Leon Edel's five volume (yes, five volume) Life of Henry James, published between 1953 and 1972, was the greatest biographical venture of the century, and one of the finest achievements in the form. The Life of Henry James' had all the weight, grandeur and subtlety of one of the Master's own late novels. Edel was formidable in his research penetrating in his insights, and matchless in his discussions of the work however, as each succeeding volume appeared, critics began to worry over the author's excessively discreet treatment of James's peculiarities of character in general and in particular, of his deeply ambivalent sexuality. Edel presented a picture of a man which fitted with T.S. Eliot's tongue in cheek judgment that James had a mind so fine that, no idea could violate it, except that in Edel's version, James apparently remained not only intellectually but physically inviolate. It is now accepted that James had strong homosexual leanings, though it still seems unlikely that he ever acted on his desires. Henry James A Life an abridgement of the original, is, according to the publisher, "a revised and updated edition with significant new material". I confess that I cannot detect very much significant new material, though Edel is a little more openly speculative as to the nature of James's libido. Anyway, none of this really matters this is a marvellous book, even in its shortened form, a great monument to one of the very greatest novelists. It is a manageable edition, not too bulky, and sturdily made, though the type is a little on the small side, and the reproductions of the photographs are very dim.