Henry James – Selected Letters (Paper) - Softcover

James, H

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0674387945 ISBN 13: 9780674387942

Publisher: Harvard University Press, 1990

Synopsis

Gathers letters James wrote to his friends, family, and fellow writers in the U.S., Europe, and England

About this title

Review

Richly rewarding to all readers who wish to understand the complexities of James's personality and the deep, often austere dedication to his art. The letters are avid, irrepressible, by turns mocking and rhapsodic, shifting in style from the ornate to the vernacular, punctuated by parodies of high-flown romances and sketches of local scenes and characters. From the first letters there is evidence of James's painterly art, his feelings for colors and textures, for shapes and tastes, for the blend of impressions physical and psychological that foreshadowed his novels. One follows them with the fascination that attends the development of genius made visible. Whether humorous, angry or depressed, whether sending brief businesslike notes to his publishers or spinning out his gorgeous phrases for friends such as Edith Wharton or Henry Adams, James is always James--a writer who lived almost exclusively in the exercise of his supreme artistic gifts. -- Greg Johnson "Plain Dealer" In style, James's letters are like those described in one of his stories: "natural, witty, vivid, playing with the idlest and lightest hand up and down the whole scale..."The acuteness of the novelist's eye and ear is everywhere apparent. We grow so used to his sharp eye and muffled heart that the occasional bursts of strong feeling startle and move us. -- Joseph Coates "Chicago Tribune" The letters provide a rich, fascinating record of James' genius for friendship, his affection, his wit, his crowded, pleasant life. In their precise observations of the personalities and works of the most famous artists, actors, statesmen and writers of the period...they provide a wonderful record of the intellectual and social life of his time. -- Richard E. Nicholls "The Philadelphia Inquirer" This splendid new collection of letters makes it easier than ever before to feel the superabundant intelligence, passion and variety of James's intense personal life...James has an immense capacity for friendship and a voracious appetite for social experience. The array of famous men and women who appear in these letters suggests some historical pageant...In Paris, James meets Flaubert, Zola, Maupassant and Turgenev. In London he visits George Eliot ("magnificently ugly--deliciously hideous ...behold me literally in love with this great horse-faced blue-stocking") and sees Ruskin, William Morris, Rossetti and Trollope...One finishes this collection with ever more affection and curiosity about this great American writer and altogether remarkable soul. -- Richard Locke "Wall Street Journal"

About the Author

Henry James was born the son of a religious philosopher in New York City in 1843. His famous works include The Portrait of a Lady, Washington Square, Daisy Miller, and The Turn of the Screw. He died in London in 1916, and is buried in the family plot in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Among his many accomplishments over some forty years devoted to James scholarship, Leon Edel was the author of the monumental five-volume "Life of Henry James", which won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. He was Citizens Professor of English at the University of Hawai i.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Publication date: 1990
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0674387945
• ISBN 13: 9780674387942
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 448