Henry James
Young Londoners Kate and Merton are engaged, but have no money to marry on. When the wealthy but terminally ill American heiress Milly arrives in London, Kate schemes for a way to inherit her fortune. But when Kate achieves all she had hoped for, she finds that the money and the gentle, beautiful Milly have changed everything.
4) Hawthorne
Though Henry James is best remembered as a titan of nineteenth-century American literature and an important innovator in the domain of literary realism, he was also a key figure in the literary criticism of the period and helped to shape the era's critical sensibility. In this fascinating volume, James focuses his critical lens on Nathaniel Hawthorne, his creative forebear, who many regard as one of James' only true literary equals in the American
...Like many of Henry James' tales, A Passionate Pilgrim plays on tensions between American and European culture. Two Americans living in England attempt to secure a contested inheritance before one of the pair, the destitute and terminally ill Clement Searle, finally succumbs to his illness.
A down-on-his-luck writer makes an impulsive decision to buy a secondhand desk, and in its nooks and crannies, he finds a cache of secret documents that contain explosive secrets that could besmirch the legacy of a prominent politician. Will he leverage his findings to make an easy buck?
10) The Bostonians
First published in 1886, The Bostonians is one of James' wittiest social satires. It begins with the arrival in Boston of Basil Ransom, in search of a career. The book turns on the relationship between Ransom, a conservative civil war veteran, his feminist cousin Olive Chancellor, and Verena Tarrant, a newcomer to their circle whose affections are sought by both Olive and Basil.
James' ambivalence towards the reformist movement is made
...The Golden Bowl is an intense, involved study of marriage, adultery and family ties. The central characters are a man and his daughter and James delves into their consciousness to explore the complexity of their relationship to each other and their respective spouses. The novel is often considered the completion of the "major phase" of James' career.
12) The Sacred Fount
If you associate Henry James with nothing but fussy, mannered drawing-room dramas, the novel The Sacred Fount will come as a pleasant surprise. During the course of what should be a relaxing weekend getaway in the country, the narrator begins to sense that something is amiss. The first clue comes in a series of ever-so-slight shifts in the personalities and behaviors of his fellow guests. Is it all in his head, or has he stumbled across
...13) The Path of Duty
In this tale from the master of subtle psychological insight, American writer Henry James, the narrator tells a story about a pair of star-crossed lovers who never find a way to make their ill-fated relationship work — and who punish everyone around them by constantly harping on the failed romance.
14) The Marriages
In the work of renowned American fiction writer Henry James, romantic relationships are often complicated by issues of finances and social standing. Those problems definitely surface in the tale "The Marriages," in which a widow and widower's shot at love is destroyed beyond repair by a vengeful, paranoid daughter.
15) The Jolly Corner
This finely crafted novella from fiction master Henry James combines several themes from James' body of work: the clash of cultures between Europe and America, an uncanny encounter with a doppelganger, and a pervasive sense of unease and ambiguity. After living abroad for decades, American Spencer Brydon returns to his native New York to take care of some business dealings, but he soon succumbs to an obsessive preoccupation with his past life.
16) In the Cage
Long recognized as one of the most refined and insightful American writers of the nineteenth century, Henry James turns his keen powers of perception and observation to the case of a London telegraph operator in the novella In the Cage. Over time, the operator becomes adept at inferring personal details from customers' messages and develops an unhealthy interest in the quotidian lives of those she serves. A masterpiece of psychological subtlety,
...Henry James' short story The Diary of a Man of Fifty is a moving and thought-provoking meditation on aging and coming to terms with one's past. The narrator pays a return visit to Italy, where he spent some time many years before, and revisits memories of an ultimately doomed love affair, some painful and some enriching.
The Portrait of a Lady is perhaps Henry James' greatest novel. It tells the story of Isabel Archer, a young American heiress who "affronts her destiny". Dealing with one of James' recurrent themes, the American in Europe, and the differences between the two cultures, The Portrait of a Lady is a tale of the conspiracy to separate Isabel from her fortune and the value of autonomy and accountability.
19) The Europeans
Henry James, the nineteenth-century American writer who was lauded for his skill with insightful, elegantly styled prose, was fascinated by the differences between Americans and their European counterparts. This theme was a feature of many of his works, including the novella The Europeans. In this text, James takes a comic approach to highlighting the stark contrasts between the two cultures.
20) The American
The American by renowned novelist Henry James offers readers a fascinating glimpse into the differences—and, though less pronounced—the similarities between American culture and European culture. Regarded as one of the most important American writers of his era, James' deft juxtaposition of these two cultural traditions—set against the backdrop of a subtly nuanced love story—will delight fans of literary fiction.