The Death and Letters of Alice James

James, Alice. Ed. Ruth Bernard Yeazell

ISBN 10: 0520037456 / ISBN 13: 9780520037458

Published by University of California Press, Berkeley, CA, 1981

About this Item

Dust Jacket is in fine condition without tears or chips or other damage. Quantity Available: 1. Category: Literature & Literary; ISBN: 0520037456. ISBN/EAN: 9780520037458. Pictures of this item not already displayed here available upon request. Inventory No: 26336.

Seller Inventory # 26336

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Death and Letters of Alice James
• Publisher: University of California Press, Berkeley, CA
• Publication Date: 1981
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0520037456
• ISBN 13: 9780520037458
• Binding: Hardcover (Original Cloth)
• Edition: 1st Edition.
• Condition: Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Fine
• Seller catalogs:
  • Literature & Literary

About this title

Synopsis

Alice James (1848-1892) was the sister of Henry and William James, as literary as her more famous brothers, but - as was typical for a Victorian woman - never formally educated and thus deprived of any opportunity for a normal "career." In her introductory biographical essay, Professor Ruth Bernard Yeazell of Yale University argues that Alice James instead made a career of her lifelong neurasthenic illness and anticipation of death. In this selection of letters, many written from the invalid's bed, one finds Alice James witty and lyrical, but always deeply morbid: an artist of the deathbed, reminiscent of Kafka's fictional Hunger Artist. Susan Sontag was inspired by this book to write her play, Alice in Bed. And critic Elaine Showalter has said that The Death and Letters of Alice James is, "A book everyone interested in women's history and literature will want."