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Tales of Henry James
"The Author on His Craft" again reprints James s critical essay "The Art of Fiction" and related passages from his notebooks, including a new passage on "In the Cage." "Criticism" has been entirely updated and includes ten new essays by critics who during the last twenty-five years have helped to establish the lines of debate about James s tales. An updated Selected Bibliography is also included.
"Daisy Miller: A Study" (1878)
"An International Episode" (1878)
"The Aspern Papers" (1888)
"The Pupil" (1891)
"Brooksmith" (1891)
"The Real Thing" (1892)
"The Middle Years" (1893)
"The Beast in the Jungle" (1903)
"The Jolly Corner" (1908)
"In the Cage" (1898)
"Daisy Miller: A Study" (1878)
"An International Episode" (1878)
"The Aspern Papers" (1888)
"The Pupil" (1891)
"Brooksmith" (1891)
"The Real Thing" (1892)
"The Middle Years" (1893)
"The Beast in the Jungle" (1903)
"The Jolly Corner" (1908)
"In the Cage" (1898)
544 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1908
About the author
Henry James
4,220 books3,609 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 - 27 of 27 reviews
January 19, 2012
Henry the Great. For those waiting to tackle his novels with
wandering sentences loaded w parentheses, I suggest starting
w his novellas & short stories -- 9 in this volume. James isn't
airport-dentist office reading. He demands focused hours, pillows, a brandy-soda. Hortense Calisher wrote: "He never for one moment underestimated the intelligence of his readers. There are some who will never forgive him for it."
In his essay, The Art of Fiction, includ. here, James asks what exactly is experience? "An immense sensibility," he answers, "a kind of huge spider-web in the chamber of consciousness. It is the very atmosphere of the mind." He adds: "A glimpse makes a picture, but that moment is experience. If experience consists of impressions, it may be said that impressions are experience."
Two stories w his Notes: he recalls an 'experience' on an Italian train when a friend told him about an extravagant-iffy American couple who prowled Europe with a young son and then, "I saw on the spot--."
His impression became an emotional disturbance, "The Pupil" (1891) unknown to me -- of a Yale grad hired by snobby, shady Americans to tutor their adolescent son as they all shuttle to-fro Paris, Venice, Nice, Florence. They don't have enough money to pay the tutor, but they're sure their captivating child will fascinate him. And he does. The months pass. The years pass. Now 15, the lad begs the tutor, "Take me away -- take me away." Scholar Eve Sedgwick believes that the tutor freezes w "homosexual panic." The story, modern as hell, is charged with the intensity of Something unspoken.
"The Aspern Papers" (1888) was inspired by a Shelley-enthusiast who learned that a woman still had a packet of his love letters. James invents an ambitious editor who gondolos into Venice and the lives of a frump and her aged aunt who once had a hotsy with the fictional poet, Jeffrey Aspern. She has valuable letters. The reclusive duo seldom leave their decaying palazzo. How will he get the letters? "I will make love to the niece," he jests. "Wait til you see her," a friend replies. The importuned niece asserts herself: the editor must be part of any deal.
James' psychological dramas pulsate with suspense. He yearned a lot and perceived far too much. His stories are concealments of sensuality. I doubt if he ever shared a secretion w anyone, but his real-life repression lends a thumping ache and heartbreak to his art.
wandering sentences loaded w parentheses, I suggest starting
w his novellas & short stories -- 9 in this volume. James isn't
airport-dentist office reading. He demands focused hours, pillows, a brandy-soda. Hortense Calisher wrote: "He never for one moment underestimated the intelligence of his readers. There are some who will never forgive him for it."
In his essay, The Art of Fiction, includ. here, James asks what exactly is experience? "An immense sensibility," he answers, "a kind of huge spider-web in the chamber of consciousness. It is the very atmosphere of the mind." He adds: "A glimpse makes a picture, but that moment is experience. If experience consists of impressions, it may be said that impressions are experience."
Two stories w his Notes: he recalls an 'experience' on an Italian train when a friend told him about an extravagant-iffy American couple who prowled Europe with a young son and then, "I saw on the spot--."
His impression became an emotional disturbance, "The Pupil" (1891) unknown to me -- of a Yale grad hired by snobby, shady Americans to tutor their adolescent son as they all shuttle to-fro Paris, Venice, Nice, Florence. They don't have enough money to pay the tutor, but they're sure their captivating child will fascinate him. And he does. The months pass. The years pass. Now 15, the lad begs the tutor, "Take me away -- take me away." Scholar Eve Sedgwick believes that the tutor freezes w "homosexual panic." The story, modern as hell, is charged with the intensity of Something unspoken.
"The Aspern Papers" (1888) was inspired by a Shelley-enthusiast who learned that a woman still had a packet of his love letters. James invents an ambitious editor who gondolos into Venice and the lives of a frump and her aged aunt who once had a hotsy with the fictional poet, Jeffrey Aspern. She has valuable letters. The reclusive duo seldom leave their decaying palazzo. How will he get the letters? "I will make love to the niece," he jests. "Wait til you see her," a friend replies. The importuned niece asserts herself: the editor must be part of any deal.
James' psychological dramas pulsate with suspense. He yearned a lot and perceived far too much. His stories are concealments of sensuality. I doubt if he ever shared a secretion w anyone, but his real-life repression lends a thumping ache and heartbreak to his art.
June 28, 2021
This is an intelligent and varied selection of the tales (or short stories) of Henry James, and it gives ample evidence as to why James is a canonical author. I enjoyed the selections, as well, as I had never read "The Pupil," and found its exploration of a sensitive, morally upright, and precocious young boy who, along with his tutor, is manipulated by his fraudulent con artist parents, immensely moving and convincing. There are other masterpieces as well: "Daisy Miller," "The Jolly Corner," "The Real Thing," "The Aspern Papers," "Brooksmith," "In the Cage," and, above all, his late, great work, "The Beast in the Jungle." I came away from a re-reading of this story (and a new reading of "The Pupil") skeptical of more recent homoerotic readings of James' work. The tie between Pemberton and Morgan Moreen might have an element of the homoerotic, but it cannot be grasped or understood outside the other, predominant contexts of shame, embarrassment, and manipulation. As for "The Beast in the Jungle," the secret does not seem to me to be that John Marcher is a homosexual. He is a narcissistic and self-involved man who wishes for some "great doom" but who, ultimately, realizes he has missed the boat of life precisely because of his fixation with his mythic secret. Above all, it is a study of a narcissistic and selfish consciousness that drags down into its obsessions May Bartram, who here plays the role of one of James' famous "children of light" who are ground down by unfeeling, selfish, materialistic, self-seeking individuals. James, I think, entertained feelings of romantic friendship for men later on in his life, but his consciousness, at least in his fictions, is so complex and well-integrated that the homoerotic, such as it is, cannot be discussed or understood in a vacuum. These are tremendous stories by an author who champions the innocent, moral, conscientious, and imaginative against the worldly and selfish. That is James' dominant preoccupation, and it makes him a master in portraying children and outsider adults.
November 9, 2022
Me he demorado en este libro ya que leí cada relato sin apuro y los dejaba cuando me sentía algo agobiado. Para mi leer a Henry James no deja de ser un desafío, por lo profundo en las descripciones, pero a la vez que un agrado por la exquisitez de su narración.
Read
September 14, 2023a 19th century literary icon who actually writes women well??? and they’re complex?????? and way more interesting than the male characters???????????
August 13, 2018
"The Liar"
The "liar" of the title is Colonel Capadose, husband of Mrs. Capadose. The story centers on Oliver Lyon, an artist who has won some success over the years and who spots the woman who he was in love with and who turned down his offer of marriage a decade ago--Mrs. Capadose--at a country house one weekend, where Lyon has been commissioned to paint an elderly baronet, Sir David. Mrs. Capadose seems to be very much in love with her husband when Lyon sees her at the country house; Lyon wishes to know if she would have married him had she known he would have had a successful career but she deflects the question, asserting that she is in love with her husband. Lyon gradually realizes that the man whom she adores, the Colonel, is a compulsive liar, who concocts outlandish fibs for no apparent reason. What's even more curious is that Mrs. Capadose, whom Lyon loved for her straightforward honesty and purity, appears to regularly "back" her husband in all of his lies. Lyon is curious now about his former lover: is she attempting to cover up the misery of having made a terrible marriage through a performative lie of her own? Has she been genuinely corrupted by her husband? Lyon wishes to know more. He offers to paint the colonel; secretly he plans to depict his devious character. When Mrs. Capadose walks in one day and peeks at the unfinished portrait she realizes what Lyon has done: she sees her husband cruelly represented and her husband tears the portrait up in a fit of passion. Later on, the colonel lies to Lyon and tells him that it was Geraldine who did it--a model who passed by Lyon's studio asking for work. The colonel suggests she did it out of revenge for being turned down by Lyon. This is the first time one of the colonel's lies is not merely neutral but actually maliciously incriminates an innocent person. Lyon watches to see if his former lover will support his lie, and she does: "he had trained her too well." While the story initially appears to center on the colonel, there's a way in which it is Mrs. Capadose that is the liar at the heart of this story. She is willing to go to any length to prove to her old lover that she did not make a mistake in turning him down and marrying the colonel.
"Paste"
An extremely clever story, and wonderfully arch. Arthur Prime's mother dies, and he gives his cousin, Charlotte, who is a governess, a box of imitation jewels that his mother--Charlotte's aunt--had saved since her days as an actress. The jewels and necklaces are all clearly imitations except for one-- a beautiful string of pearls that Charlotte cant help but noting look real. She notes this to her cousin, but the latter fails to admit their authenticity: to admit that the pearls were real would be to admit that his mother had done something in the past--something scandalous--to deserve them. So Charlotte keeps the jewels. When Charlotte's friend, Mrs. Guy, sees the string of pearls, she is convinced that that they are real. However, this sparks moral qualms in Charlotte, who feels she is obliged to return them. When she next sees her cousin, she tells him that she suspects that the pearls are real; he is insulted, interpreting this as slander against his mother. He takes back the peals, vehemently denying their authenticity. One month later, she finds Mrs. Guy with the string of pearls. She claims she bought it at the pawn shop where Arthur sold it. But by the final sentences, Charlotte has been thoroughly disillusioned, and it is suggested that Mrs. Guy may have actually gotten the pearls in precisely the same kind of scandolous transaction with Arthu that Arthur's mother may have gotten them back in her acting days. The story's comic twist is an example of what happens when James turns to Maupassant or O. Henry--masters of the twist ending--when crafting a story. Maupassant's "The Necklace" and "The Jewels" are certainly in the background.
"Mrs. Medwin"
Mrs. Medwin pairs nicely with "Paste," being another story with a comic twist ending. At the heart of the story is a woman--recently wealthy but socially hopeless--who wishes to break into respectable English society and appeals to Mrs. Cutter--an American woman who makes her living off of introducing unconnected social aspirants into fashionable circles--to help her cause. The difficulty is that one of the most prominent women in the circle Cutter hopes to introduce Medwin into--Lady Wantridge--simply refuses to admit Medwin, whom she deems unacceptable. Around the same time this is going on when Cutter is trying to figure out how to introduce Medwin (for a price), her extremely American and therefore totally uninitiated half-brother Scott Homer shows up at her humble apartment. Medwin tries particularly hard to avoid having Medwin encounter Wantridge in her small parlor but they happen to meet when she is away. Cutter worries that Wantridge will be disusted by Homer, but Cutter appears to have made a miscalculaiton. Lady Wantridge is amused by Homer, as one of the Cutter's "delightful Americans," and rather than immediately rejecting him, "wants" him. Cutter's recognition of this surprising fact serves as an inspiration for a tacit and ingenious strategem she deploys with the help of her brother: she has Homer withhold his presence until Wantridge is willing to tolerate Median's admission to their circle. Cutter draws the line at having Homer admitted to their group; Wantridge, at having Medwin admitted, and so an unspoken exchange (a double bribe) is struck between them. Cutter's "inspiration" and Wantridge's willingness to renounce her supposedly unyielding social principles for even the most passing amusement in the figure if Homer makes this one of James's most subtly acerbic and biting satires of a substantial factions of the British upper classes, who as Homer intuits, are dreadfully empty and starved for life inside.
"The Beast in the Jungle"
Henry James's breathtaking and life-changing story about John Marcher, the man with an ominous sense of something dreadful and unnamable lurking for him in his future--something that will pounce on him like an awful beast in the Jungle. May Bertram keeps him company through the years, vowing to "watch" and wait with him until the immanent denouement of his fate. The tragedy, in the end, the horrible beast, is that he never lived, he never loved May, and, in the idiom of "The Ambassadors," that it's "too late." The queer studies people have reduced this story into a parable of James's repressed homosexuality; that's definitely in the story, but the story is so, so much more. James is concerned with "life" (and its absence) in the broadest sense possible. Queer desire is only a small part of what's renounced in the story; and, biographical dimension aside, it's John's oversight of the possibility of loving May--who waits so patiently for him--that is at the heart of this story in particular. The real treasure of the story, I think, are those endless subtle and foreboding exchanges between John and May.
“Europe”
“Europe” covers a series of trips the worldly narrator makes to the rustic New England household of the puritanical Rimmles, with whom he is related. Among the favorite recollections of the elderly Mrs. Rimmel are those of the traveling she did in Europe when younger. Mrs. Rimmel’s glowing memories of the old world inspire her daughters to see Europe for themselves—an idea that the narrator strongly encourages; however, their trip is repeatedly deferred as a result of Mrs. Rimmel’s waning health. Of the three Rimmel girls, Jane, who the narrator identifies as the slightly rebellious one, goes to Europe and never comes back. Meanwhile the intellectual and promising Becky (who produced a biography of her celebrated father) wilts in the narrow village with her sister. Meanwhile, news comes back from Europe informing the Rimmel’s of great changes in Jane’s personality. The narrator knew that Europe would do her good and “bring her out.” But for Becky, it is too late. She has missed her chance.
“The Alter of the Dead”
This one centers on George Stransom, a man who is getting old and watching most of his friends and loved ones dying. The love of his life, Mary Antrim, has died recently, and he decides to erect, in a little chapel by the cemetery “an altar to the dead,” placing a candle to celebrate to lives of each of his departed dead. He discovers in the chapel a partner in mourning whom he gradually befriends. They grow closer until they suddenly break off their friendship when George discovers that the woman is mourning for his old best friend, Acton Hague, who deeply wronged him many years ago. He finally forgives his friend in the end but dies in the chapel of his private mourning.
“The Real Right Thing”
The story of a writer, George Withermore, who is commissioned to write an authoritative biography of one of his own favorite writers, Ashton Doyne, after the latter’s death. His wife asks him to take on the project and even lets him work in Doyne’s study, where the writer has access to all of the great man’s private papers. He continues writing for several days when he feels he is being visited and prohibited from continuing by Doyne’s ghost. The moral of the story, like that of The Birthright, seems to be that one oughtn’t to pry into the private life of the author.
"The Jolly Corner"
Another masterpiece, which compares in impact only to "The Beast in the Jungle," I think--another story of the "other self." When Spenser Brydon returns to his native New York after several decades in Europe, he proceeds to renovate one of his two properties, which is going to be converted into an apartment building. The other property is his childhood home on "the jolly corner," which he lefts behind at 23 to go to Europe. He's 53 now. These two properties are the source of his income and have been since the death of his family members. He finds he has a particular knack for construction and management (his friend Alice Staverton confirms this). He wonders who he would have been if he had stayed in America and capitalized on his entrepreneurial talents, which he doesn't in Europe. Alice Staverton wonders, too. She is another May-Bertram figure who waits patiently for the narrator to come round to her and love her. But the narrator is more preoccupied with himself in this story. He makes a series of nightly pilgrimages to the old house on the jolly corner during the evening, and one night spots him. So we have the ghost story and the psychological story converging her, as is typical with James. The other self is a piratical-looking tycoon missing two fingers. What's even more eerie: Alice sees precisely the same specter in a dream. Set in the period after the Civil War, in America's gilded age, where vast fortunes were being ruthlessly accumulated by avaricious robber barons and New York City was experiencing a radical change, with towering skyscrapers being built--this story speculates about the very fate and destiny of the United States during this transformative period.
The "liar" of the title is Colonel Capadose, husband of Mrs. Capadose. The story centers on Oliver Lyon, an artist who has won some success over the years and who spots the woman who he was in love with and who turned down his offer of marriage a decade ago--Mrs. Capadose--at a country house one weekend, where Lyon has been commissioned to paint an elderly baronet, Sir David. Mrs. Capadose seems to be very much in love with her husband when Lyon sees her at the country house; Lyon wishes to know if she would have married him had she known he would have had a successful career but she deflects the question, asserting that she is in love with her husband. Lyon gradually realizes that the man whom she adores, the Colonel, is a compulsive liar, who concocts outlandish fibs for no apparent reason. What's even more curious is that Mrs. Capadose, whom Lyon loved for her straightforward honesty and purity, appears to regularly "back" her husband in all of his lies. Lyon is curious now about his former lover: is she attempting to cover up the misery of having made a terrible marriage through a performative lie of her own? Has she been genuinely corrupted by her husband? Lyon wishes to know more. He offers to paint the colonel; secretly he plans to depict his devious character. When Mrs. Capadose walks in one day and peeks at the unfinished portrait she realizes what Lyon has done: she sees her husband cruelly represented and her husband tears the portrait up in a fit of passion. Later on, the colonel lies to Lyon and tells him that it was Geraldine who did it--a model who passed by Lyon's studio asking for work. The colonel suggests she did it out of revenge for being turned down by Lyon. This is the first time one of the colonel's lies is not merely neutral but actually maliciously incriminates an innocent person. Lyon watches to see if his former lover will support his lie, and she does: "he had trained her too well." While the story initially appears to center on the colonel, there's a way in which it is Mrs. Capadose that is the liar at the heart of this story. She is willing to go to any length to prove to her old lover that she did not make a mistake in turning him down and marrying the colonel.
"Paste"
An extremely clever story, and wonderfully arch. Arthur Prime's mother dies, and he gives his cousin, Charlotte, who is a governess, a box of imitation jewels that his mother--Charlotte's aunt--had saved since her days as an actress. The jewels and necklaces are all clearly imitations except for one-- a beautiful string of pearls that Charlotte cant help but noting look real. She notes this to her cousin, but the latter fails to admit their authenticity: to admit that the pearls were real would be to admit that his mother had done something in the past--something scandalous--to deserve them. So Charlotte keeps the jewels. When Charlotte's friend, Mrs. Guy, sees the string of pearls, she is convinced that that they are real. However, this sparks moral qualms in Charlotte, who feels she is obliged to return them. When she next sees her cousin, she tells him that she suspects that the pearls are real; he is insulted, interpreting this as slander against his mother. He takes back the peals, vehemently denying their authenticity. One month later, she finds Mrs. Guy with the string of pearls. She claims she bought it at the pawn shop where Arthur sold it. But by the final sentences, Charlotte has been thoroughly disillusioned, and it is suggested that Mrs. Guy may have actually gotten the pearls in precisely the same kind of scandolous transaction with Arthu that Arthur's mother may have gotten them back in her acting days. The story's comic twist is an example of what happens when James turns to Maupassant or O. Henry--masters of the twist ending--when crafting a story. Maupassant's "The Necklace" and "The Jewels" are certainly in the background.
"Mrs. Medwin"
Mrs. Medwin pairs nicely with "Paste," being another story with a comic twist ending. At the heart of the story is a woman--recently wealthy but socially hopeless--who wishes to break into respectable English society and appeals to Mrs. Cutter--an American woman who makes her living off of introducing unconnected social aspirants into fashionable circles--to help her cause. The difficulty is that one of the most prominent women in the circle Cutter hopes to introduce Medwin into--Lady Wantridge--simply refuses to admit Medwin, whom she deems unacceptable. Around the same time this is going on when Cutter is trying to figure out how to introduce Medwin (for a price), her extremely American and therefore totally uninitiated half-brother Scott Homer shows up at her humble apartment. Medwin tries particularly hard to avoid having Medwin encounter Wantridge in her small parlor but they happen to meet when she is away. Cutter worries that Wantridge will be disusted by Homer, but Cutter appears to have made a miscalculaiton. Lady Wantridge is amused by Homer, as one of the Cutter's "delightful Americans," and rather than immediately rejecting him, "wants" him. Cutter's recognition of this surprising fact serves as an inspiration for a tacit and ingenious strategem she deploys with the help of her brother: she has Homer withhold his presence until Wantridge is willing to tolerate Median's admission to their circle. Cutter draws the line at having Homer admitted to their group; Wantridge, at having Medwin admitted, and so an unspoken exchange (a double bribe) is struck between them. Cutter's "inspiration" and Wantridge's willingness to renounce her supposedly unyielding social principles for even the most passing amusement in the figure if Homer makes this one of James's most subtly acerbic and biting satires of a substantial factions of the British upper classes, who as Homer intuits, are dreadfully empty and starved for life inside.
"The Beast in the Jungle"
Henry James's breathtaking and life-changing story about John Marcher, the man with an ominous sense of something dreadful and unnamable lurking for him in his future--something that will pounce on him like an awful beast in the Jungle. May Bertram keeps him company through the years, vowing to "watch" and wait with him until the immanent denouement of his fate. The tragedy, in the end, the horrible beast, is that he never lived, he never loved May, and, in the idiom of "The Ambassadors," that it's "too late." The queer studies people have reduced this story into a parable of James's repressed homosexuality; that's definitely in the story, but the story is so, so much more. James is concerned with "life" (and its absence) in the broadest sense possible. Queer desire is only a small part of what's renounced in the story; and, biographical dimension aside, it's John's oversight of the possibility of loving May--who waits so patiently for him--that is at the heart of this story in particular. The real treasure of the story, I think, are those endless subtle and foreboding exchanges between John and May.
“Europe”
“Europe” covers a series of trips the worldly narrator makes to the rustic New England household of the puritanical Rimmles, with whom he is related. Among the favorite recollections of the elderly Mrs. Rimmel are those of the traveling she did in Europe when younger. Mrs. Rimmel’s glowing memories of the old world inspire her daughters to see Europe for themselves—an idea that the narrator strongly encourages; however, their trip is repeatedly deferred as a result of Mrs. Rimmel’s waning health. Of the three Rimmel girls, Jane, who the narrator identifies as the slightly rebellious one, goes to Europe and never comes back. Meanwhile the intellectual and promising Becky (who produced a biography of her celebrated father) wilts in the narrow village with her sister. Meanwhile, news comes back from Europe informing the Rimmel’s of great changes in Jane’s personality. The narrator knew that Europe would do her good and “bring her out.” But for Becky, it is too late. She has missed her chance.
“The Alter of the Dead”
This one centers on George Stransom, a man who is getting old and watching most of his friends and loved ones dying. The love of his life, Mary Antrim, has died recently, and he decides to erect, in a little chapel by the cemetery “an altar to the dead,” placing a candle to celebrate to lives of each of his departed dead. He discovers in the chapel a partner in mourning whom he gradually befriends. They grow closer until they suddenly break off their friendship when George discovers that the woman is mourning for his old best friend, Acton Hague, who deeply wronged him many years ago. He finally forgives his friend in the end but dies in the chapel of his private mourning.
“The Real Right Thing”
The story of a writer, George Withermore, who is commissioned to write an authoritative biography of one of his own favorite writers, Ashton Doyne, after the latter’s death. His wife asks him to take on the project and even lets him work in Doyne’s study, where the writer has access to all of the great man’s private papers. He continues writing for several days when he feels he is being visited and prohibited from continuing by Doyne’s ghost. The moral of the story, like that of The Birthright, seems to be that one oughtn’t to pry into the private life of the author.
"The Jolly Corner"
Another masterpiece, which compares in impact only to "The Beast in the Jungle," I think--another story of the "other self." When Spenser Brydon returns to his native New York after several decades in Europe, he proceeds to renovate one of his two properties, which is going to be converted into an apartment building. The other property is his childhood home on "the jolly corner," which he lefts behind at 23 to go to Europe. He's 53 now. These two properties are the source of his income and have been since the death of his family members. He finds he has a particular knack for construction and management (his friend Alice Staverton confirms this). He wonders who he would have been if he had stayed in America and capitalized on his entrepreneurial talents, which he doesn't in Europe. Alice Staverton wonders, too. She is another May-Bertram figure who waits patiently for the narrator to come round to her and love her. But the narrator is more preoccupied with himself in this story. He makes a series of nightly pilgrimages to the old house on the jolly corner during the evening, and one night spots him. So we have the ghost story and the psychological story converging her, as is typical with James. The other self is a piratical-looking tycoon missing two fingers. What's even more eerie: Alice sees precisely the same specter in a dream. Set in the period after the Civil War, in America's gilded age, where vast fortunes were being ruthlessly accumulated by avaricious robber barons and New York City was experiencing a radical change, with towering skyscrapers being built--this story speculates about the very fate and destiny of the United States during this transformative period.
December 4, 2021
¡Qué deleite es leer a James! Cada relato es un desafío, una exhortación al auténtico placer del leer. Lejos de las invectivas de moda, este libro se lee a su propio ritmo, con el temple de la gran literatura.
July 28, 2021
Pequeño dato: Este no es el libro que leí, ese no está disponible jaja pero igual leí 5 relatos de Henry James en la antología En busca de otras imágenes, los cuales son El último de los Valerio, El peregrino apasionado, La lección del maestro, El discípulo y Lo auténtico.
Esta colección de 5 relatos (creo que las calificaría de nouvelles) ha sido alho mágico. Comencé odiando a Henry James por usar un lenguaje tan pulcro que me parecía artificioso, y terminé amando todos los textos en su composición, en sus giros, en la profundidad de sus personajes, en sus monólogos (mi parte favorita en los textos de James) y, sí, en su lenguaje.
Esta colección de 5 relatos (creo que las calificaría de nouvelles) ha sido alho mágico. Comencé odiando a Henry James por usar un lenguaje tan pulcro que me parecía artificioso, y terminé amando todos los textos en su composición, en sus giros, en la profundidad de sus personajes, en sus monólogos (mi parte favorita en los textos de James) y, sí, en su lenguaje.
May 7, 2022
Con elegante maestría Henry James proyecta en este lector lo que él quiere, en función de lo que sus relatos necesitan para que en la lectura se abran encrucijadas, se vislumbren caminos donde apenas un instante atrás no los había, o nos haga caminar un largo sendero sabiendo todo el tiempo a donde conduce, pero bajo la sensación de que cada paso es una tensión a lo desconocido. No hay duda que el conocimiento profundo sobre lo qué hay, o puede haber, en la mente y los miedos, ilusiones, prejuicios y expectativas de las personas marca la obra literaria y escolar de los James, entre la Psicología como ciencia y el misticismo como matriz cultural.
November 24, 2022
PT: 4.45*/5*
Calificación por relatos:
1. El cerco de Londres, 4/5
2. En la jaula 5/5
3. La lección del maestro 5/5
4. Lo real 5/5
5. Sir Dominic Ferrant 4/5
6. La muerte del león 2/5
7. El altar de los muertos 5/5
8. Los amigos de los amigos 4/5
9. Maud-Evelyn 5/5
10. La tercera persona 5/5
11. El banco de la desolación 5/5
NOTAS: El relato El altar de los muertos recuerda mucho a la novela corta del mismo James, Otra vuelta de tuerca; mientras el relato El banco de la desolación me trae a la memoria inexorablemente la novela de F. S. Fritzgerald, El gran Gatsby.
Calificación por relatos:
1. El cerco de Londres, 4/5
2. En la jaula 5/5
3. La lección del maestro 5/5
4. Lo real 5/5
5. Sir Dominic Ferrant 4/5
6. La muerte del león 2/5
7. El altar de los muertos 5/5
8. Los amigos de los amigos 4/5
9. Maud-Evelyn 5/5
10. La tercera persona 5/5
11. El banco de la desolación 5/5
NOTAS: El relato El altar de los muertos recuerda mucho a la novela corta del mismo James, Otra vuelta de tuerca; mientras el relato El banco de la desolación me trae a la memoria inexorablemente la novela de F. S. Fritzgerald, El gran Gatsby.
July 5, 2019
Started by reading”Brooksmith” randomly in an anthology, and kept going from there. I’ve now read all of the novellas and stories in this volume and several others besides. I’m seeing patterns in James’s habits of story construction and in his attitudes towards relationships between and among women and men. Used to dislike James’s verbosity. Got older. Now it works for me.
March 17, 2020
- The siege of London 3'5/5
- In the cage 5/5
- The lesson of the master 4'5/5
- The real thing 4'5/5
- Sir Dominick Ferrand 4/5
- The death of the lion 3'5/5
- The altar of the dead 3'5/5
- The friends of the friends 4'5/5
- Maud-Evelyn 5/5
- The third person 5/5
- The bench of desolation 3'5/5
- In the cage 5/5
- The lesson of the master 4'5/5
- The real thing 4'5/5
- Sir Dominick Ferrand 4/5
- The death of the lion 3'5/5
- The altar of the dead 3'5/5
- The friends of the friends 4'5/5
- Maud-Evelyn 5/5
- The third person 5/5
- The bench of desolation 3'5/5
November 28, 2017
«Relatos» de Henry James (3/5)
Relatos extensos, algunos excesivos. Al autor le ganan la verborrea, los símiles y la digresión. Pero el estilo es agradable de leer. Flota un aire de melancolía atenuada apenas con bien medidas dosis de humor. Recomendable para una lectura paciente.
27.11.17
Relatos extensos, algunos excesivos. Al autor le ganan la verborrea, los símiles y la digresión. Pero el estilo es agradable de leer. Flota un aire de melancolía atenuada apenas con bien medidas dosis de humor. Recomendable para una lectura paciente.
27.11.17
December 6, 2017
I started this book thinking I would only read the 9 short stories (2 of them -- Daisy Miller and The Aspern Papers -- novellas), and save the critical essays for another time. But I ended up reading the entire volume, including Henry James's The Art of Fiction.
August 21, 2019
I just love this author so much
Read
October 21, 2019The Aspern Papers, The Pupil, The Art of Fiction and some rather weird criticism at the end
March 23, 2021
Dry and redundant.
November 18, 2021
A great book to travel with
April 14, 2007
Henry James is probably a good deal better than I give him credit for, but I really only like him when I'm in academic mode. The rest of the time, he's interesting but he really dries me out.
Hilariously, Wikipedia suggests that William Faulker once called James "the nicest old lady I ever met". Yes. Henry James may have been somewhat revolutionary in technique for the time, but not morally enough so for my liking. In that sense, his writing is trapped in a grey room with no doors. His writing is like his Queen Victoria-like photos.
This Norton edition doesn't help at all with that - although it's very densely packed with some of his best work, the pages are tall and the type is small - which makes progress always seem interminably difficult, like pulling a plough through an empty carpark.
What's up with my imagery? Grey rooms and carparks.
Hilariously, Wikipedia suggests that William Faulker once called James "the nicest old lady I ever met". Yes. Henry James may have been somewhat revolutionary in technique for the time, but not morally enough so for my liking. In that sense, his writing is trapped in a grey room with no doors. His writing is like his Queen Victoria-like photos.
This Norton edition doesn't help at all with that - although it's very densely packed with some of his best work, the pages are tall and the type is small - which makes progress always seem interminably difficult, like pulling a plough through an empty carpark.
What's up with my imagery? Grey rooms and carparks.
April 17, 2015
I read two of the stories in this collection, and over all feel mixed about James' work. On the one hand, The Beast in the Jungle was rather interesting. There was a nice creepiness to it, and I enjoyed seeing the two main characters develop. It was in some ways a standard story of what happens when you try to mess with fate, but it was still a good one. In the Cage, on the other hand, was rather dull and uninteresting to me. The conceit had the potential to be nice, but I didn't really like any of the characters, and not much actually happened. All in all, I think these two stories were sufficient, and while I may some day end up reading more of James' work, I have no real desire to do so right now.
February 20, 2016
I have to admit, I only read the stories in here, not the critical essays in the back. This was my first experience with James at all, and I thoroughly enjoyed his writing style. It was elongated and detailed. I also admired his wit, and his subtlety in metaphor and meaning. However at the same time, sometimes it seems he'd get a bit off topic with these sentences, which is why I feel that 5 stars would be too much for this. Overall, really enjoyable stories. I particularly liked The Beast in the Jungle.
June 26, 2007
I knew nothing about Henry James before I read his short stories for a class. When I read them, I LOVED them. They're fun and personal (lots of stories about people's lives, loves, and regrets), and some are haunting (e.g. "The Beast in the Jungle").
September 19, 2009
A great collection of short fiction. "The Real Thing", "The Pupil", and "The Beast in the Jungle" are my favorites.
November 8, 2009
I didn't realize until this course that I actually love Henry James. :) His stories are pretty incredible. "The Beast in the Jungle" in my favorite.
January 19, 2012
Didn't read all of the stories, but from what I read pretty good. By no means James masterpieces, but a mediocre James is still worth a read. Not as dense as Portrait by far.
June 15, 2012
All of us, let's hail to the king of Fiction.
February 6, 2014
Not exactly easy reading. James goes a little overboard in trying to emulate continental European short fiction, but it's still definitely worth the read.
June 3, 2014
I really, really want to understand this better; but god, it's amazing how well James can write a sentence (and an entire short story) without depicting more than a curious smudge.
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