Henry James Popular Books
Henry James Biography & Facts
Henry James ((1843-04-15)15 April 1843 – (1916-02-28)28 February 1916) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the son of Henry James Sr. and the brother of philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James. He is best known for his novels dealing with the social and marital interplay between émigré Americans, the English, and continental Europeans, such as The Portrait of a Lady. His later works, such as The Ambassadors, The Wings of the Dove and The Golden Bowl were increasingly experimental. In describing the internal states of mind and social dynamics of his characters, James often wrote in a style in which ambiguous or contradictory motives and impressions were overlaid or juxtaposed in the discussion of a character's psyche. For their unique ambiguity, as well as for other aspects of their composition, his late works have been compared to Impressionist painting. His novella The Turn of the Screw has garnered a reputation as the most analysed and ambiguous ghost story in the English language and remains his most widely adapted work in other media. He wrote other highly regarded ghost stories, such as "The Jolly Corner". James published articles and books of criticism, travel, biography, autobiography, and plays. Born in the United States, James largely relocated to Europe as a young man, and eventually settled in England, becoming a British citizen in 1915, a year before his death. James was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1911, 1912, and 1916. Jorge Luis Borges said "I have visited some literatures of East and West; I have compiled an encyclopedic compendium of fantastic literature; I have translated Kafka, Melville, and Bloy; I know of no stranger work than that of Henry James." Life Early years, 1843–1883 James was born at 21 Washington Place (facing Washington Square) in New York City on 15 April 1843. His parents were Mary Walsh and Henry James Sr. His father was intelligent and steadfastly congenial. He was a lecturer and philosopher who had inherited independent means from his father, an Albany banker and investor. Mary came from a wealthy family long settled in New York City. Her sister Katherine lived with her adult family for an extended period of time. Henry Jr. was one of four boys, the others being William, who was one year his senior, and younger brothers Wilkinson (Wilkie) and Robertson. His younger sister was Alice. Both of his parents were of Irish and Scottish descent. Before he was a year old, his father sold the house at Washington Place and took the family to Europe, where they lived for a time in a cottage in Windsor Great Park in England. The family returned to New York in 1845, and Henry spent much of his childhood living between his paternal grandmother's home in Albany, and a house, 58 West Fourteenth Street, in Manhattan. A painting of a view of Florence by Thomas Cole hung in the front parlor of this house on West Fourteenth. His education was calculated by his father to expose him to many influences, primarily scientific and philosophical; it was described by Percy Lubbock, the editor of his selected letters, as "extraordinarily haphazard and promiscuous." Once, a cousin of the James family came down to the house in Fourteenth Street and, one evening during his stay, read the first instalment of David Copperfield aloud to the elders of the family: Henry Junior had snuck down from his bedroom to listen surreptitiously to the reading, until a scene involving the Murdstones led him to "loud[ly] sob," whereupon he was discovered and sent back to bed. Between 1855 and 1860, the James household travelled to London, Paris, Geneva, Boulogne-sur-Mer, Bonn, and Newport, Rhode Island, according to the father's current interests and publishing ventures, retreating to the United States when funds were low. The James family arrived in Paris in July 1855 and took rooms at a hotel in the Rue de la Paix. Some time between 1856 and 1857, when William was fourteen and Henry thirteen, the two brothers visited the Louvre and the Luxembourg Palace. Henry studied primarily with tutors, and briefly attended schools while the family travelled in Europe. A tutor of the James children in Paris, M. Lerambert, had written a volume of verse that was well reviewed by Sainte-Beuve. Their longest stays were in France, where Henry began to feel at home and became fluent in French. He had a stutter, which seems to have manifested itself only when he spoke English; in French, he did not stutter. In the summer of 1857, the James family went to Boulougne-sur-Mer, where they set up house at No. 20 Rue Neuve Chaussée, and where Henry was a regular customer at an English lending library. In the autumn of that year, Henry Senior wrote from Boulogne to a friend that "Henry is not so fond of study, properly so-called, as of reading...He is a devourer of libraries, and an immense writer of novels and dramas. He has considerable talent as a writer, but I am at a loss to know whether he will ever accomplish much." William recorded in a letter to their parents in Paris, while the boys were staying in Bonn, that Henry and Garth Wilkinson would wrestle "when study has made them dull and sleepy." In 1860, the family returned to Newport. There, Henry befriended Thomas Sergeant Perry, who was to become a celebrated literary academic in adulthood, and painter John La Farge, for whom Henry sat as a subject, and who introduced him to French literature, and in particular, to Balzac. James later called Balzac his "greatest master", and said that he had learned more about the craft of fiction from him than from anyone else. In July 1861, Henry and Thomas Sergeant Perry paid a visit to an encampment of wounded and invalid Union soldiers on the Rhode Island shore, at Portsmouth Grove; he took walks and had conversations with numerous soldiers and in later years compared this experience to those of Walt Whitman as a volunteer nurse. In the autumn of 1861, James received an injury, probably to his back, while fighting a fire. This injury, which resurfaced at times throughout his life, made him unfit for military service in the American Civil War. His younger brothers Garth Wilkinson and Robertson, however, both served, with Wilkinson serving as an officer in the 54th Massachusetts. In 1864, the James family moved to Boston, Massachusetts, to be near William, who had enrolled first in the Lawrence Scientific School at Harvard and then in the medical school. In 1862, Henry attended Harvard Law School, but realised that he was not interested in studying law. He pursued his interest in literature and associated with authors and critics William Dean Howells and Charles Eliot Norton in Boston and Cambridge and formed lifelong friendships with Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., the future Supre.... Discover the Henry James popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Henry James books.
Best Seller Henry James Books of 2024
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Works of Henry James
Henry JamesThis collection was designed for optimal navigation on iPad and other electronic devices. It is indexed alphabetically, chronologically and by category, making it easier to access...
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Henry James
Jeanne Delbaere-GarantBoth James’s life and his literary career might be figured as a double spiral rooted at the one end in the American soil and in romanticism, contracting in its middle on contact wi...
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The Sweetest Thing
Cathy WoodmanThe third novel in Cathy Woodman's hugely popular Talyton St George series.Each book in the Talyton St George series can be read as a standalone novel, but when Cathy first had the...
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Delphi Complete Works of Henry James
Henry JamesRegarded as one of the key figures of nineteenth century realism, Henry James has become famous for his novels and tales that explore the clash between the Old World Europeans and ...
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Henry James
Rebecca WestThe first book by distinguished novelist, journalist, and literary critic Rebecca West: a biography of Henry JamesSetting the standard for a century’s worth of criticism, Rebecca W...
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American Capitalism
Louis Hyman & Edward E. BaptistFrom Cornell University Professors Louis Hyman and Edward E. Baptist, a collection of the most relevant readings on the history of capitalism in America, created to accompany their...
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The New Master Key System
Charles F. HaanelCharles F. Haanel’s groundbreaking and timeless work returns in this modern interpretation. Reconnect with your utmost potential and discover that you hold the key to manifesting t...
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Behind the Palace Doors
Michael FarquharSpanning 500 years of British history, a revealing look at the secret lives of some great (and notsogreat) Britons, courtesy of one of the world’s most engaging royal historians ...
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The Woman in the Mirror
Rebecca JamesRebecca James unveils a chilling modern gothic novel of a family consumed by the shadows and secrets of its past in The Woman in the Mirror.For more than two centuries, Winterbourn...
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The Other Queen
Philippa GregoryFrom #1 New York Times bestselling author and “queen of royal fiction” (USA TODAY) Philippa Gregorya dazzling new novel about the intriguing, romantic, and maddening Mary, Queen of...
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The Master
Colm Tóibín“Colm Tóibín’s beautiful, subtle illumination of Henry James’s inner life” (The New York Times) captures the loneliness and hope of a master of psychological subtlety whose forays ...
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The Countess and the King
Susan Holloway ScottKatherine Sedley lived by her own rules and loved who she pleased until she became the infamous mistress of King James II... London, 1675: Born to wealth and privilege, Katherine ...
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Henry James
Denis FlanneryThe success of a work of art, to my mind, may be measured by the degree to which it produces a certain illusion; that makes it appear to us that we have lived another life, that we...
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The Portrait of A Lady
Henry James, Regina Barreca & Colm TóibínThe Portrait of a Lady is Henry James’s classic novel featuring the strong and spirited Isabel Archer, the embodiment of women’s independence and strength.The heroine of this ...
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The Works of Henry James
Henry James60 books by Henry James are included in this giant anthology. An active table of contents is included to make it easy to navigate to the work you are looking for.Works include:The ...
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The Matter of Black Lives
Jelani Cobb & David RemnickA collection of The New Yorker‘s groundbreaking writing on race in Americaincluding work by James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, TaNehisi Coates, Hilton Als, Zadie Smith, and morewit...
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Wiseguy
Nicholas PileggiNicholas Pileggi’s vivid, unvarnished, journalistic chronicle of the life of Henry Hillthe workingclass Brooklyn kid who knew from age twelve that “to be a wiseguy was to own the w...
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Mrs. Osmond
John BanvilleThe Booker Prizewinning author of The Sea continues the story of Isabel Archer, the young protagonist of Henry James’s beloved The Portrait of a Ladyin this masterful novel of betr...
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Henry James
Rebecca Dame WestAuthor Rebecca West looks at what influenced James' writing through the three accepted periods of his work.
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Reading Lolita in Tehran
Azar Nafisi#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER We all have dreamsthings we fantasize about doing and generally never get around to. This is the story of Azar Nafisi’s dream and of the nightmare th...
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Bonkers
Jennifer SaundersTHE HILARIOUS, TOUCHING LIFE STORY OF THE ICONIC COMEDIAN AND NATIONAL TREASURE 'Fabulous? Yes. Funny? Absolutely' Mail on SundayJennifer Saunders' comic creations have brought joy...
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The Last Castle
Denise KiernanA New York Times bestseller with an "engaging narrative and array of detail” (The Wall Street Journal), the “intimate and sweeping” (Raleigh News & Observer) untold, true story...
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The Best Short Stories and Novellas of Henry James
Henry JamesThis collection of Henry James's shorter works brings together some of his most famous works including "The Turn of the Screw", "Daisy Miller", and "The Asp...
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Richard III
William ShakespeareThe authoritative edition of Richard III from The Folger Shakespeare Library, the trusted and widely used Shakespeare series for students and general readers.In Richard III, Shakes...
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Henry James
James Henry & Philip HorneJames's correspondents included presidents and prime ministers, painters and great ladies, actresses and bishops, and the writers Robert Louis Stevenson, H.G. Wells and Edith Whart...
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Henry James
Rebeca West & Philip DossickWhen Henry James The Critical Biography was published in 1916, the first book by novelist and journalist Rebecca West, literary critics were offended that a 20something yearo...
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The League of Wives
Heath Hardage Lee"With astonishing verve, The League of Wives persisted to speak truth to power to bring their POW/MIA husbands home from Vietnam. And with astonishing verve, Heath Hardage Lee has ...
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Matthew Henry Study Bible with RKJV
Matthew Henry & Noah WebsterRead the Bible together with the concise devotional study notes of Matthew Henry. This edition has some unique features: Complete Study Bible containing the Bible text as well as M...
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Bored of the Rings
The Harvard LampoonFrom the legendary comedic scholars who illuminated the tour de force Twilight so brilliantly in the New York Times bestselling Nightlight comes The Hunger Pains, a hilarious sendu...
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Matthew Henry Study Bible - KJV
Matthew HenryRead the Bible together with the concise devotional study notes of Matthew Henry. This edition has some unique features: Complete Study Bible containing the Bible text as well as M...
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Energy
Richard RhodesA “meticulously researched” (The New York Times Book Review) examination of energy transitions over time and an exploration of the current challenges presented by global warming, a...
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Henry James
Fred KaplanA stunning biography of the magisterial author behind The Portrait of a Lady and The AmbassadorsHenry James is an absorbing portrait of one of the most complex and i...
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The Summer Before the War
Helen SimonsonNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “A novel to cure your Downton Abbey withdrawal . . . a delightful story about nontraditional romantic relationships, class snobbery and the everybod...
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The Kid
Ron Hansen“A marvelous journey into both history and imagination…A perfectly compelling and fastpaced story” (San Francisco Chronicle) from Ron Hansen about an iconic American criminal of th...