INGLES GRADO 11

ÁMERICAN LITERATURE
HENRY JAMES

EDUARDO JOSE COLON ARAUJO

JORGE ISAC PIÑERES CORRALES

CENTRO DE ENSEÑANZA PRECOZ

“LICEO VALDERRAMA”

MONTERIA

2019
 INTRODUCTION

Henry James was a tireless writer who revolutionized the narrative and elevated it to the

category of artwork. He lived the growth and boom of his country, the United States, and the

decline of his place of adoption, Europe, understood them and found the link between the

two cultures, the two mentalities and the different moments of his historical reality. He, like

no one, represents the model of the cosmopolitan writer who is able to observe with due

distancing, but also with great affection, the virtues and defects of a complex world that, at

that time, was changing rapidly while he was describing it.

 HERNRY JAMES

Henry James was born in Washington Place in New York City on April 15, 1843. His

parents were Mary Walsh and Henry James. His father was intelligent, friendly, a speaker

and philosopher who had inherited the independent means of his father, Albany. Banker

and investor. His mother, Mary, came from a wealthy family long established in New York

City.

Henry James had four brothers, the eldest, William James, who was a famous psychologist

and philosopher and his younger brothers Wilkinson (Wilkie), Robertson and Alice.

The family resided first in Albany, and then moved when James was still a child to Catorce

Street in New York City.

His education was planned by his father to expose him to many influences, mainly

scientific and philosophical; I didn’t share the usual education in the Latin and Greek

classics. He studied mainly with tutors and briefly attended schools, due to the family’s

continuous trips to Europe.

Between 1855 and 1860, his family lived in many places such as London, Paris, Geneva,

Boulogne-sur-Mer and Newport, Rhode Island, always based on the interests of his father

and publishing companies, although when the money began to deplete they were going

back to the United States.

The family stayed in France for a long time there, Henry James, he began to feel at home

and became fluent in French, he was afflicted with a stutter, which seems to have manifested

itself only when he spoke English; In French, he did not stutter.

In the fall of 1861, Henry James received a wound, probably in the back, while fighting a

fire. This injury was present throughout his life, which made him unfit for military service

in the American Civil War.

The Harvard University Law School welcomed him in 1862, however, some time later he
understood that he did not want to study law. From there he focused on literature and related

to writers and critics

In 1864, the family moved to Boston, Massachusetts, to be close to William, his older

brother, who had first enrolled at the Harvard Lawrence Scientific School and then at the

medical school.

The first work done by James, published in 1863, was a review of a theatrical presentation,

“Miss Maggie Mitchell in Fanchon the Cricket.” A year later, his first story Tragedy of Error,

which was published anonymously. (See: Juan Gelman )

His first payment was for an appreciation of Sir Walter Scott’s novels, written for the North

American Review. He wrote works of fiction and nonfiction for The Nation and Atlantic

Monthly, where Fields was editor. In 1871 he published his first novel, Watch and Ward, in

series form in the Atlantic Monthly. The novel was subsequently published in book form in

1978.

He traveled to Europe between 1869-1870, where he met Ruskin, Charles Dickens , Matthew

Arnold, William Morris and George Eliot. Rome impressed him deeply, there he tried to

remain a freelance writer, and then secured a position as a correspondent in Paris for the New

York Tribune, thanks to the influence of his editor John Hay. When these efforts failed, he

returned to New York City.

In 1869 he settled in London. There he maintained relations with Macmillan and other

publishers, who paid for the serial deliveries that they would later publish in book form. The

audience of these serial novels was largely composed of middle class women.

During 1874 and 1875 he published Transatlantic Sketches, A Passionate Pilgrim, and

Roderick Hudson. During this initial period of his career, he was influenced by Hawthorne.

In the fall of 1875, he moved to the Latin Quarter of Paris. In addition to two trips to the

United States, he spent the rest of his life, in Europe, he stayed in Paris only one year before
moving to London.

In England he met the main figures of politics and culture. He continued to be an

inexhaustible writer, producing The American (1877), The European (1878), a review of

Watch and Ward (1878), French Poets and Novelists (1878), Hawthorne (1879) and several

short fiction works.

In 1877 he first visited Wenlock Abbey in Shropshire, home of his friend Charles Milnes

Gaskell, this place was the inspiration for his essay Abbeys and Castles. In particular, it is

believed that the gloomy monastic ponds behind the abbey inspired the lake in The Turn of

the Screw.

In 1878 Henry James began his first masterpiece. The portrait of a lady, which would appear

in 1881.

During his stay in London, he studied the trajectory of Émile Zola, whose style techniques

affected his works in the coming years. Henry James, visited America in 1882-1883, then

returned to London. (See article: Virginia Woolf )

The coming years constituted difficult times for Henry James. His mother died in 1881, a

destination shared by his father a few months later, and then by his brother Wilkie, likewise,

Emerson, an old family friend, died in 1882 and his friend Turgenev died in 1883.

In 1884 Henry James made another visit to Paris. There he met Zola, Daudet and Goncourt.

Henry James, had been following the careers of these French realist or naturalist writers, and

was increasingly influenced by them, proof of this was his work The Bostonians and The

Princess Casamassima, published in 1886, but the critical reaction and sales were bad.

After Guy Domville’s failed stage in 1895, Henry James was almost desperate and thoughts

of death tormented him.

The years spent in dramatic works were not entirely a loss. As he moved towards the last

phase of his career, he found ways to adapt the dramatic techniques in a novel way.
In the late 80s and during the 90s, Henry James made several trips around Europe. He spent

a long stay in Italy in 1887. In that year the short novel The Aspern Papers and The

Reverberator was published.

In 1897-1898 he moved to Rye, Sussex, and wrote The Turn of the Screw. Between 1899

and 1900 he published The Awkward Age and The Sacred Fount. During 1902 and 1904 he

wrote The Ambassadors, The Wings of the Dove and The Golden Bowl.

In 1904 he reviewed America and gave a conference on Balzac. In 1906 and 1910 he

published The American Scene and edited the New York Edition, a 24-volume collection of

his works. Six years later his brother William died; Henry James had recently traveled with

William and was close to him, according to a letter he wrote, when he died.

Later, in 1913, he wrote his autobiographies, A Small Boy and Others, and Notes of a Son

and Brother. After the outbreak of World War I in 1914, he did war work. In 1916 he was

awarded the Order of Merit.

Henry James dies on February 28, 1916, in Chelsea, London. As he requested, his ashes were

buried in the Cambridge cemetery in Massachusetts.

His masterpiece and the one that lasted the longest in writing was the portrait of a lady who

tries to Isabel and Osmond move to Rome, but their marriage deteriorates rapidly due to

Osmond's selfishness and his lack of true affection for his wife. Isabel sympathizes with

Pansy, Osmond's daughter from a first marriage, and wants her to marry Edward Rosier, a

young art collector. Osmond prefers Pansy to accept Warburton's proposal. Isabel suspects,

however, that Warburton may simply be faking interest in Pansy to approach her again.

The conflict creates even more tension in the marriage. Isabel learns that Ralph is dying on

his estate in England and prepares to go see him, but Osmond objects. In the end Isabel learns

that Pansy is actually the daughter of Merle, who had an adulterous relationship with

Osmond for several years.

Isabel visits Pansy, who desperately asks her to return one day, something that Isabel

reluctantly promises. He then goes to England, without saying anything to his spiteful

husband, to comfort Ralph, where he remains until his death. Goodwood finds her at Ralph's

house and begs him to leave Osmond and go out with him. Passionately hugs her, but Isabel

runs away. Goodwood looks for her the next day, but finds out she has returned to Rome. The

end is ambiguous, and the reader has to imagine if Isabel returned to Osmond or if she is

going to rescue Pansy and leave Osmond.

 CONCLUTION.

Hery James was an Américan writer and literary critic, British nationalized at

the end of his life, who is known for his novels and stories based on the technique

of the point of view, which allows him the psychological analysis of the

characters from within. He was the son of Henry James Sr. and younger brother

of the philosopher and psychologist William James. Henry, spent a lot of time

in Europe he also died of a stroke.

 BIBLIOGRAPHY

 https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-James-American-writer
 http://www.lecturalia.com/autor/2918/henry-james
 https://www.cicutadry.es/henry-james-una-introduccion-retrato-
del-escritor-como-artista/
 https://es.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_James