San Antonio College Library

Analyzing Henry James' conception of civilization as culture and the relationship of this conception to his major works, Berland argues that James brought to his fiction the moral commitment that characterized a Puritan New England and a dedication to the aesthetic culture he found in England and in Europe. He concludes that these commitments provide James with his major themes, characters and fictional techniques and the two immutable Jamesian laws...

"This volume focuses on issues raised by James's short fiction by treating a significant number of less-scrutinized works and by taking new routes into some of the more familiar tales. These new paths into what James termed his "brevities" challenge set assumptions about these texts and provide the reader/researcher of James with insights into valuable new directions for study." "The authors of the seventeen essays in this volume invite a number of...

Tanner provides not only an illuminating introduction to James and his writings; he also presents a portrait of his development as a writer and the seemingly inexhaustible inventiveness of his imagination. The first part introduces James' major theme--the complex fate of the American living in Europe--and surveys James' achievement upto the publishing of The Portrait of a Lady. The second chapter, covering the period of his continuous residence in...

Interprets James' fiction in terms of the theme of the struggle of individuals to find freedom.