La venganza de Osborne

by Henry James

Cada uno de los cuatro relatos que conforman este volumen son un vivo ejemplo de la habilidad de James para en pocas páginas tejer una historia interesante y a la par construir unos personajes matizados, de una sólida verosimilitud psicológica y de contextos sociales impecablemente abordados.

Los títulos de los relatos incluidos son:
- La venganza de Osborne
- La poesía de ciertas ropas antiguas
- Un problema
- El último de los Valeri

Estas cuatro historias forman parte del corpus de su primera etapa, dónde la ambigüedad de las situaciones y los personajes no requieren una ardua lectura, la cual no siempre garantiza la comprensión del texto, y por el contrario siempre plasman con gran satisfacción las señas y los matices de la sociedad norteamericana del siglo XIX.

117 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1874

About the author

Henry James was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the son of Henry James Sr. and the brother of philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James.
He is best known for his novels dealing with the social and marital interplay between émigré Americans, the English, and continental Europeans, such as The Portrait of a Lady. His later works, such as The Ambassadors, The Wings of the Dove and The Golden Bowl were increasingly experimental. In describing the internal states of mind and social dynamics of his characters, James often wrote in a style in which ambiguous or contradictory motives and impressions were overlaid or juxtaposed in the discussion of a character's psyche. For their unique ambiguity, as well as for other aspects of their composition, his late works have been compared to Impressionist painting.
His novella The Turn of the Screw has garnered a reputation as the most analysed and ambiguous ghost story in the English language and remains his most widely adapted work in other media. He wrote other highly regarded ghost stories, such as "The Jolly Corner".
James published articles and books of criticism, travel, biography, autobiography, and plays. Born in the United States, James largely relocated to Europe as a young man, and eventually settled in England, becoming a British citizen in 1915, a year before his death. James was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1911, 1912, and 1916. Jorge Luis Borges said "I have visited some literatures of East and West; I have compiled an encyclopedic compendium of fantastic literature; I have translated Kafka, Melville, and Bloy; I know of no stranger work than that of Henry James."

Reviews

[Virginia Arcas]

Siempre consigue este señor sorprenderme, mira que pienso que se lo que va a pasar y al final sus personajes femeninos siempre son muchísimo más profundos y complicados de lo que yo soy capaz de imaginarme

[Andrew Noselli]

I thought Osborne's act of revenge was going to be that he would drive Henrietta to suicide due to her pining for him; but like Nancy H., she was "in one ear and out the other."

[Mark Stephenson]

HJ's answer to Goethe's Werther? To this reader Henrietta Congreve seems the equal (if not the superior) of Charlotte in this magnificent tale demonstrating James' early(1868) mastery of fictional arts. Philip Osborne and Mrs. Dodd serve as very different but splendid foils as her character is little-by-little revealed, scene by interesting scene until the moving climax and ironic conclusion. Much of the action is at Newport and a vivid portrait of that famous resort and its denizens adds to the many positives of this fine story.