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Henry James: Novels 1881-1886: Washington Square, The Portrait of a Lady, The Bostonians
* A fantastic collection of three of Henry James' best-known novels in one superb edition.* Washington Square- The Portrait of a Lady- The Bostonians* Just as accessible and enjoyable for today's readers as they would have been when first published, the novels are some of the great works of American literature and continue to be widely read throughout the world.* This meticulous edition from Heritage Publishing is a faithful reproduction of the original text.
- GenresFiction
354 pages, Paperback
First published June 5, 2014
About the author
Henry James
4,864 books4,073 followersHenry 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."
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."
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 28, 2021
I thoroughly enjoy reading. And I truly admire words. And so, apparently, does Henry James. He is orotund, the kind of word he uses an extreme number of. To the high-minded literati, a term I use with no disrespect at all, his writing surely sets the standard for literary elegance. For many readers, however, it will be a lot of words for very little plot.
That, however, is the essence of the writer James chose to be. “I was myself so much more antecedently conscious of my figures than of their setting—a too preliminary, a preferential interest in which struck me as in general such a putting of the cart before the horse…I couldn’t emulate, the imaginative writer so constituted as to see his fable first and to make out its agents afterwards. I could think so little of any fable that didn’t need its agents positively to launch it;…”
In this volume I read “Portrait of a Lady” and “The Bostonians.” And in both he executes his character-centric literary style quite consistently. While he very successfully brings his characters to life, however, they are not “life-like.” They are developed in such depth and in such detail that they lose the variety that comes with the superficiality of the characters in an engaging thriller or mystery. The figures, as he calls them, an apt word for the characters he describes, become very intensely one-dimensional.
As a result the plot, such as there is one, takes on the same one-dimensional perspective. Particularly in the case of “The Bostonians” such sterile focus impedes the reader’s ability to suspend disbelief. The story becomes not only fictional, but wholly unrealistic in its consistency and lack of context.
The characters themselves, as a result, become caricatures more than agents or figures. And few of them, as a result, are truly endearing. They may not generate hostility, although some fly close to that fire, but they ultimately fail to draw the reader in. (The fact that they are all rich and almost nobody has an actual job, while perhaps indicative of that era in literature, shrinks the canvas on which their story is told considerably.)
I actually had no trouble getting through the book. In a more contemporary vernacular, the man could write. Despite the lack of a heart-quickening plot, there is much to marvel at in the writing itself.
James deserves his reputation as a classic novelist and if you are a student of the written word at any level I recommend you read his work. In understanding the whole of literature I think we better understand our favorite little slice of it. Everything, after all, is part of some larger context.
Plot is context, of course. Which is why few authors can pull off the lack of one. To the extent that James does, which will be up to the reader to decide, he is a genius to be sure.
That, however, is the essence of the writer James chose to be. “I was myself so much more antecedently conscious of my figures than of their setting—a too preliminary, a preferential interest in which struck me as in general such a putting of the cart before the horse…I couldn’t emulate, the imaginative writer so constituted as to see his fable first and to make out its agents afterwards. I could think so little of any fable that didn’t need its agents positively to launch it;…”
In this volume I read “Portrait of a Lady” and “The Bostonians.” And in both he executes his character-centric literary style quite consistently. While he very successfully brings his characters to life, however, they are not “life-like.” They are developed in such depth and in such detail that they lose the variety that comes with the superficiality of the characters in an engaging thriller or mystery. The figures, as he calls them, an apt word for the characters he describes, become very intensely one-dimensional.
As a result the plot, such as there is one, takes on the same one-dimensional perspective. Particularly in the case of “The Bostonians” such sterile focus impedes the reader’s ability to suspend disbelief. The story becomes not only fictional, but wholly unrealistic in its consistency and lack of context.
The characters themselves, as a result, become caricatures more than agents or figures. And few of them, as a result, are truly endearing. They may not generate hostility, although some fly close to that fire, but they ultimately fail to draw the reader in. (The fact that they are all rich and almost nobody has an actual job, while perhaps indicative of that era in literature, shrinks the canvas on which their story is told considerably.)
I actually had no trouble getting through the book. In a more contemporary vernacular, the man could write. Despite the lack of a heart-quickening plot, there is much to marvel at in the writing itself.
James deserves his reputation as a classic novelist and if you are a student of the written word at any level I recommend you read his work. In understanding the whole of literature I think we better understand our favorite little slice of it. Everything, after all, is part of some larger context.
Plot is context, of course. Which is why few authors can pull off the lack of one. To the extent that James does, which will be up to the reader to decide, he is a genius to be sure.
Displaying 1 of 1 review