About the Book
Encompassing a period of almost fifty years, the stories of Henry James represent the most remarkable feat of sustained literary creation in modern times. For sheer richness, variety and intensity, they have no equal in fiction, enabling us to trace the evolution of a great writer in the finest detail. This collection reprints all the major stories together with many unfamiliar but equally intriguing pieces that illuminate their more celebrated companions.
Volume 2 takes us from "The Private Life" of 1892 to James's last story, "A Round of Visits," published in 1910. These are the magnificent works of James's maturity--"The Death of the Lion," "The Altar of the Dead," "The Figure in the Carpet," "The Turn of the Screw," "In the Cage," "The Beast in the Jungle," and many others--in which the deepening darkness of the author's life casts a tragic but heroic shadow on the themes of his youth. Contents of Volume 2 The Private Life
The Real Thing
Owen Wingrave
The Middle Years
The Death of the Lion
The Coxon Fund
The Next Time
The Altar of the Dead
The Figure in the Carpet
The Turn of the Screw
In the Cage
The Real Right Thing
The Great Good Place
Miss Gunton of Poughkeepsie
The Abasement of the Northmores
The Special Type
The Tone of Time
The Two Faces
The Beldonald Holbein
The Story in It
Flickerbridge
The Beast in the Jungle
The Papers
Fordham Castle
Julia Bride
The Jolly Corner
Crapy Cornelia
The Bench of Desolation
A Round of Visits
About the Author: Henry James was born on April 15, 1843, on Washington Place in New York to the most intellectually remarkable of American families. His father, Henry James Sr., was a brilliant and eccentric religious philosopher; his brother was one of the first great American psychologists and the author of the influential Pragmatism; his sister, Alice, though an invalid for most of her life, was a talented conversationalist, a lively letter writer, and a witty observer of the art and politics of her time.
In search of the proper education for his children, Henry senior sent them to schools in America, France, Germany, and Switzerland. Returning to America, Henry junior lived in Newport, briefly attended Harvard Law School, and in 1864 began contributing stories and book reviews to magazines. Two more trips to Europe led to his final decision to settle there, first in Paris in 1875, then in London next year.
James's first major novel,
Roderick Hudson, appeared in 1875, but it was
Daisy Miller (1878) that brought him international fame as the chronicler of American expatriates and their European adventures. His novels include
The American (1877),
Washington Square (1880),
Princess Casamassima (1886), and the three late masterpieces,
The Wings of the Dove (1902),
The Ambassadors (1903) and
The Golden Bowl (1904). He also wrote plays, criticism, autobiography, travel books (including
The American Scene, 1907) and some of the finest short stories in the English language.
His later works were little read during his lifetime but have since come to be recognized as forerunners of literary modernism. Upon the outbreak of World War I, James threw his energies into war relief work and decided to adopt British citizenship. One month before his death in 1916, he received the Order of Merit from King George V.
