themselves transported with James's consciousness back to the events of the memories he recalls. Tóibín, in doing so takes us beyond the temporal constriction of the four years that the novel takes place during. Sexuality Tóibín provides a detailed exploration of the sexual identity of Henry James as found within The Master. Leon Edel is considered one on the most significant biographers of Henry James and within his seminal five-volume biography he chooses to present James as a wholly celibate individual, a stance that has been commonplace since it was first put forward by critic Saul Rosenzweig in 1943. The publishing of Henry James: The Young Master by Sheldon M. Novick in 2004 was one of the first significant challenges to this well-established approach to Jamesian scholarship. This pivot in critical approach was born from an increasing number of James's correspondence to young men coming to light in virtue of their sometimes veiled (sometimes not) eroticism. Tóibín chooses to follow the same tact as Novick within The Master through his exploration of the Closeted Victorian. Irish identity Tóibín's approach to national identity within this novel appears as a proliferation of his response to The Essential Hemingway and indeed foregrounds Tóibín's attraction to James in the first place; “the amount of emotion living in what was not said, what was between the words and the sentences.". This point is further clarified by Tóibín himself within his collection of essays All a Novelist Needs when he notes that 'In dealing with James's attitude towards Ireland ... and indeed towards his homosexuality, it is important to remember that he was in both instances non-practicing.' (14). Awards and nominations The Master received the 2004 Los Angeles Times Novel of the Year award and was shortlisted for the 2004 Booker Prize. It received the 2005 Lambda Literary Award, the 2005 Stonewall Book Award, France's 2005 Le prix du Meilleur livre étranger (Best Foreign Book Prize) and the 2006 International Dublin Literary Award. References External links Links to multiple reviews of The Master by Colm Tóibín 2004 Irish novels 2000s LGBT novels Biographical novels Cultural depictions of Henry James Irish LGBT novels Lambda Literary Award-winning works Novels about writers Novels by Colm Tóibín Novels set in Sussex Novels set in the 1890s Novels with gay themes Picador (imprint) books Stonewall Book Award-winning works 2004 LGBT-related literary works