes

The book does not plod along from detail to detail, but rather it moves along a lifetime that is representative and fascinating. Strouse provides a window we have left, today, to look back as even-handedly as possible on the James family, the time they lived in, and Alice's place in both. In looking back we see that people were no different, Alice faced This is what an historical biography reads like in its finest form.

In looking back we see that people were no different, Alice faced most of the challenges any of us do today, and we certainly recognize her struggles - mostly called other names - but still familiar. Strouse raises our ability to understand Alice, all the more, by providing us with context: I read this book interested in Alice James I had read books about her brother William and by her brother Henry.

I have definitely learned more about Alice and their family. I wanted to read this book, too, to experience a well executed historical biography. I absolutely feel that is indeed what I read.

I recommend this book. Jan 13, Kyle rated it liked it.

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I've been fascinated by the James family for some time. I enjoy Henry's novels and William's philosophy. I have always wondered, especially after reading biographies of William and Henry, how their three less famous siblings, Wilky, Robertson, and Alice dealt with their brothers' fame. Strouse's biography did an excellent job of capturing the wit of Alice James, as well as the sense of what might have been if Alice had been born in a different age, an age where women had the same opportunities as I've been fascinated by the James family for some time.

Strouse's biography did an excellent job of capturing the wit of Alice James, as well as the sense of what might have been if Alice had been born in a different age, an age where women had the same opportunities as men. Alice's story is a tragedy and at times it's hard to sympathize with her acerbic tongue and her attention seeking fits of poor health. But James' writing is so eloquent and hilarious: Do you suppose he vainly tries to escape it, or is he passive in its clutches or can it be possible that some memory of the joy still survives which irradiated his being, the first time he heard it from his lips in the springtime of his practice?

Mar 30, Richard Kramer rated it liked it.

I probably would give it five stars if I finished it. But what are the odds? She was one crazy skirt, this Alice, fucked by being a woman at the wrong time, with two Elephant in the Room brothers Henry and William and fairly nuts to begin with. The book is thrilling, profound, and if I were a better person I would almost certainly finish it.

Maybe one day I will be a better person. I recommend this, the first hundred page i've read a hundred pages. I recommend this, the first hundred pages, anyway. I like books about women at the wrong time; cf Claire Tomalin's wonderful book which I did finish about Dickens' mistress Ellen Ternan.

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