Henry James ( 1843—1916)James is one of the great figures of transatlantic

literature.Father of American “psychological realism”.Novelist, Story Writer,

Playwright, Essayist, Literary Critic.

3 Life experience 1843, born in N. Y. City into a wealthy family.

In youth, shuttled back and forth between Europe and America, thus received
unsystematic but broadly based education., studied in Harvard Law
School.After 1866, lived in Europe much of the time.1876, moved permanently
to England.1885, The Art of Fiction (with W. Besant)1915, became a British
subject.1916, received the Order of Merit on his deathbed.

4 Literary Career First stage: international theme.

Works : The American (1877) ; Daisy Miller (1878) and The Portrait of a Lady
(1881).Second stage: experimented with various subjects and forms., three
novels in the naturalistic mode., turned to three dominant subjects: troubled
writers and artists, ghosts and apparitions, doomed or threatened children and
adolescents. The Turn of the Screw (1898)., seven plays without success.

5 Third stagereturned to his international themes and produced the complex

and profound novels: The Ambassadors (1903), and The Golden Bowl (1904).

6 Major Works Daisy Miller

The essence of the novella is the relationship which develops between the
young, cosmopolitan expatriate and the pretty, naïve, and willful girl.Shows the
author’s interest in the conflict between the free and easy American manners
and the rigidly prescribed rules ofEuropean behaviors.

7 The Portrait of a LadyMajor theme: free choice is limited by circumstances

and character. Man has to be responsible for his choice.Minor theme: the
innocent American in conflict with a sophisticated European society.

8 Point of ViewThree themes: international theme; the theme of the artist in

conflict with society; and the theme of the pilgrim in search of society.Two
dominant images:1. the innocent: the natural good ones.2. the international
theme: the complex relationships between naive Americans and cosmopolitan
Europeans.

9 Style To James, the novel is a form perfect in itself.

Founder of psychological realism with a belief that reality lies in the
impressions made by life on the spectator. More interested in significant ideas
and forms.There is always “central consciousness” or “limited point of view” in
a Jamesian novel.James has an abstract bent of mind and his style is apt to be
verbose.Jamesian novel is always organic, all parts being in a relation to the
whole.
10 significanceJames was the first American novelist to bring to the form a
sense of artistic vocation comparable to Flaubert’s.He refined the novelistic
art, purified it, and gave it directions never thought of before his time.Four
areas of emphasis have especially attracted scholars in their attempts to
isolate the essential contributions to the art of fiction with which James can
be credited: point of view, psychological realism, style, and the connection of
moral and aesthetic values.