Constance Fenimore Woolson : portrait of a lady novelist / Anne Boyd Rioux.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rioux, Anne Boyd, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Woolson, Constance Fenimore, 1840-1894.

Woolson, Constance Fenimore.

Women novelists, American--19th century--Biography.

Women novelists, American.

Women and literature--United States--History--19th century.

Women and literature.

United States.

History.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xix, 391 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : W.W. Norton & Company, [2016]

Summary:

Constance Fenimore Woolson (1840-1894), who contributed to Henry James's conception of his heroine Isabelle Archer in The Portrait of a Lady, was one of the most accomplished American writers of the nineteenth century. Yet today the best-known (and most-misunderstood) facts of her life are her relationship with James and her probable suicide in Venice. Anne Boyd Rioux uncovered new sources in writing this first full-length biography that evokes Woolson's dramatic life and reaffirms her literary stature. A grand-niece of James Fenimore Cooper, Woolson was born in New Hampshire, but her family's ill fortunes drove them west to Cleveland. Raised to be a conventional woman, Woolson was thrust by her father's death into the role of breadwinner, and yet, as a writer, she reached for critical as much as monetary reward. Known for her powerfully realistic and empathetic stories of post-Civil War American life, Woolson created compelling portrayals of the rural Midwest, Reconstruction-era South, and formerly Spanish Florida. After her invalid mother's death, she moved to Europe, living mostly in England and Italy and spending several months in Egypt. While abroad, she wrote finely crafted foreign-set stories that presage Edith Wharton's work of the next generation. In this rich biography, Rioux reveals an exceptionally gifted and committed artist who pursued and received serious recognition despite the difficulties faced by female authors of her day.--Adapted from dust jacket.

Contents:

Part 1 An Education in Womanhood (1840-1860)

1 A Daughters Country 3

2 Lessons in Literature, Life, and Death 17

3 Turning Points 37

Part 2 An Education in Authorship (1870-1870)

4 False Starts 59

5 Departures 75

6 Places 98

Part 3 A European Experiment (1879-1886)

7 The Old World at Last 119

8 The Artist's Life 140

9 The Expatriate's Life 161

Part 4 The Bellosguardo Years (1886-1889)

10 Home Found 185

11 Confrère 206

12 Arcadia Lost 223

Part 5 The Final Years (1890-1894)

13 To Cairo and Back 245

14 Oxford 264

15 The Riddle of Existence 286

16 Aftershocks 305.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 331-369) and index.

ISBN:

9780393245097

0393245098

OCLC:

909974394

Publisher Number:

40025793076