Henry James : Novels 1881-1886: Washington Square, The Portrait of a Lady, The Bostonians (Library of America) [Hardcover]

Henry James (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This volume in the Library of America's series on Henry James catches the author as he inaugurates his "middle period," the years when he wrote many of his best books. The three novels reprinted here concern women who must choose between competing alternatives. Catherine Sloper of Washington Square, plain and bookish, is romanced by the dashingly handsome Morris Townsend. But her father, sure that such a man could only love Catherine for her money, forbids her to see him. The young heroine of The Bostonians is torn between loyalty to her southern beau and her attraction to one of James's most unusual characters: a wealthy Boston feminist!

The Portrait of a Lady, arguably James's greatest novel, introduces us to Isabel Archer, a beautiful, vivacious, and independently minded American woman who travels to Europe and is seduced by its society. Her circle includes her terminally ill but deeply loving cousin, Ralph; the noble and adoring Lord Warburton; her witty and sarcastic friend Henrietta Stackpole; the meticulous aesthete Gilbert Osmond; the mysterious Madame Merle; and Caspar Goodwood, her passionate American suitor. Negotiating between the life each of them offers and represents, Isabel becomes part of one of the best books written about women's choices.

Movie buffs will be particularly interested in this volume, for all the novels in it have been made into films. The Bostonians was a Merchant-Ivory production in 1984. It starred Vanessa Redgrave as the feminist Olive Chancellor, sparring with southern gentleman Christopher Reeve! The Portrait of a Lady (1996), with Nicole Kidman and John Malkovich, was Jane Campion's opulent follow-up to The Piano. And Washington Square has been made into two major movies: the 1997 version starred Jennifer Jason- Leigh and Albert Finney; but the classic adaptation was William Wyler's 1949 film The Heiress, which starred Montgomery Clift, Ralph Richardson, Miriam Hopkins, and Olivia de Havilland in an Oscar-winning role. It's a real treat to read a superb book and then see how major filmmakers transform it into cinema that is compelling and entertaining it its own right. --Raphael Shargel

Review

James beginning to realize the height of his powers. -- Wall Street Journal

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Hardcover: 1249 pages
• Publisher: Library of America; 1St Edition edition (December 1, 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0940450305
• ISBN-13: 978-0940450301
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.2 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #104,826 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #30 in Books > Literature & Fiction > United States > 19th Century

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

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not the way to go for "Portrait", March 5, 2011

By 

J. Melancon - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Henry James : Novels 1881-1886: Washington Square, The Portrait of a Lady, The Bostonians (Library of America) (Hardcover)

The LOA editions of James are generally excellent and recommended, but their scholarly principle of choosing texts that represent James's first intentions presents a problem with "Portrait Of A Lady." As stated in the notes on the texts (p.1239), James "extensively revised" the novel for the New York Edition of 1908, "making this final version a very different book from the one that first appeared in 1881." It is the 1881 version that appears here, and it is inferior, if for no other reason than the abrupt ending (with the single line "On which he looked up at her."). The 1908 edition adds just a few more lines--brief, but breathtaking. If you're reading "Portrait Of A Lady" for the first time, definitely go for the revised version.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good entree into James, January 1, 2010

By 

charles saydah (nanuet, n.y.) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Henry James : Novels 1881-1886: Washington Square, The Portrait of a Lady, The Bostonians (Library of America) (Hardcover)

You want a way to get into a formidable writer, one whose collective work fills up a goodly portion of the Library of America bookshelf -- here's your passport. The three novels in this LOA volume are James' earliest and in some ways his most accessible. The chronological biography in the back is very helpful, as are the notes. The presentation is typical Library of America -- crisp 10-point Linotron Galliard against the characteristic LOA white paper makes for easy reading. At roughly 400 words per page, movement through the work seems swift, a considerable boost to tackling a 600-page novel novel like "Portrait of a Lady."
James requires a developed taste. He writes of a time and about places and people who may seem remote to contemporary readers. Don't be put off by a failure to penetrate him. This is handsome and ultimately useful volume to have of your shelf in the event that someday you'll try James once again and discover that those people, those places and that time are closer than you thought.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The joys of love. . . . are but a moment long, November 22, 2007

By 

Allen J. Horne "Poet and scholar" (Berkeley, California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Henry James : Novels 1881-1886: Washington Square, The Portrait of a Lady, The Bostonians (Library of America) (Hardcover)

Henry James, packaged in a beautiful book, with dark print on white pages, is the king of the nuance. To read him, you slow down, you enter his world, a scene of dusk and mood and marrow and sorrow. A novel as sweet as the vision of a cool bath in a marble tub, in a darkened chamber, in a hot land. Characters who sometimes do not get exactly what they want even though they want it. One far removed from current events and politics and global warming and death-defying high wire acts of short-sighted greed which are all net and no tightrope. Far removed and yet existing at the core where the personal is burnt into the societal and where a man sitting on an ottoman while a woman stands next to a fireplace predicts the ruin of the state.