Subject Area: English

Henry James is famous for bringing the English novel to an unprecedented pitch of technical sophistication and for creating some of the most vivid and enduring characters in our literature. The novel, however, was only one aspect of James’s astonishingly versatile achievement. This sustained author study will take in the full spectrum of James’s writing: alongside James the canonical novelist, we will read James the pathbreaking literary critic and theorist, James the master of the short story, and James the acute travel writer. We will situate James’s career in time and space, exploring a transitional period in the history of English literature and charting the profound impact of European places on the imagination of this expatriate American.