Although Owen Wingrave is often included among Henry James’s ghost stories, a close reading reveals very little of the ectoplasmic ancestor and a great deal of history, atmosphere and psychology in the Wingrave family (note the obvious resonance of that name, by the way). This of course has given James’s biographers, starting with Leon Edel, ample opportunity to read the tale ‘biographically’. The more so in that, according to the initial notebook entry, the idea developed in James’s mind after reading the memoirs of one of Napoleon’s generals, Marcelin Marbot. Reading forwards, we recall that in his final illness James suffered delusions that he was Napoleon, and behold, a ready made key! Naturally, nothing is ever that simple, but this rejection of generations of military tradition by the educated Owen, projected by James in the early 1890s, can still throw light on British aristocratic and upper-middle class attitudes to those unimaginable horrors then in the future: the Boer War (1899-1901) and the Great War (1914-1918). Again, we find Henry James less the aloof artist, carving small pieces of ivory for his own satisfaction, and more the far-seeing one, in touch with the big questions of his day, producing the art which “makes life, makes interest”.

For details of the text sources and subsequent critical discussion see the bibliography. You may be interested in details of any problems I encountered while editing the source text for its presentation here, which can be found on a separate page, otherwise just start reading.

Adrian Dover