Lit in Translation

The Master

The Master

Colm Tóibín (born 1955)

English editions

Written in English

  • The Master

    Picador · United Kingdom · 4 April 2024 · Paperback · 368 pages

    Buy on Bookshop.org UK*

  • The Master

    Picador · United Kingdom · 2004 · 359 pages

  • The Master

    Scribner · United States · 2004 · 338 pages

  • The Master

    Scribner · United States · 19 April 2005 · Paperback · 338 pages

    Buy on Bookshop.org US*

* Affiliate link. As an Amazon Associate and a Bookshop.org affiliate I earn from qualifying purchases. The price stays the same for you.

In January 1895 Henry James waits for the London premiere of his first play, Guy Domville, feeling more exposed to public view than ever before. The play is a failure, and he retreats, ashamed, to his desk, where over the following years he writes a series of masterpieces that are paid for dearly in his private life. Feted in the salons and palazzos of Europe and brilliantly alive on the page, he finds that each attempt to draw close to someone ends in failure, for him and for the people he hoped to love. The novel weighs what a life devoted to art takes away from the heart.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form
Novel
Genres
Historical (assigned by AI)
Set in
United Kingdom
First published
2004
Author's age
49 when first published
ISBN

9780330485654 (Picador, United Kingdom)

9780743250405 (Scribner, United States)

9780743250412 (Scribner, United States)

9781035029860 (Picador, United Kingdom)

More
Wikidata