James Henry: 1258 books

One of James' best-known and most acclaimed longer tales, The Aspern Papers is based on an anecdote that James heard about a Shelley devotee who tried to obtain some valuable letters written by the poet. Set in a brilliantly described Venice, The Aspern Papers demonstrates James' ability to...

In this thoughtful collection of essays, published in 1893, James offers his critique on the art of illustration as he pens incisive profiles of several artists. The work is best known for James’s influential essay on John Singer Sargent, whose art work James found “astonishing,” and for his revealing...

What Maisie Knew (1897) represents one of James's finest reflections on the rites of passage from wonder to knowledge, and the question of their finality. The child of violently divorced parents, Maisie Farange opens her eyes on a distinctly modern world. Mothers and fathers keep changing their partners...

'an inscrutable combination of audacity and innocence' Young Daisy Miller perplexes, amuses, and charms her stiff but susceptible fellow-American, Frederick Winterbourne. Is she innocent or corrupt? Has he lived too long in Europe to judge her properly? Amid the romantic scenery of Lake Geneva and...

In un'atmosfera tesa e allucinante, misteriosa e ambigua, James realizza con grande maestria una delle sue opere più riuscite. Solo in apparenza una storia di fantasmi, Il giro di vite organizza e lega al suo interno una notevole quantità di temi. Asse privilegiato del racconto è però la ripetizione:...

Originally serialised in the Atlantic Monthly between 1889 and 1890, before being published in book form later in the year, The Tragic Muse was James' last full novel before his doomed foray into writing for the stage. The plot also hinges on dramatic leanings, with Miriam Rooth, a young and by all accounts...

*** Original and Unabridged Content. Made available by GOLDEN CLASSIC PRESS*** Synopsis: 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...

The Portrait of a Lady is the story of a spirited young American woman, Isabel Archer, who "affronts her destiny" and finds it overwhelming. She inherits a large amount of money and subsequently becomes the victim of Machiavellian scheming by two American expatriates. Like many of James' novels,...

Musaicum Books presents to you this unique collection, designed and formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices. Frankenstein The Orphan of the Rhine Nightmare Abbey The Tell-Tale Heart The Fall of the House of Usher The Cask of Amontillado The Masque of...

'There's no baseness I wouldn't commit for Jeffrey Aspern's sake.' The poet Aspern, long since dead, has left behind some private papers. They are jealously guarded by an old lady, once his mistress and muse, a recluse in an old palazzo in Venice, tended by her ingenuous niece. A predatory critic...

In this classic 1888 novella, an anonymous narrator relates his obsessive quest to acquire some letters and other private documents that once belonged to the deceased Romantic poet Jeffrey Aspern. Attempting to gain access to the papers, the property of Aspern's former mistress, he rents a room in...

*** Original and Unabridged Content. Made available by GOLDEN CLASSIC PRESS*** Synopsis: 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...

First published in 1884, and revised substantially in 1900, A Little Tour in France recounts James's six-week tour of provincial France—as he notes "France may be Paris, but Paris is not France." Urbane, witty, knowledgeable, James is a charming tour guide as he leads readers from Touraine to Provence, and thence north again to Burgundy.

Though best known as a novelist, James also wrote non-fiction, including this controversial 1907 account of his 1905-06 American tour.  By 1905 he had lived in England for twenty-five years, and it is as a returning expatriate that James views the country of his birth—and finds much to criticize in its embrace of crass materialism.