Portrait of a Novel: Henry James and the Making of an American Masterpiece
“In this innovative biography, written with flair and unostentatious erudition, Gorra tells the life of Henry James through the story of the composition of his novel,The Portrait of a Lady. ...Analyzing James’s letters, journals, stories, and travelogues, Gorra traces the author’s life and literary milieu, alternating a reconstruction of his travels with extensive attention to the novel’s composition and reception. The book reads like an exciting voyage of discovery, beginning with James revising his novel 20 years after it was written, and later depicting his blooming consciousness as an author torn between an American and a European identity. Gorra’s highly engaging introduction to James will be most attractive to lovers of literature who want to learn more about the craft of novel writing and will likely send readers back to the shelves to discover James all over again.” (Publishers Weekly)“Most of the books I read this year were published between 1850 and 1920. But among books issued in 2012, I greatly admiredPortrait of a Novel, Michael Gorra’s intimate and engaging life of Henry James told through the story of the inspiration, composition, and publication ofThe Portrait of a Lady.” (Rebecca Mead - New Yorker)“Starred review. Throughout this work of astonishing scholarship, Gorra directs our attention to the quotidian life of James (and his remarkable family), his composition of the novel (which first appeared in serial installments in theAtlantichere andMacmillan’s Magazinein England), the significance of the events and characters in the story, and the influence of the novel on the subsequent fiction of James and others…. Gorra’s approach will appeal to scholars, fans of the James family and lovers of important novels and those who create them.” (Kirkus Reviews)“Michael Gorra has...created a book that is an adventure from beginning to end.... There are places... where Gorra gets so close to the making ofPortrait of a Lady, he actually crosses over from literary history into the interior of James’s consciousness. The interior world that Gorra imagines, and that we come to inhabit, is so plausible, so true to life, that hisPortrait of a Novelbecomes a novel—a masterpiece of critical imagination.” (Alice Kaplan - The Best American Poetry blog)“Masterly and evocative… In hisPortrait of a Novel, Michael Gorra also offers an exemplary approach to what remains a complex and fascinating subject.” (Colm Toibin - Wall Street Journal)“...Michael Gorra inPortrait of a Novel: Henry James and the Making of an American Masterpiece... takes the rare but wise decision to approach James through the channel of a single work... In deference to James’s brilliance, Gorra has assumed the role of a professional prismatist. He peers at the book from multiple angles—those of biography, geography, publishing, textual variation, and mild erotic sleuthing, among others—as if hoping to catch it at an unfamiliar slant.” (Anthony Lane - New Yorker)“The author’s encyclopedic understanding of not only James, but also his influences and contemporaries, offers a thoroughly illustrated and appropriately tumultuous picture of fiction’s awkward adolescence between stilted Victorianism and modernistic messiness. The reader does not have to love or even be particularly familiar with James’s work to enjoy this book; this is as much a story about the creative process itself, or the function of genius, as it is about any particular product.” (Nicholas Mancusi, Daily Beast - Daily Beast)“Both personal and profound. Michael Gorra’s intense focus on a single work reflects his deep curiosity about this novel and displays his loving scrutiny of it. Gorra’s study, while keepingThe Portrait of a Lady, its heroine Isabel Archer, and the years of its creation (1880-81) at its center, roams gracefully through James’s life and art.” (Barbara Fisher - Boston Globe)“Portrait of a Noveldoes a great deal to explain why James’s book should have proved so timeless, so timely, and so enduring. Incisive, informative and hugely entertaining, Michael Gorra’s ‘tale not of a life but of a work’ is at once a brisk, compressed biography of James... [N]ot only instructive and a pleasure to read, but (as Gorra doubtless intended) it also sends us back to James with a deeper appreciation for his literary technique, his painstaking approach to language and style, and above all, the genius and profundity with which he portrayed the characters who continue to populate our imaginative world and accompany us, at home and abroad.” (Francine Prose - The Sunday Times (UK))“One of the many pleasures of Michael Gorra’s book is that he too has loved this novel since he studied it in college, and wants to share his passion for it. He has also taught it for many years, at Smith College, and he has written the kind of patient, sensitive, acute study that gifted teachers should write but rarely do.” (James Wood - London Review of Books)“A new and interesting approach to writing about Henry James…  Although an academic, Michael Gorra does not write like one…[An] excellent book.” (Joseph Epstein - The New Criterion)“An entertaining and highly personal account of an artist’s struggles with his greatest creation, charting the rhythms, people and places of James’ working life. Gorra brilliantly reshapes the story of James’ consummate story… To call Gorra’s work a detective story; or a diary of literary tourism, as he visits James’ temporary European homes in Italy, England and France; or even an intimate biography of a writer’s secret development—all this only hints at the grand spectacle and suspense Gorra builds as he reveals the self-proclaimed Master at work, refashioning his legacy, rewriting his literary will, bequeathing to generations of writers the great gift of the primacy of character over plot.Portrait of a Novelthus ranks alongside Mario Vargas Llosa’s examination of Flaubert’sMadame Bovaryas an inventive watershed in literary criticism… Gorra’s exquisite commentary on James’s ageless masterpiece may be as close as we get to a last word on the Master and his lonely obedience to his Muse. It is a word worth savoring.” (Arlice Davenport - Wichita Eagle)“One of the many merits of Alan Ryan’s monumental new history of political philosophy is that it restores our enthusiasm for politics.... Mr Ryan’s historical approach helps us at the very least to look at our problems from new angles, and at best to harness the help of history’s sharpest minds in producing policies.... an impressive achievement: an enjoyable mental workout and an admirable monument to a lifetime of academic toil.” (The Economist)“An elegant testimony that [Portrait of a Lady] can stand up to endless re-readings, accommodating you as you age.” (David Yaffe - The Chronicle Review)“Marvellous… James’s sensibility suffuses [Gorra’s] language, creating a book that feels not unlike reading James: stately, reflective, nuanced and wise.” (Sarah Churchwell - New Statesman)“Portrait of a Novelis an opening shot in a revolution, an intrepid attack on the ceremonies of academic criticism... Not only a gift to non-specialist readers, who have been starved of literary discussion. It is also a troop movement in a campaign to wrest authority over criticism from the academic interpreters.” (D. G. Myers - Commentary)“James has become a solidly major figure, one of a handful of Big Names, as Michael Gorra’s thorough, level-headed new book,Portrait of a Novel: Henry James and the Making of an American Masterpiece, suggests. A scholarly (or fanatical) love letter, it reads like a biography ofPortrait of a Lady—its gestation, development, reception—or perhaps a well-researched novel about Henry James that favors the early period.” (Leo Robson - The Nation)“I wish I could give this sublime marrying of the art and the life 10 stars…Gorra is a delightful guide through James’s world, tracing the American’s steps in Florence, looking over the Arno from the point that James did, or mounting the stairs of his home in Rye. His investigations never detract attention from his subject, but he permits the admittance that he sheds tears at Isabel’s final scene with the dying Ralph. At literary festivals throughout the country, readers always ask writers how they write. This books tells us, but never was demystification such an enjoyable and inspiring experience.” (Lesley McDowell - The Independent)“...nobody to my knowledge has written more perceptively aboutThe Portrait of a Lady. Gorra's reading of the novel is consistently revealing...Portrait of a Novel is not only instructive and a pleasure to read, but (as Gorra doubtless intended) it also sends us back to James with a deeper appreciation for his literary technique...” (The Sunday Times)“It is a tribute to his [Gorra's] book that he makes us feel the life, of the book and its characters and its author, so deeply. He earns the right to end with James's wonderful words, There really is too much to say.” (Hermione Lee - The Guardian)“Michael Gorra...has pulled off an astounding feat...in this impressive study...Gorra goes anywhere that strikes his fancy, and the result is splendid: a book to reread in years to come, a model for what criticism can do when happily married to biography.” (Literary Review)“...he [Gorra] has written the kind of patient, sensitive, acute study that gifted teachers should write but rarely do.” (London Review of Books)“...Gorra's marvellous portrait ofPortrait…” (Sarah Churchwell - New Statesman)