As his letters attest, for nearly forty years Henry James enjoyed a warm and
gratifying friendship with Britain's foremost soldier of the last quarter of the nineteenth
century and his wife. The Wolseleys were notable figures. Lord Wolseley, the field marshal who
became Britain's commander in chief of the British army, was a national hero. Both a
bibliophile and an author, Wolseley was described by Henry James to his brother William as an
"excellent example of the cultivated British soldier." Lady Wolseley was also
well-read, as well as stylish, strong-willed, and shrewd, and in Henry's view, a
delightful correspondent--in short, as the editor writes, "precisely the kind of woman
James most admired."In The Master, the Modern Major General, and
His Clever Wife, Alan James offers a collection of more than one hundred
letters--most of them published here for the first time--that Henry James wrote to the
Wolseleys, the majority to Lady Wolseley. Included are an overall introduction to the letters;
separate introductory profiles of Lord and Lady Wolseley along with commentaries on the factors that
drew James and the Wolseleys together; introductions to each of four sections of the letters,
divided chronologically; and annotations throughout, identifying the notable men and women to whom
James refers as well as comparing what James and the Wolseleys thought of them and their
work.