Henry James

Kate Croy and her lover scheme to extort money from a naive and trusting American heiress who is dying.

A rich American art-collector & his daughter Maggie buy in for themselves & to their greater glory a beautiful young wife & a noble husband. They do not know that Charlotte & Prince Amerigo were formerly lovers, nor that on the eve of the Prince's marriage they had discovered, in an antique shop, a golden bowl with a secret flaw.

An innocent young girl who is caught between her divorced parents attempts to understand life and its injustices. Shuttled between her parents, who value her only as a means for provoking each other, Maisie is drawn into an entangled adult world of intrigue and sexual betrayal.

Assuming a false name, an American editor and critic travels to Venice, and insinuates himself as a lodger into the palace belonging to Juliana Bordereau. He believes that Juliana possesses papers and poems written to her by the long-dead poet Jeffrey Aspern, and while these papers have a monetary value, they also represent a great deal more to the narrator. Juliana is now an elderly lady who lives in "obscurity" with her spinster niece, Tita. Officially,...

"The Tragic Muse," although loved by James admirers, hasn't reached the same level of acclaim as some of his earlier novels. The charming and witty story of two would-be artists, both looking for inspiration in spite of society's emphasis on material success, is a provocative look at the role of the artist in society. Nick Dormer, an aspiring painter, must decide whether or not to fulfill his family legacy in British politics with the help of his...

This terse and startling novel is the story of a struggle for possession and of its devastating consequences. Three women seek to secure the affections of one man, while he, in turn, tries to satisfy them all. But in the middle of this contest of wills stands his unwitting and vulnerable young daughter. The conclusion of The Other House makes it one of the most disturbing and memorable of Henry James's depictions of the uncontrollable passions that...

Partial Portraits is a book of literary criticism by Henry James published in 1888. The book collected essays that James had written over the preceding decade, mostly on English and American writers. But the book also offered treatments of Alphonse Daudet, Guy de Maupassant and Ivan Turgenev.

"The Spoils of Poynton" is the tale of the widow Adela Gereth, an iron-willed woman of impeccable taste, and her conflicts with her son Owen over the antique furniture and art in the family home of Poynton. Told from the perspective of Fleda Vetch, a young woman caught between her love for Owen, who is engaged to another, and her concern for Mrs. Gereth. Originally serialized in "The Atlantic Monthly" in 1896 "The Spoils of Poynton" is ultimately...

James's subtle mastery of the art of fiction is nowhere more evident than in "The Beast in the Jungle," regarded by many as his greatest achievement in short fiction, a gripping portrait of a man alienated from life and love. The author's uncanny ability to communicate the inner lives of his characters is also richly evident in "The Jolly Corner" and "The Altar of the Dead," two superbly crafted tales that explore the complex interlacings of loss,...

Those whose palates are accustomed to the subtle flavours of the wines of the Rhine and Moselle can smack their lips and name the vintage at the first taste. Likewise any one fairly familiar with the work of Mr. James during his forty years of literary activity can, after the reading of a single page taken at random, judge with a remarkable accuracy the date of its composition. Yet the transition has not been abrupt and the styles of writing which...