Beast in the Jungle [Paperback]

Henry James (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2003

What determined the speech that startled him in the course of their encounter scarcely matters, being probably but some words spoken by himself quite without intention -- spoken as they lingered and slowly moved together after their renewal of acquaintance. He had been conveyed by friends an hour or two before to the house at which she was staying. The great rooms caused so much poetry and history to press upon him that he needed some straying apart to feel in a proper relation with them. They led to his closer meeting with May Bartram, whose face had begun merely by troubling him rather pleasantly. . . .

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Henry James was born in 1843 in New York, of Scottish and Irish ancestry. His father was a prominent theologian and philosopher and his elder brother, William, was also famous as a philosopher. He attended schools in New York and later in London, Paris and Geneva, entering the Law School at Harvard in 1862. In 1865 he began to contribute reviews and short stories to American journals. In 1875, after two prior visits to Europe, he settled in Paris, where he met Flaubert, Turgenev and other literary figures. However, the next year he moved to London, where he became so popular in society that in the winter of 1878-9 he confessed to accepting 107 invitations. He wrote some twenty highly popular and influential novels, including The Portrait of a Lady and The Bostonians. He became a naturalized citizen in 1915, was awarded the Order of Merit and died in London in 1916. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 132 pages
• Publisher: Wildside Press (September 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 159224470X
• ISBN-13: 978-1592244706
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,730,162 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Henry James (1843-1916), the son of the religious philosopher Henry James Sr. and brother of the psychologist and philosopher William James, published many important novels including Daisy Miller, The Wings of the Dove, The Golden Bowl, and The Ambassadors.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For serious readers only, February 17, 2010

By 

T. Zenger (Huntsville, UT USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Beast in the Jungle (Paperback)

If you're prone to lazy reading this is not the book for you. Henry James "late style" of writing is challenging at best, forcing the reader to pick through agonizing sentences in order to uncover the meat of the story. But the reward, especially the final chapter, is worth the work. The conclusion is so beautifully phrased and poignant that your heart will ache. Maybe you'll wonder, as I did, whether or not you've made the most of your life or if you've been held back by fear. James insight into the human psychy is almost scary. He's able to analyze, then present, with great accuracy the way we work in our heads and most especially in our hearts. Tuck yourself up by the fire and give "The Beast in the Jungle" a couple of hours of your time. It will be worth it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars James Rex, April 9, 2011

By 

D. Mirenzi (Marysville, PA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Beast in the Jungle (Paperback)

Henry James is an extraordinary writer (as is his brother, William). His themes are interior, and the psychological development of characters is acutely and penetratingly drawn. For the very young (generally of limited life experience), Henry will be a colossal bore. For readers with serious tread wear, Mr. James is a pleaseure to be tasted again and again.

I am going through James for the third time. It has not been (nor was it ever) a disappointment. I read James in my 20s, again in my 40s, and now again (hopefully not for the last time!) in my mid 60's. There is this singular great thing about good books: whatever your stage in life, you get something illuminating from them, and as your life's perspectives change, new things are found in even the most familiar work.

For someone now batting in the 8th inning of life, "The Beast in the Jungle" offers me a particularly apt (and painful) lesson. It hurts, and it hurts big. Few people under 40 (perhaps even 50) would feel the full measure of poignancy that this story so tellingly and so convincingly portrays.

One does not glide through Henry James without effort. His works do not read like pop fiction, so if you are a little short on attention span or a little apathetic in taking the time to stand back in awe of a magnificent literary edifice, then you'd better stick to the top 20 fiction bestseller lists for your entertainment. James is also entertaining (if you like to laugh and cry at the tragic, sad, flawed, but often exhilaratingly upbeat human spectacle), but James' entertainment demands (and reveals) a great deal more than from the "standard" popular authors.

Do yourself a favor and read this short story.

5.0 out of 5 stars BETTER TO HAVE LOVED AND LOST, July 5, 2011

By 

DAVID BRYSON (Glossop Derbyshire England) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Beast in the Jungle (Paperback)

Readers who know Henry James but can't take him are unlikely to be converted to him by The Beast in the Jungle. Those of us who adore his way of writing are in consequence their polar opposites, James's style being one that could have been designed to polarise opinions. Whether there is much middle ground, and whether many readers occupy it, I have no way of knowing, but I doubt it -- I guess if you know his work in the first place you are likely to be either with him or against him.

I suppose my reason for writing a review, even such a short one as this, is to try to flag up this extraordinary piece of work by an extraordinary genius to any newcomers on the block who have an inkling that it might be their cup of tea. I don't propose to 'sell' The Beast in the Jungle to anyone at all, but presumably I can at least say that it is hardly more than a short story in length, and that if you lose your investment you will not be losing very much. I need to say something about the style, quite obviously after what I have just said above; and then draw attention to the story itself and its denouement, which for me is powerful in the extreme.

James's sentences are like great elaborate sculptures, worked on with patience and concentration. There are other things in English prose that they resemble to some extent, but not many. Mr Gladstone's orations come to mind, but what I am most reminded of is no less than Paradise Lost in the length and the 'periodic' structure of the sentences with their elaborate subordinate clauses. However I can reassure you that James's idiom is at least 'genuine' English. Samuel Johnson and T S Eliot both alleged that the diction of Paradise Lost was nothing of the kind. Whether they were right or wrong, you will at least not find that kind of Beast lurking in wait for you. Long ago the study of classical Greek was still not uncommon, and any who can still read the speeches in Thucydides will probably get the same experience as I did, having to retrace, both there and here, the clauses in their elaborate relationships to check what follows on what.

I only identified the Beast at the same instant as John Marcher does in the story, and I was hardly less torn apart by it. I could have been another of its victims if things had not gone right. The whole story with its unspecific allusions flashed back through my head, and I had to reflect what great storytelling I thought it had all been. The ending could not have been what it is but for the way the earlier story is told in those great convoluted pronouncements. How does it sound as if it might appeal to you or at least excite your curiosity? If you miss an experience that might affect you in the way it affects me and others, you risk the vengeance of another (albeit lesser) Beast.