The Tragic Muse - Couverture souple

James, Henry

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 0140046062 ISBN 13 : 9780140046069

Editeur : Penguin Books Ltd, 1978

Synopsis

Book by James Henry

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur

This edition of The Tragic Muse is complete and contains all 51 chapters in 525 pages.

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An excerpt from The New Review, volume 3, 1890: " The Tragic Muse embodies Henry James' views of the stage, and, as might be expected, they are not enthusiastic. He belittles the actor's calling with a long series of subtle sarcasms, and Miriam is apparently meant to show how narrow is the mental horizon, and how intense the egotism, of histrionic genius. Yet she is full of power and charm. I don't remember any book of Mr. James's in which his touch is so sure, and his grip of character so strong. As a rule he is exquisitely indefinite. "You are vague," says a lady in this novel to a young man who is fascinating but abstracted. Mr. James is generally vague, and that is why very little of his writing remains in your memory. But I am not likely to forget Miriam Rooth, who has more brains than the rest of her creator's portraits.

"Yet a great fund of social observation is lavished on all of them, and you cannot read this book without an intellectual pleasure which is keen, if it is not permanent."

Présentation de l'éditeur

Originally serialised in the Atlantic Monthly between 1889 and 1890, before being published in book form later in the year, The Tragic Muse was James' last full novel before his doomed foray into writing for the stage. The plot also hinges on dramatic leanings, with Miriam Rooth, a young and by all accounts extremely raw actress, providing the love interest for one of the other leads in Peter Sherringham, a high flyer in the British Diplomatic Service. Other characters include, Nick Dormer, a politician who'd prefer to be an artist and his partner Julia Darrow who prefers him in the House of Commons. There are in fact at least fifty named characters in The Tragic Muse and a plot to carry them through, making the novel an oddity in the James portfolio. In truth it reads more like a typically Victorian novel from authors like Dickens or Thackaray, rather than the pared down character studies that James would perfect towards the end of his career.

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Penguin Books Ltd
• Date d'édition: 1978
• ISBN 10: 0140046062
• ISBN 13: 9780140046069
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 544