Constance Fenimore Woolson Portrait of a Lady Novelist [Hardcover]

[Its] galling that most who remember [Woolson] today do so in connection with Henry James, who occupied murky territory somewhere between frenemy and soulmate. Its the James legacy that Anne Boyd Rioux wrestles with most in her excellent biography. . . . [Her] complex account leaves readers with an impression of Woolsons yearning ambition and uncertain triumph.Refreshing . . . [T]his gentle portrait of a woman who struggled to be true to herself as an artist adds much-needed nuance to American cultural and social history.A remarkable picture of a bold, bright woman who paved the way for writers such as Edith Wharton, E. M. Forster, and Willa Cather, and who arguably might be hailed in the same breath as Henry James and George Eliot. . . . Riouxs biography puts the woman herself back in the center of the frame and celebrates the fact that a 19th-century female writer could choose not to marry or have children, but instead to support herself by her pen.A duet [between Rioux and Woolson] that is clear and strong and exciting. . . . [Woolson] creat[ed] a still relevant and exciting body of work that Rioux guides readers to.[Rioux] has done a substantial service to American literature with . . . a scholarly resuscitation of a writer whose literary life was caught in a gender bind, aiming ambitiously to give us a new appreciation of her life and work.A vivid, deeply involving biography. . . . Rioux writes with captivating lucidity and conviction . . . [and] offers smart and poignant insights into why Woolson was forgotten and why her unapologetically sincere and passionate novels and stories fell so swiftly out of favor.An important contribution to reestablishing this long-overlooked writer to her rightful place in the American literary canon, this excellent book will captivate readers.A fine and detailed study . . . Rioux[] makes a strong case for reassessing this contemporary and close friend of Henry James. Biography at its best aims at resurrectionl³