Henry James
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The Beast in the Jungle is one of James' finest short novels touching upon such universal themes as loneliness, fate, love and death. The story can be interpreted as a confession or parable about James' own life. He never married and possibly never experienced a consummated sexual relationship. Although he did enjoy a thorough experience of aesthetic creativity, it is possible that he still regretted what he called the essential loneliness of his...
2) Confidence
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This early work by Henry James was originally published in 1879 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. Henry James was born in New York City in 1843. One of thirteen children, James had an unorthodox early education, switching between schools, private tutors and private reading.. James published his first story, 'A Tragedy of Error', in the Continental Monthly in 1864, when he was twenty years old. In 1876, he emigrated...
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"The Coxon Fund" is an 1894 short story by Henry James. Frank Saltram is a man who apparently has a towering intellect, but one that manifests itself only in sparkling table-talk. He has a real and powerful gift to delight with his conversation, particularly when intoxicated, but other than conversation he produces nothing. Saltram also recognizes no obligations or duties, is ungrateful and utterly unreliable, and is apparently prone to immoral acts....
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Though American literary master Henry James was an ardent proponent of realistic story elements that readers could relate to, many of his works also deal with the question of perception and how our senses and beliefs can influence the way we see the world. It's a running theme in the four short stories collected in James' Embarrassments.
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The Figure in the Carpet by Henry James
"The Figure in the Carpet" is a short story published in 1896 in London, by American writer Henry James. The short story is usually referred to as a novella and is told in the first person. The narrator, whose name is never revealed, meets his favorite author and becomes obsessed with discovering the secret meaning or intention within all the author's works. The narrator, a writer for a literary newspaper,...
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This early work by Henry James was originally published in 1884 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. Henry James was born in New York City in 1843. One of thirteen children, James had an unorthodox early education, switching between schools, private tutors and private reading.. James published his first story, 'A Tragedy of Error', in the Continental Monthly in 1864, when he was twenty years old. In 1876, he emigrated...
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A Bundle of Letters is a comic short story by Henry James, originally published in The Parisian magazine in 1879, which is also when the story takes place. The story is one of James' few ventures into epistolary fiction. As he did so often, especially in the early stages of his career, James made the tale part of his international theme: his letter-writers represent a number of different countries. Although some of the characters look like well-worn...
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One of Henry James' specialties is the longish short story that delves into philosophical questions via detailed character studies, and Eugene Pickering is a perfect example of this. In it, James compares and contrasts two archetypes: a bookish scholar who has remained largely sheltered for most of his life and a streetwise "doer" who is deeply engaged with the world around him. Which of these approaches represents the best way to live?
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In this lesser known classic James explores in miniature the themes of his major fiction, enlivened by a characteristically keen eye for character and a wry appreciation of both pretension and the absurd Blackport-on-Dwindle- "all granite, fog, and female fiction"- has been the Gedges' dull domain for some years. They leap, therefore, at the invitation to become the live-in guardians of the birthplace of their nation's literary hero. Anticipating...
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The Diary of a Man of Fifty first appeared in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine and Macmillan’s Magazine for July 1879. Returning to Florence after 25 years of military service, a man finds himself haunted by memories of a thwarted love affair that took place on the banks of the Arno during his youth. On inquiring after the erstwhile object of his affections, he encounters a young man in amorous pursuit of her daughter. Eager to spare his young friend...
11) The Path of Duty
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This wickedly ironic story is shorter than most of James's tales. It concerns three English aristocrats and an unnamed female narrator who is herself a target of the irony. Ambrose Tester is in love with Lady Vandeleur, a married woman as the story opens. Conveniently for the plot, however, her husband soon dies and Ambrose has a decision to make. Should he marry the woman he loves or Jocelind, whom he does not love but has gotten himself engaged...
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The Death of the Lion is an 1894 short story by Henry James. The narrator suggests writing an article on Neil Paraday; his new editor agrees. The former spends a week with Neil and writes the article whilst there, alongside reading Paraday's latest book. His editor rejects the article however; he decides to write an article for another newspaper, but it goes unnoticed. Neil Paraday gets excited about writing another book, despite the fact that he...
13) The Pupil
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The Pupil is a short story by Henry James, first published in Longman's Magazine in 1891. It is the emotional story of a precocious young boy growing up in a mendacious and dishonourable family. He befriends his tutor, who is the only adult in his life that he can trust. James presents their relationship with sympathy and insight, and the story reaches what some would consider the status of classical tragedy.
14) The Private Life
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Excerpt: "We talked of London, face to face with a great bristling, primeval glacier. The hour and the scene were one of those impressions which make up a little, in Switzerland, for the modern indignity of travel-the promiscuities and vulgarities, the station and the hotel, the gregarious patience, the struggle for a scrappy attention, the reduction to a numbered state. The high valley was pink with the mountain rose, the cool air as fresh as if...
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The Lesson of the Master is a novella written by Henry James, originally published in 1888. The novella tells the story of a young writer, Paul Overt, who meets Henry St. George, a famous novelist Overt admires. During that time, Overt also meets and falls in love with Marian Fancourt, a young woman who admires both St. George's and Overt's work. During their meetings, St. George, who is married, advises Overt against getting married and having children,...
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Henry James wrote a number of stories about art, artists, their achievements, and their reputations – both whilst alive and after their death. The Madonna of the Future is about a would be artist. Theobald has an enormous reverence for the world of Art, and Italian Renaissance painters in particular. He is well informed about the history and the technical details of what they have produced...
18) Pandora
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Many of Henry James' most acclaimed works of fiction are set at the intersection between European and American culture. The novella Pandora takes its tension from the differences between the Old World and the New—as well as the surprising similarities between the two realms. Free-spirited American Pandora Day crosses paths with the reserved Count Vogelstein, and the two learn a great deal about their respective countries and worldviews.
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The Golden Bowl is a 1904 novel by Henry James. Set in England, this complex, intense study of marriage and adultery completes what some critics have called the "major phase" of James' career. The Golden Bowl explores the tangle of interrelationships between a father and daughter and their respective spouses. The novel focuses deeply and almost exclusively on the consciousness of the central characters, with sometimes obsessive detail but also with...
20) The Chaperon
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What can a girl to do when London society has convicted her mother of a dreadful sin and has ostracized her? If blood is thicker than water, the daughter must remain loyal to her parent surely, how far will it affect her own standing in society (and most important, of course) in the marriage market that is controlled by that society?
