The book
Lions at Lamb House imagines what happens when an Austrian psychiatrist responds to the urgent request of a Boston colleague. The colleague, who fears his brother’s intention to rewrite his early novels may be the sign of debilitating neuroses, urges the Austrian psychiatrist to visit and evaluate his brother at home in the south of England. The time is 1908. The Austrian is Sigmund Freud. The Bostonian is William James and the novelist is his brother Henry. What comes of Freud’s ten-day visit to Lamb House is fiction of a high order, at once artful and entertaining.
The author
Edwin M. Yoder, Jr.
Edwin M. Yoder, Jr. is the author of The Night of the Old South Ball and Joe Alsop’s Cold War. He has served as the editorial page editor at The Washingtonian Star, where he won a Pulitzer Prize in 1979, and as a columnist for The Washington Post Writers Group (1982-1997). He and his wife live in Washington, D.C.
Press
- Jan 18 2008
Times Literary Supplement: "the novel makes for a pleasant fictional rendering of - in effect - one of those fantasy dinner parties, postulating the outcome of the meeting of two such literary celebrities." - Dec 4 2007
FInancial Times: "Yoder handles the imagined encounter between the two intellectual “lions” with great skill; and the project of conjuring James and Freud’s inner lives is approached with refreshing humour." - Nov 12 2007
The Guardian: "Yoder imagines a meeting that turns into a two-week analysis, pitting a doctor obsessed with repression against a writer whose private life appeared defined by it." - Oct 15 2007
The Weekly Standard: "Edwin M. Yoder Jr. . . . has, counterfactually, written a highly amusing novel that is, at bottom, of great seriousness." - Sep 19 2007
Library Journal: "A pleasure to read, this lighthearted and humorous novel will appeal to those who enjoy literary and historical fiction." - Sep 12 2007
Mostly Fiction: "Beautifully constructed to highlight the issues of the day, the novel is also great fun to read. Yoder manages to humanize James, an author who remains personally remote for most readers, however much they may admire his work."