The romance of certain old clothes was written in Cambridge, Mass., in the period of James’s ‘apprenticeship’, before his first solo trip to Europe. It was first published in the Boston-based Atlantic monthly in February 1868 and so was presumably a work of the previous year, 1867. James revised it in 1874 for his first book publication, the collection A passionate pilgrim and other tales (1875) and made further changes ten years later, including some of the characters’ names, for the British collection Stories revived (1885). Details of all later publications known to me containing the tale can be found on the relevant page of my index to Henry James’s tales in collections.
As mentioned above, the text on this website is taken from the first U.K. book edition, Stories revived (1885), subject to changes required by the editor’s standard editorial method. Only one other emendation has been made, in the punctuation, as follows:
|
location in 1885 Macmillan edition |
original text | correction |
|---|---|---|
| page 327, line 2 |
|
‘interesting’ – |
Because of the production method the text has been proof-read twice, but only by this editor, so it is possible that an error has slipped through both times – offers of proofing assistance will be gratefully received.
these notes
© 2005
part of an etext edition of
The romance of certain old clothes
on
the Ladder : a Henry James website