Henry James: The Contemporary Reviews

Henry James: The Contemporary Reviews presents the most thorough gathering of newspaper and magazine reviews of James’s work ever assembled. Other volumes in the American Critical Archives series have concentrated on reviews from American publications, but because of the importance of James’s British connection, this issue generously samples reviews from British newspapers and periodicals. The focus here is on the novels, but reviews of James’s most important travel narrative are included as well. The volume ends with reviews of The American Scene, James’s impressionistic narrative of his relationship with his birthplace. This collection also reprints many rarely seen notices written by the most important women reviewers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Each chapter ends with a checklist of additional reviews not presented here. The introduction surveys the major themes of the reviews and also shows the extent to which they personally influenced James and his work.

• The most comprehensive collection of reviews of Henry James’s writing to date • Highlights the importance of James’s British connection by including sample reviews from British newspapers and periodicals • Includes reprints of many rarely seen notices written by the most important women reviewers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries

Series editor’s preface; Introduction; 1. Roderick Hudson; 2. The American; 3. The Europeans; 4. Daisy Miller; 5. Confidence; 6. Washington Square; 7. The Portrait of a Lady; 8. The Bostonians; 9. The Princess Casamassima; 10. The Reverberator; 11. The Aspern Papers; 12. The Tragic Muse; 13. Spoils of Poynton; 14. What Maisie Knew; 15. The Two Magics (including ‘The Turn of the Screw’); 16. The Awkward Age; 17. The Sacred Fount; 18. The Wings of the Dove; 19. The Ambassadors; 20. The Golden Bowl; 21. The American Scene; Index.

‘The most complete collection yet published of contemporary British and American magazines and newspaper reviews of James’s writings. … The introduction develops a valuable overview of James’s contemporary critical reception and his own shifting and ambivalent response to reviews. This indispensable volume will be of permanent value to James’ studies.’ The Henry James Review