Selected general bibliography with comments by Adrian Dover

contents

primary sources and editions thereof
autobiography – notebooks – letters

secondary sources
biography – bibliography – reference

criticism
periodical – collections – general –
special topics : the three ‘periods’ · stylistics · consciousness ·
the profession of writer · movies and dramatisations · sexualities ·
the tales · other specialities

general comments

This page obviously cannot attempt to be a either a comprehensive bibliography of James’s own works or of subsequent critical writings. Instead, its purpose is to support the other materials on the Ladder, so the coverage is rather lop-sided: in the sections on primary and secondary sources I have aimed to include all the major references whilst in the remaining, ‘critical’, sections only monographs are included (no individual articles) and only the key publications before year 2000. Within each section the order is chronological.

primary sources and editions thereof

autobiography

A small boy and others / by Henry James. – New York : Scribner’s, 1913. – 419 p. ; 21 cm.

A small boy and others / by Henry James. – London : Macmillan, 1913. – 436 p. ; 23 cm.

James’s first attempt at fully fledged autobiography, as opposed to the anecdotal writing of the New York edition prefaces and the travel writing scattered throughout his career; dealing as it does with his earliest years, up to about the age of 9 or 10, it concentrates rather more on the others than on the small boy!

Notes of a son and brother / by Henry James. – New York : Scribner’s, 1914. – 515 p. ; 21 cm.

Notes of a son and brother / by Henry James. – London : Macmillan, 1914. – 479 p. ; 23 cm.

this second volume includes a selection of William James’s letters (bundles of which had sparked off the whole enterprise) although, as we now know, they were subject to careful revision by the younger brother before publication; the period covered is roughly that of William and Henry’s adolescence

The middle years / by Henry James. – London : Collins, 1917. – 117 p. ; 20 cm.

The middle years / by Henry James. – New York : Scribner’s, 1917. – 119 p. ; 21 cm.

the unrevised seven chapter fragment of James’s projected third volume of reminiscences; largely dealing with his early years as a resident in Europe

Henry James : autobiography / edited with an introduction by Frederick W. Dupee. – New York : Criterion Books ; London : W. H. Allen, 1956. – xiv, 622 p. ; 24 cm.

Autobiography / Henry James, edited with an introduction by Frederick W. Dupee. – Princeton, N.J. ; Guildford, U.K. : Princeton University Press, 1983. – xiv, 622 p. ; 22 cm., pbk

comprising the above three titles in a single volume

notebooks

The notebooks of Henry James / edited by F. O. Matthiessen and Kenneth B. Murdock. – New York ; London : Oxford University Press, 1947. – xxviii, 425 p., 8 p. of plates ; 24 cm.

the first book publication of the notebooks’s contents; Matthiessen and Murdock re-order the entries chronologically and provide plenty of notes indicating James’s use of his materials and identifying (where possible with the state of scholarship in the immediate post-war years) individuals not fully named

The complete notebooks of Henry James / edited with introductions and notes by Leon Edel and Lyall H. Powers. – New York ; Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1987. – xxix, 633 p., 8 p. of plates ; 24 cm. – ISBN 0-19-503782-0

this edition revised and updated Matthiessen and Murdock’s work, ordering the content by notebook and adding James’s pocket-diaries and other ‘sundry’ material; the editors’ notes provide commensurably fuller background than the earlier edition too, given the intervening forty years’ research

letters

this section lists only major published collections; for fuller information about James’s letters and sources thereof see the Calendar of the letters of Henry James website at the University of Nebraska Press

The letters of Henry James / selected and edited by Percy Lubbock. – London : Macmillan, 1920. – 2 v. (xxxi, 441; xi, 529 p.) : frontis., 1 fold-out plate ; 23 cm.

The letters of Henry James / selected and edited by Percy Lubbock. – New York : Scribner’s, 1920. – 2 v. (xxxi, 434; xi, 511 p.) : frontis., 1 plate? ; 23 cm.

a representative selection of letters, mostly from James’s middle and later years; some letters are excerpted and there are occasional misreadings and punctuation errors in the transcriptions

The selected letters of Henry James / edited with an introduction by Leon Edel. – New York : Farrar, Straus and Cudhay, 1955. – xxxiv, 235 p. ; 22 cm.

Selected letters of Henry James / edited with an introduction by Leon Edel. – London : Hart-Davis, 1956. – 268 p. ; 21 cm.

containing 111 letters, about half published for the first time; the British edition has fuller annotations and some corrections to the text

Henry James letters / edited by Leon Edel. – Cambridge, Mass. : Belknap Press of Harvard University Press ; London : Macmillan, 1974-1984. – 4 v. (xxxvi, 493; xv, 438; xxii, 579; xxxiv, 835 p.) : ill. ; 22 cm.

contents :
Vol. 1 : 1843-1875   (1974) –
Vol. 2 : 1875-1883   (1978) –
Vol. 3 : 1883-1895   (1980) –
Vol. 4 : 1895-1916   (1984)

ISBN 0-674-38780-5 (v. 1, Harvard). – ISBN 0-333-17234-5 (v. 1, Macmillan). –
ISBN 0-674-38781-3? (v. 2, Harvard). – ISBN 0-333-18045-3 (v. 2, Macmillan). –
ISBN 0-674-38782-1? (v. 3, Harvard). – ISBN 0-333-18046-1 (v. 3, Macmillan). –
ISBN 0-674-38783-x (v. 4, Harvard). – ISBN 0-333-?-? (v. 4, Macmillan)

the largest collection of letters so far published

Henry James and Edith Wharton : letters, 1900-1915 / edited by Lyall H. Powers. – London : Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1990. – xv, 412 p., 8 p. of plates   : ill. ; 25 cm. – ISBN 0-297-81060-x

all the surviving correspondence between the two writers is published here; because of James’s destruction of his papers, the bulk of the letters are his, which Wharton retained

Letters from the Palazzo Barbaro / Henry James, edited by Rosella Mamoli Zorzi. – London : Pushkin Press, 1998. – 222 p. : ill. ; 17 cm. – ISBN 1-901285-07-3

contains 28 letters by James from or about Venice and the Palazzo, mostly from the Edel 4-volume edition or the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum collection; also includes 11 letters written by members of the Curtis family, who owned the Palazzo; the introduction (pages 19-47) covers the history of the Palazzo, the Curtises involvement with it and its place in James’s life and work

Dear munificent friends : Henry James’s letters to four women / edited by Susan E. Gunter. – Ann Arbor, Mich. : University of Michigan Press, 1999. – xxiv, 288 p. : ill. ; 24 cm. – ISBN 0-472-11010-1

prints 150 previously unpublished letters of James to Alice Howe Gibbens James (wife of William James), Mary Cadwalader Jones, Margaret Frances Butcher Prothero and Lady Louisa Erskine Wolseley

Henry James : a life in letters / edited by Philip Horne. – London : Allen Lane ; New York : Penguin Putnam, 1999. – xxxv, 667 p. : 25 cm. – ISBN 0-7139-9126-7

the book which spawned a genre! – a scintillating mix of original letters, over half not previously published, accompanying footnotes and connecting narrative, this provides perhaps the best single-volume introduction to James’s life and world

Dearly beloved friends : Henry James’s letters to younger men / Susan E. Gunter, Steven H. Jobe, editors. – Ann Arbor, Mich. : University of Michigan Press, 2001. – xxiii, 249 , 8 p. of plates ; 24 cm. – ISBN 0-472-11009-8

166 letters to Hendrik Andersen, Dudley Jocelyn Persse, Howard Overing Sturgis and Hugh Walpole, of the 391 to these correspondents surviving, are printed here

secondary sources

biography

Henry James / by Leon Edel. – Philadelphia : Lippincott, 1953-1972. – 5 v. (350, 465, 408, 381, 591 p.) ; 22 cm.

Henry James / by Leon Edel. – London : Hart-Davis, 1953-1972. – 5 v. (356, 528, 340, 352, 592 p.) ; 22 cm.

contents: Vol. 1 : The untried years, 1843-1870   (1953) – Vol. 2 : The conquest of London, 1870-1881   (1962) – Vol. 3 : The middle years, 1882-1895   (1962) – Vol. 4 : The treacherous years, 1895-1900   (1969) – Vol. 5 : The master, 1901-1916  (1972)

ISBN 0-246-98599-2 (v. 4, Hart-Davis). –
ISBN 0-397-00733-7 (v. 5, Lippincott). – ISBN 0-246-10532-1 (v. 5, Hart-Davis)

The life of Henry James / by Leon Edel. – Harmondsworth : Penguin, 1977. – 2 v. (867; 837 p.) ; 20 cm

contents: Vol. 1 : 1843-89 – Vol. 2 : [1890-1916]
ISBN 0-14-055117-4 (v. 1). – ISBN 0-14-055118-2 (v. 2)

Henry James : a life / Leon Edel. – London : Collins, 1987. – [xiv], 740 p., 24 p. of plates : frontis. ; 24 cm. – ISBN 0-00-217870-2

the monumental first biography, completed in stages by Edel between his other editing work; the two volume edition is described as a ‘definitive edition’, with emendations to update the language, revise emphasis and incorporate relevant new material; the 1987 Collins version is a ‘condensed and revised edition’

Henry James at home / H. Montgomery Hyde. – London : Methuen, 1969. – xiv, 322 p., 15 p. of plates : ill. ; 23 cm.

A ring of conspirators : Henry James and his literary circle, 1895-1915 / Miranda Seymour. – London : Hodder & Stoughton, 1988. – 327 p., 8 p. of plates : ill. ; 25 cm. – ISBN 0-340-33239-5

a study of writers close to James in the last two decades of his life, centring, on one hand, around East Sussex and Kent, near his house in Rye, and on the other, in Edith Wharton

The Jameses : a family narrative / R. W. B. Lewis. – London : André Deutsch, 1991. – 695 p., 32 p. of plates : frontis. ; 25 cm. – ISBN 0-233-98748-7

the story of the family descended from William James of Albany

Henry James : the imagination of genius, a biography / Fred Kaplan. – London : Hodder & Stoughton, 1992. – xiii, 620 p., [32] p. of plates ; 25 cm. – ISBN 0-340-55553-x

the first attempt to ‘follow that’ where a biography of Henry alone is concerned; Kaplan is also biographer of Carlyle and Dickens

Henry James : the young master / Sheldon M. Novick. – New York : Random House, 1996. – xx, 550 p., [16] p. of plates : ports. ; 24 cm. – ISBN 0-394-58655-7

A private life of Henry James : two woman and his art / Lyndall Gordon. – London : Chatto & Windus, 1998. – xi, 500 p., 16 p. of plates  ; 25 cm. – ISBN 0-7011-6166-3

tells James’s biography through the ‘lens’ of his relationships with two women: his cousin Minny Temple, who died in 1870 age 24/5?, and the novelist Constance Fenimore Woolson (1840-1894), who drowned herself into the Grand Canal, Venice

Henry James : a life in letters / edited by Philip Horne (1999)

see above in the ‘letters’ section

bibliography

Henry James : a bibliography of secondary works / Beatrice Ricks. – Metuchen, N.J. : Scarecrow Press, 1975. – xxii, 461 p, ; 22 cm. – (The Scarecrow author bibliographies ; no. 24). – ISBN 0810808536

now superceded by the three volumes from G. K. Hall but useful if your library has nothing else covering the period up to the mid-1970s

A bibliography of Henry James / Leon Edel and Dan H. Laurence. – 3rd ed., revised with the assistance of James Rambeau. – Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1982. – 428 p., 7 p. of plates : ill. ; 23 cm. – (The Soho bibliographies ; 8). – ISBN 0-19-818186-8

the most recent edition of the standard bibliography, listing all Henry James’s own publications, including those in periodicals and collections, together with posthumous issues of others of his writings such as letters; the earlier editions were published in 1957 and 1961

Henry James, 1866-1916 : a reference guide / Linda J. Taylor. – Boston, Mass. : G. K. Hall, 1982. – xxvi, 533 p. ; 24 cm. – (A reference guide to literature). – ISBN 0-8161-7874-7

Henry James, 1917-1959 : a reference guide / Kristin Pruitt McColgan. – Boston : G. K. Hall, 1979. – xix, 389 p. ; 24 cm. – (A reference publication in literature). – ISBN 0-8161-7851-8

Henry James, 1960-1974 : a reference guide / Dorothy McInnis Scura. – Boston : G. K. Hall, 1979. – xx, 490 p. ; 24 cm. – (A reference publication in literature). – ISBN 0-8161-7850-x

Henry James, 1975-1987 : a reference guide / Judith E. Funston. – Boston : G. K. Hall, 1991. – xx, 571 p. ; 24 cm. – (A reference guide to literature). – ISBN 0-8161-8953-6

a thorough index of work about Henry James published in the years shown; entries are arranged year by year, subdivided into A: books, B: shorter works and C: dissertations, then ordered by author; each volume has an index of authors, titles and James’s works at the end; the majority of the entries are provided with an abstract or a summary and those for collections have contents’ lists

The library of Henry James / compiled and edited with essays by Leon Edel and Adeline R. Tintner. – Ann Arbor, Mich., London : UMI Research Press, 1987. – [ix], 106 p. : ill. ; 24 cm. – (Studies in modern literature ; no. 90). – ISBN 0-8357-1856-5

in addition to a list of Henry James’s personal library, in so far as it can be reconstructed from current library holdings, booksellers’ catalogues after his estate was dispersed and his own references, this volume contains an introductory essay to the list, by Edel, and an essay by Tintner on books in James’s fiction

reference

A Henry James encyclopedia / Robert L. Gale. – Westport, CT ; London : Greenwood, 1989. – xxi, 791 p.; 25 cm. – ISBN 0-313-25846-5

an alphabetical guide to James’s writings, publications and characters, and to his friends, relations and literary associates

A Henry James chronology / by Edgar F. Harden. – Basingstoke ; New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. – (Author chronologies). – ISBN 1-4039-4229-3

a disappointing cut-and-paste job from twenty year old publications; you can read my full review, which was posted on the Henry James mailing list (jamesf-l) on 2004-12-16

criticism – periodical

The Henry James review. – Vol. 1 (November 1979) -    . – Louisville, KY : Henry James Society, 1979- . – published three times a year. – ISSN 0273-0340

the only scholarly journal devoted to the author; further details are available from the distributor: the Journals Publishing Division of the Johns Hopkins University Press

criticism – collections

Henry James : the critical heritage / edited by Roger Gard. – London : Routledge & Kegan Paul ; New York : Barnes & Noble, 1968. – xxi, 566 p. ; 23 cm. – (The critical heritage series). – ISBN 0-7100-6088-8

a chronologically arranged selection of contemporary notices of James’s publications of his fiction, concentrating on the novels but including a few relating to tales

Henry James : critical assessments / edited by Graham Clarke. – Vol. 1 : Memories, views and writers. – Mountfield : Helm Information, 1991. – xxi, 425 p. : frontis. ; 24 cm. – (The Helm information critical assessments of writers in English). – ISBN 1-873403-01-1 (set of 4 vols)

Henry James : critical assessments / edited by Graham Clarke. – Vol. 2 : The critical response : reviews and early essays. – Mountfield : Helm Information, 1991. – xii, 497 p. : frontis. ; 24 cm. – (The Helm information critical assessments of writers in English)

Henry James : critical assessments / edited by Graham Clarke. – Vol. 3 : A twentieth-century overview. – Mountfield : Helm Information, 1991. – vi, 408 p. : frontis. ; 24 cm. – (The Helm information critical assessments of writers in English)

Henry James : critical assessments / edited by Graham Clarke. – Vol. 4 : Reading the writing : novels, novellas and stories. – Mountfield : Helm Information, 1991. – viii, 671 p.: frontis. ; 24 cm. – (The Helm information critical assessments of writers in English)

a large collection of (reset) reprints of critical material of all types; as suggested by the volume titles the arrangement is: vol. 1 has three early studies, personal memories of James and pieces on him by other writers; vol. 2 parallels Gard in providing a selection of contemporary reviews etc.; vol. 3 has a selection of general essays; and vol. 4 has work-specific criticism of major novels and tales, ordered alphabetically by the work

A companion to Henry James studies / edited by Daniel Mark Fogel. – Westport, CT ; London : Greenwood Press, 1993. – xxii, 545 p.; 25 cm. – ISBN 0-313-25792-2

a collection of twenty commissioned essays, together providing a reference guide to all the major fields of James studies in the 1990s; appendix 2 Landmarks of Henry James criticism provides a useful summary of major critical publications from 1905 to 1991

The Cambridge companion to Henry James / edited by Jonathan Freedman. – Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1998. – xix, 256 p. ; 24 cm. – (Cambridge companions to literature). – ISBN 0-521-49584-9

while attempting a less thorough survey than the earlier Greenwood Companion this collection of 12 essays, including contributions from Millicent Bell, Philip Horne and Ross Posnock ‘seeks to measure James’s multiple achievements and his role in critical practice’

criticism – general

Henry James and the Jacobites / Maxwell Geismar. – Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 1963. – 463 p. ; 22 cm.

The expense of vision : essays on the craft of Henry James / by Laurence B. Holland. – Princeton : Princeton University Press, 1964. – xiv, 440 p.; 23 cm.

on its reprint in 1982 this study was still hailed as ‘the single most illuminating and challenging account of Henry James’s fictions’ (Richard Broadhead); the extensive discussions of The portrait of a lady and the three late period novels are still essential reading, and the shorter sections on The spoils of Poynton, The Aspern papers and The scared fount are no less useful

The theoretical dimensions of Henry James / John Carlos Rowe. – London : Methuen, 1985. – xv, 288 p.; 23 cm. – ISBN 0-416-39560-0

examines James from the literary theoretical perspectives of psychology, feminism, Marxism, phenomenology, impressionism and reader-response criticism, to arrive at a point of intersection

Meaning in Henry James / Millicent Bell. – Cambridge, Mass. ; London : Harvard University Press, 1991. – xii, 384 p.; 25 cm. – ISBN 0-674-55762-x

a study of the major novels and tales, examing how meanings, fleeting or lasting, emerge for the reader

The other Henry James / John Carlos Rowe. – Durham, NC ; London : Duke University Press, 1998. – xv, 238 p.; 24 cm. – (New Americanists). – ISBN 0-8223-2128-9

an important study, drawing on 1990’s developments in queer and feminist theory, which argues that ‘the most fruitful approach to James today is one that ignores the elitist portrait of the formalist master in favor of the writer as a vulnerable critic of his own confused and repressive historical moment’

Henry James : a certain illusion / Denis Flannery. – Aldershot ; Burlington VT, : Ashgate, 2000. – x, 245 p. ; 23 cm. – ISBN 0-7546-0248-6

offers readings of the fictional and critical works based on analyses of the way James creates that ‘illusion’ of our having lived another life which he considered a measure of the success of a work of art

Henry James and the imagination of pleasure / Tessa Hadley. – Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2002. – viii, 205 p. ; 24 cm. – ISBN 0-521-81169-4

chapters on the major novels chart James’s move away from the moralising tradition of the Anglo-Saxon novel, showing the influence of the European tradition particularly in the areas of power relationships in pleasure and play which are seen as key to the late nineteenth century leisure classes

criticism – special topics

the three ‘periods’

Henry James : the major phase / F. O. Matthiessen. – New York : OUP, 1944. – xvi, 190 p.; 22 cm.

a very influential study of the late novels and The American scene, which served to raise James high in the American academy in the post-war years

The comic sense of Henry James : a study of the early novels / Richard Poirier. – New York : OUP, 1960. – 260 p.; 23 cm.

The comic sense of Henry James : a study of the early novels / Richard Poirier. – London : Chatto & Windus, 1960. – 260 p.; 22 cm.

The comic sense of Henry James : a study of the early novels / Richard Poirier. – New York ; Oxford : OUP, 1967. – (Galaxy books). – 260 p.; 21 cm., pbk

the classic study of the novels up to and including The portrait of a lady; the 1967 reprint has an additional preface

Desire and love in Henry James : a study of the late novels / by David McWhirter. – Cambridge : CUP, 1989. – xv, 218 p.; 23 cm. – ISBN 0-521-35328-9

McWhirter argues that the three late novels, instead of being a cohesive group, actually show a radical refashioning of his vision of desire

stylistics

The later style of Henry James / Seymour Chatman. – Oxford : Basil Blackwell, 1972. – 135 p.; 23 cm. – (Language and style ; 2). – ISBN 0-631-08270-0

a slim but densely packed and detailed examination of all aspects of the prose style of James ‘the old pretender’; still essential, and useful too as preparation for more recent stylistic analyses such as that of Mary Cross

Henry James : the contingencies of style / Mary Cross. – Basingstoke : Macmillan, 1993. – ix, 212 p. ; 23 cm. – ISBN 0-333-57426-5

a post-structuralist analysis and deconstruction of James’s style; this is not for the faint-hearted but repays careful reading, as does James himself of course

consciousness

The ordeal of consciousness in Henry James / by Dorothea Krook. – Cambridge : CUP, 1962. – xiii, 422n p.; 23 cm.

studies seven of the novels in detail, with the theme ‘being and seeing’, exploring James’s unique notion of consciousness and his moral, social and philosophical peroccupations

Thinking in Henry James / Sharon Cameron. – Chicago ; London : University of Chicago Press, 1989. – vii, 197 p.; 23 cm. – ISBN 0-226-09230-5

challenges the notion that James wrote ‘psychological’ novels by examining the radical nature of James’s concept of consciousness, concentrating on the late novels and The American scene

the profession of writer

“Friction with the market” : Henry James and the profession of authorship / Michael Anesko. – New York ; Oxford : OUP, 1986. – xii, 258 p.: ill. ; 25 cm. – ISBN 0-19-504034-1

an important study of the way James’s desire and need to publish and be successful informed his writing and how the muted response of his audiences may have contributed to the romantic idea of the elite artist

Professions of taste : Henry James, British aestheticism and commodity culture / Jonathan Freedman. – Stanford, CA : Standford University Press, 1990. – xxx, 305 p., 14 p. of plates ; 24 cm. – ISBN 0-8047-1784-2

an important study of James’s reaction to the æsthetic movement in the context of the gradual development of the profession of author and the commodification of literature

Henry James’s New York edition : the construction of authorship / edited by David McWhirter. – Stanford, CA : Stanford University Press, 1995. – xxvi, 333 p., 24 p. of plates : ill. ; 24 cm. – ISBN 0-8047-2564-0

14 essays covering various aspects of the ‘definitive’ edition considered as a whole, including Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick’s study of performativity in the prefaces; usefully, also includes reproductions of Coburn’s photographic frontispieces to the edition which are otherwise difficult to access

movies and dramatisations

Henry James on stage and screen / edited by John R. Bradley. – Basingstoke ; New York : Palgrave, 2000. – xi, 264 p. ; 23 cm. – ISBN 0-333-79214-9

fifteen essays covering the range of dramatisations of James’s fictions but concentrating on the cinema: there is one paper on each of the stage and opera media;

Henry James goes to the movies / edited by Susan M. Griffin. – Lexington, KY : The University Press of Kentucky, 2002. – [vii], 386 p. : ill. ; 24 cm. – ISBN 0-8131-2191-4

a further fifteen essays on dramatisations of James, supplementing those of Henry James on stage and screen; included is the important ‘A Henry James filmography’ by J. Sarah Koch (pages 335-357)

sexualities

Henry James and the ‘woman business’ / Alfred Habegger. – Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1989. – ix, 288 p. ; 24 cm. – (Cambridge studies in American literature and culture). – ISBN 0-521-36635-6

a re-examination of the idea of James as an authoritative writer on woman, showing how he recomposed female plots in line with his father’s doctrine of sexual difference

The disruption of the feminine in Henry James / by Priscilla L. Walton. – Toronto ; Buffalo ; London : University of Toronto Press, 1992. – viii, 179 p.; 24 cm. – ISBN 0-8020-5987-2

a post-structuralist and feminist perspective, focussing on the constructed ‘otherness’ of the Feminine; a touchstone for feminist work on James

Henry James and sexuality / Hugh Stevens. – Cambridge : CUP, 1998. – xiii, 217 p.; 24 cm. – ISBN 0-521-62259-x

although a revision of the author’s doctoral thesis at Cambridge University, this important contribution to the current debate on sexuality in and of James is easy to follow and covers all the major bases

Henry James and homo-erotic desire / edited by John R. Bradley, introduction by Sheldon M. Novick. – Basingstoke : Macmillan ; New York : St Martin’s Press, 1999. – xiv, 153 p. ; 23 cm. – ISBN 0-333-73217-0 (Macmillan). – ISBN 0-312-21764-1 (St Martin’s)

ten essays on various aspects of this topic, including the evolving concept of homosexuality in the late nineteenth century, the British aesthetic movement and the renunciation of desire in the later novels; a number of the contributions (Bradley, Gunter and Jobe, and Person) later fledged as individual monographs

Henry James’s permanent adolescence / John R. Bradley. – Basingstoke ; New York : Palgrave, 2000. – xi, 162 p. ; 23 cm. – ISBN 0-333-91874-6

Bradley’s notion of ‘permanent adolescence’ enables him to make sense of disparate elements of James’s work through their narcissistic focus on aspects of his boyhood and early manhood and on their treatment of male desire

Henry James and the ‘aliens’ : in possession of the American scene / Gert Buelens. – Amsterdam ; New York : Rodopi, 2002. – [v], 164 p. ; 23 cm. – (Amsterdam monographs in American studies ; 10). – ISBN 90-420-1280-3

focussing on questions of identity and its construction, Buelens maps James’s responses to the ‘other’ whether racial, sexual or cultural

Henry James and the suspense of masculinity / Leland S. Person. – Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003. – 206 p.; 24 cm. – ISBN 0-8122-3725-0

examines James’s subversion of conventional male identity by pluralizing and ambiguating it

the tales

Technique in the tales of Henry James / Krishna Baldev Vaid. – Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1964. – x, 285 p. ; 21 cm. – LC card no. 64-22723

the first major study of the tales, dividing them into two broad categories – first-person and third-person – and discussing representative tales in each, under the repeated chapter headings ‘three early tales’, ‘anecdotes’ and ‘nouvelles’, together with an additional chapter in each category; definitely still a worthwhile read

Henry James : a study of the short fiction / Richard A. Hocks. – Boston, Mass. : Twayne, 1990. – (Twayne’s studies in short fiction). – xvii, 193 p.; 23 cm. – ISBN 0-8057-8328-8

an unusual compilation comprising Hocks’s own survey of the tales, using a mix of thematic and chronological groupings, followed by two shorter sections containing extracts from James himself and from three other critics’ assessments

Henry James : the shorter fiction; reassessments / edited by N. H. Reeve. – Basingstoke : Macmillan ; New York : St Martin’s, 1997. – x, 213 p.; 23 cm. – ISBN 0-333-64730-0

‘The finer thread, the tighter weave’ : essays on the short fiction of Henry James / edited by Joseph Dewey and Brooke Horvath. – West Lafayette, IN : Purdue University Press, 2001. – x, 291 p. : frontis. ; 24 cm. – ISBN 1-55753-207-9

a collection assembled in memory of William T. Stafford; the 17 essays are divided into ‘threads’, concentrating on single tales, and ‘weaves’ relating two or more, but all provide provocative readings; a good compendium of the sort of work being done on the shorter fictions at the turn of the century

The uncollected Henry James : newly discovered stories / edited by Floyd R. Horowitz. – New York : Carroll & Graf, 2004. – xv, 319 p. ; 24 cm. – ISBN 0-7867-1272-4

contents: The pair of slippers (1852); Woman’s influence; or, Incidents of a courtship (1858); The rainy day (1859); The village belle (1859); The sacrifice (1860); The rose-colored silk (1860); A winter story (1861); Sober second thought (1861); Alone (1861); The death of Colonel Thoureau (1861); The story of a ribbon bow (1862); A summer adventure (1862); My guardian and I (1862); Breach of promise of marriage (1862); A sealed tear (1863); ‘I’; or, Summer in the city (1863); The sprite transformed (1863); The blue handkerchief (1863); A cure for coquettes (1863); My lost darling (1863); One evening’s work (1865); Unto the least of these (1866); In a circus (1868); A hasty marriage (1869)

presents a selection of stories from those which Horowitz has identified, over the course of twenty years’s research, as being by James, on the basis of thematic, textual and computer analyses; a volume detailing his reasons is anticipated, to add to the brief notes in the appendices of this book, and will presumably generate a good deal of critical comment and, hopefully, argument in the future!

other specialities

The trial of curiosity : Henry James, William James, and the challenge of modernity / Ross Posnock. – New York ; Oxford : OUP, 1991. – xiv, 358 p.; 25 cm. – ISBN 0-19-506606-5

taking The American scene as his staring point, Posnock examines James’s role as cultural analyst

Reading Henry James in French cultural contexts / Pierre A. Walker – DeKalb : Northern Illinois University Press, 1995. – xxiii, 230 p.; 23 cm. – ISBN 0-87580-192-7

an important collection of discussions, in the Tintner tradition, of French influences and references in six of the major fictions

Henry James and the art of dress / Clair Hughes. – Basingstoke ; New York : Palgrave, 2001. – x, 216 p., 4 p. of plates : ill. ; 23 cm. – ISBN 0-333-91430-9

an unusual but highly rewarding light on James’s fiction, showing how his awareness of clothes, particularly as social indicators, informs his descriptions of his characters and their interactions

this selective bibliography and critical commentaries © 2003-2006
part of the Ladder : a Henry James website

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Adrian Dover – latest update 2006-09-14