The Beast in the Jungle is a 1903 novella by Henry James. Almost universally considered one of James' finest short narratives, this story treats appropriately universal themes: loneliness, fate, love and death. John Marcher, the protagonist, is reacquainted with May Bartram, a woman he knew ten years earlier, who remembers his odd secret: Marcher is seized with the belief that his life is to be defined by some catastrophic or spectacular event, lying in wait for him like a "beast in the jungle." May decides to buy a house in London with the money she inherited from a great aunt, and to spend...
The Beast in the Jungle is a 1903 novella by Henry James. Almost universally considered one of James' finest short narratives, this story treats appro...
Daisy Miller is a novella by Henry James. It portrays the courtship of the beautiful American girl Daisy Miller by Winterbourne, a sophisticated compatriot of hers. His pursuit of her is hampered by her own flirtatiousness, which is frowned upon by the other expatriates when they meet in Switzerland and Italy. This novella serves as both a psychological description of the mind of a young woman, and as an analysis of the traditional views of a society where she is a clear outsider. Henry James uses Daisy's story to discuss what he thinks Europeans and Americans believe about each other, and...
Daisy Miller is a novella by Henry James. It portrays the courtship of the beautiful American girl Daisy Miller by Winterbourne, a sophisticated compa...
James contributed significantly to literary criticism, particularly in his insistence that writers be allowed the greatest possible freedom in presenting their view of the world. James claimed that a text must first and foremost be realistic and contain a representation of life that is recognisable to its readers. Good novels, to James, show life in action and are, most importantly, interesting. Extract: I had done a few things and earned a few pence--I had perhaps even had time to begin to think I was finer than was perceived by the patronising; but when I take the little measure of my...
James contributed significantly to literary criticism, particularly in his insistence that writers be allowed the greatest possible freedom in present...
The Jolly Corner by Henry James. "The Jolly Corner" is a short story by Henry James published first in the magazine The English Review of December, 1908. One of James' most noted ghost stories, "The Jolly Corner" describes the adventures of Spencer Brydon as he prowls the now-empty New York house where he grew up. He encounters a "sensation more complex than had ever before found itself consistent with sanity."
The Jolly Corner by Henry James. "The Jolly Corner" is a short story by Henry James published first in the magazine The English Review of December, 19...
Glasses by Henry James. The anonymous narrator, a bachelor artist, visits Folkestone and sees a young woman with an astonishly beautiful face. From a friend, the widowed Mrs Meldrum who has to wear disfiguring glasses, he learns that she is Flora Saunt, an orphan. She has an admirer in Lord Iffield, heir to a country estate but not very bright. Another admirer, also well off, is Geoffrey Dawling, who is intelligent and sympathetic but not good looking. Flora agrees to sit for a portrait by the narrator, who discovers that, having little money or brain, her only goal in life is to acquire a...
Glasses by Henry James. The anonymous narrator, a bachelor artist, visits Folkestone and sees a young woman with an astonishly beautiful face. From a ...
The Path of Duty first appeared in magazine form in The English Illustrated Magazine in December 1884, which had been established the year previously by Macmillan to create a publication with high production values and illustrations appealing to the artistic market. The story was later reprinted in a three volume collection of James's stories in 1885. This story is a variation on the theme of fear of marriage or burden of inheritance - both of which are very deeply buried seams in the sub-stratum of homo-eroticism which runs through much of James's work.
The Path of Duty first appeared in magazine form in The English Illustrated Magazine in December 1884, which had been established the year previously ...
The Aspern Papers is a novella written by Henry James, originally published in The Atlantic Monthly in 1888, with its first book publication later in the same year. One of James's best-known and most acclaimed longer tales, The Aspern Papers is based on the letters Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote to Mary Shelley's stepsister, Claire Clairmont, who saved them until she died. Set in Venice, The Aspern Papers demonstrates James's ability to generate suspense while never neglecting the development of his characters. James (a very private man) examines the conflicts involved when a biographer seeks to...
The Aspern Papers is a novella written by Henry James, originally published in The Atlantic Monthly in 1888, with its first book publication later in ...