Volume 3, Number 11 · January 14, 1965
Impressionist of Power
By Alfred Kazin
Henry Adams: The Major Phase
by Ernest Samuels
Harvard, 687 pp., $10.00
This is the third and concluding volume of Ernest Samuels' exemplary biography, which so far as any real information is concerned is the only biography we have of Henry Adams—all other books on him are commentary. Although Professor Samuels' book is always penetrating and shrewd on Adams's writings, his concern has been to show them emerging out of the drama of his life. Adams's last twenty-eight years—the period of convulsive world travels after the suicide of his wife, the period of his greatest letters, of Mont St.-Michel and Chartres, The Education of Henry Adams, of his isolated and eccentric gestures at a 'scientific' theory of history—are for the first time recounted in detail, with the odd result that one knows more about Henry Adams's life than ever before—one at last knows something—and finds his mind more elusive than ever.
Review, 2292 words
To read the full text of this piece, please choose one of the following options:
|
If you are already a subscriber to the Review's electronic edition, please sign in: |
To subscribe to the electronic edition, please press the button below. |
To purchase access to this article for $3, please press the button below. |