"For other novelists the value of Henry James's Notebooks is immense and to brood over them a major experience. The glow of the great impresario is on the pages. They are occasionally readable and endlessly stimulating, often moving and are ocasionally relieved by a drop of gossip."-V. S. Pritchett, New Statesman
"The Notebooks take us into his study, and here we can observe him, at last, in the very act of creation at his writing table."-Leon Edel, Atlantic Monthly
"A document of prime importance."-Edmund Wilson, New Yorker

A young governess is sent to a great country house to care for two orphaned children. At first Flora and Miles seem to be model pupils but gradually the governess begins to suspect that something is very wrong with them. As she sets out to uncover the corrupt secrets hidden in the house, she is increasingly convinced that something evil is watching her. Several other of Henry James s most gruesome horror stories are also included, among them "The Jolly Corner, Owen Wingrave, The Private Life, The Real Right Thing," and "Sir Edmund Orme.""

Isabel Archer's main aim in life is to protect her independence. She is not interested in settling down and compromising her freedom for the sake of marriage. However, on a trip around Europe with her aunt, she finds herself captivated by the charming Gilbert Osmond, who is very interested in the idea of adding Isabel to his collection of beautiful artworks...

Christopher Newman, a 'self-made' American millionaire in France, falls in love with the beautiful aristocratic Claire de Bellegarde. Her family, however, taken aback by his brash American manner, rejects his proposal of marriage. When Newman discovers a guilty secret in the Bellegardes' past, he confronts a moral dilemma: Should he expose them and thus gain his revenge? James's masterly early work is at once a social comedy, a melodramatic romance and a realistic novel of manners.
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Henry James conceived the character of Hyacinth Robinson his 'little presumptuous adventurer with his combination of intrinsic fineness and fortuitous adversity' while walking the streets of London. Brought up in poverty, Hyacinth has nevertheless developed aesthetic tastes that heighten his awareness of the sordid misery around him. He is drawn into the secret world of revolutionary politics and, in a moment of fervour, makes a vow that he will assassinate a major political figure. Soon after this he meets the beautiful Princess Casamassima. Captivated by her world of wealth and nobility,...