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Abstract

Leon Edel’s The Life of Henry James is regarded as the single most important biography and criticism of the American novelist. Few modern biographers can match Edel’s depth and energy in the portrayal of James as he really existed. The authority of this biography derives from Edel’s extensive collection and scrutiny of biographical materials, along with his interpretations of James’s life based upon them. Edel also made numerous discoveries not only in the life of James but in his works, with a premise that James’s inner world is hidden like a puzzle in many of his novels and tales. In his biography Edel approached many mysteries in James’s life with a close and chronological reading of his writings and by doing so, decoded the complex interrelation between James’s inner and artistic development. This biographical approach led many critics argue that Edel had depended too much on the psychoanalytic interpretations of his subject. However, it is Edel’s psychological insight into the mind of James that solidifies the autonomy of his biography, since he believed that a biographer who tries to tell “facts” about the subject does not in the end bring any significant discoveries. Consequently, Edel’s interpretations of James’s life through a skillful management of materials make readers get access to the complex world of James, whose portrait was often distorted by many critics. In The Life of Henry James, Edel distinguished himself both as a critic and as a biographer. His biography became a convenient vehicle through which many readers, even while not reading James’s works, came to approach James and his life. This biography had also become a mine of information as well as a stimulus to further finding of James. The fact that with the aid of Edel, the reader can finally have an accurate representation of James brings a rhetorical question of what will remain after this biography. It is unlikely that any new biographical work will replace the status of Leon Edel as a biographer of James, because the power of his biography places many biographers in the anxiety of influence.