Complete Stories

Henry James

ISBN 10: 1883011639 / ISBN 13: 9781883011635

Published by The Library of America, 1999

About this Item

In the years when he achieved his greatest success as a novelist, Henry James was also contributing stories prolifically to popular magazines. Stories collected in this Library of America volume (the second of five volumes of James's stories) show James working out, in a more concise fictional laboratory, themes that appear in such novels of the period as>The Portrait of a Lady and>The Bostonians. They include some of his most famous explorations of the international theme: Daisy Miller, the unforgettable portrayal of an innocent, headstrong American girl at odds with European mores, An International Episode and Lady Barberina, satirically probing tales of English aristocrats and the American marriage market, and The Siege of London, in which an American widow strives to work her way into English society. In A Bundle of Letters and The Point of View, James makes a fascinating experimental use of the epistolary form. Professor Fargo presents an unusually bleak view of the darker side of American life, while The Author of 'Beltraffio' offers a disturbing portrait of a fin-de-siecle novelist. Throughout, James wittily limns the demands and hidden struggles of social life, and hones his mastery of the unexpected resolution and the brilliantly framed moral portrait. Adventurous in narrative technique, yet marked by precise observation rendered in quicksilver prose, the stories of James's middle period present a breathtaking array of memorable characters and beguiling scenarios.

Seller Inventory # CIN1883011639G

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Complete Stories
• Publisher: The Library of America
• Publication Date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1883011639
• ISBN 13: 9781883011635
• Binding: Hardback
• Condition: Good

About this title

Synopsis

A collection of nineteen stories from the middle period of Henry James's writing career features some of his most famous works examining the relationship between the United States and Europe, including the classic "Daisy Miller" and the satiric "Lady Barbarina."

About the Author

Henry James (1843-1916), born in New York City, was the son of noted religious philosopher Henry James, Sr., and brother of eminent psychologist and philosopher William James. He spent his early life in America and studied in Geneva, London and Paris during his adolescence to gain the worldly experience so prized by his father. He lived in Newport, went briefly to Harvard Law School, and in 1864 began to contribute both criticism and tales to magazines.

In 1869, and then in 1872-74, he paid visits to Europe and began his first novel, Roderick Hudson. Late in 1875 he settled in Paris, where he met Turgenev, Flaubert, and Zola, and wrote The American (1877). In December 1876 he moved to London, where two years later he achieved international fame with Daisy Miller. Other famous works include Washington Square (1880), The Portrait of a Lady (1881), The Princess Casamassima (1886), The Aspern Papers (1888), The Turn of the Screw (1898), and three large novels of the new century, The Wings of the Dove (1902), The Ambassadors (1903) and The Golden Bowl (1904). In 1905 he revisited the United States and wrote The American Scene (1907).

During his career he also wrote many works of criticism and travel. Although old and ailing, he threw himself into war work in 1914, and in 1915, a few months before his death, he became a British subject. In 1916 King George V conferred the Order of Merit on him. He died in London in February 1916.