Introduction / by R.W.B. Lewis -- The turn of the screw -- Washington Square -- Daisy Miller : a study -- The beast in the jungle -- The jolly corner.
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 Jane Sr., was a brilliant and eccentric religious
philosopher; his brother was 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 shot 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.
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