Customer Reviews

Henry James: Complete Stories 1874-1884 (Library of America)

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The Library of America has published 5 volumes of Henry Jame stories, covering 1864 - 1910, and I'm hooked. Henry James has to be read slowly; every word he writes seems to matter to the story. He is a master craftman of the English language, and can say so much without being explicit.

James wrote most of these 19 short stories while living in London and visiting the continent. This volume of his stories starts with "Professor Fargo" and ends with "The Author of 'Beltraffio'". But, perhaps the most famous of the stories included here is "Daisy Miller: A Study." Few, if any, of these stories will disappoint a 20th century reader.

Unlike some fortunate reviewers, who have had careers as librarians or who have degrees in English Literatue, I started reading authors like Henry James on my own. I approach a author just for the pleasure of reading his/her work. I started reading Henry James with these short stories and have graduated to his novels. At first his writing seemed slow and stiff. But, once I settled into the cadence of his writing, I concluded that this suited the formality of the upper classes he wrote about. Now, I can't seem to put down one of his stories until the end.

James wrote so much during his life that it seems impossible to read all that he wrote, but I think I'll try.

Volume 2 of the LoA edition of James' complete stories contains 19 stories which mostly circle around love and society conventions. Apparently he could not quite make up his mind whether he supported conventions or whether he sympathized more with unruly attitudes. My working hypothesis is the underdog attitude: if the outsider loses, James is with him. If she wins, James is against her.
It is also not so clear whether James admires women of an independent mind, or not. He assembles many unusual women here: the deaf mute math genius, the widowed novelist, the blind scholar's good daughter, the unruly valley girl, the fiercely virginal single, the American tiger mom, the determined social climber ...
Quite a few of the stories focus on American vs. English or European manners and habits; when it is not the main theme, it is often there as an undercurrent. James liked to poke fun at Americans and English alike, but I daresay he overdid the caricature of English people using the ridiculous idiom `I daresay'.
Not all stories have lasting value; some don't have much to go for them but the master's beautiful language.

Professor Fargo: sleazy itinerant show includes a bankrupt mathematical genius and his gifted deaf mute daughter; she falls for the boss con man and leaves her father. Weakness in plot: daughter is deaf because her mother was deaf after a lab explosion.

Eugene Pickering: narrator meets childhood friend in gambling place and watches the young man fall in love with and then be rejected by an older independent woman.

Benvolio: fairy tale about a man who can't make up his mind and ends somewhere lost between the good opportunities that were available to him, like Buridan's ass.

Crawford's Consistency: wealthy NY bachelor loves a beauty, whose ambitious parents first accept him, but then ditch him when a richer suitor shows up; inexplicably he sinks into a self-destructive mode and marries an abominable hag.

The Ghostly Rental: ghost story with some charm but little conviction.

Four Meetings: a poor young romantic woman from New England is conned out of her little money by her `cousin' in France and his `countess' wife.

Rose-Agathe: a silly little tale about a man in love with a coiffeur's mannequin.

Daisy Miller: one of the master's masterpieces and most famous stories. Young American woman in Italy gets ostracized by expat caste society for breaking the rules.

Longstaff's Marriage: beautifully told little romantic nonsense about two rich idle people toying with love and death.

An International Episode: lightweight comedic tale about communication trouble between English and American upper class.

The Pension Beaurepas: an American tiger mom in the center of this Geneva tale about Americans abroad. A typical James narrator is tempted, briefly, to save the poor daughter from her mom's entrapment, but cowardice wins again. With James, romance rarely takes a solid foothold.

The Diary of a Man of Fifty: an unmarried English general returns to Florence after 25 years and reminisces about a past love affair. Not a great achievement as a story. Only interesting aspect is the gradual change of tone in the diary entries from romantic nostalgia to bitter and aggressive self-justification.

A Bundle of Letters: emancipated girl from Maine travels alone to Europe and writes letters to her mom. She will not lead an ordinary life, no way. Some letters by her companions in the Parisian pension have contrasting view points.

The Point of View: one of my favorites in this volume, a satirical collection of letters about America from visitors and returnees, addressed to people in Europe.

The Siege of London: naïve young baronet falls for older `experienced' American woman, who wants to get into London society to take revenge on New York.

The Impressions of a Cousin: an orphan's trustee has fiddled with the estate and tries to wriggle out of the problem; narrated by a spinsterly cousin of the victim.

Lady Barberina: another favorite. Wealthy young American medical doctor falls in love with pretty English aristocrat, and is shocked that his fortune is considered unsafe and his profession a disgrace. The next shock is his wife's inability to adjust to life in the US and her younger sister's elopement with an American `moustache'.

Pandora: young German diplomat in Washington meets the `self-made American girl' and fails to open the proverbial box.

The Author of `Beltraffio': abominable private life of a writing genius as narrated by a young fool. Not funny.

Why is Amazon listing this book, Henry James: Complete Stories 1874-1884 as available new? I ordered it in February and never received it. Amazon notified me frequently of continuing delays and, then, a few weeks ago cancelled the order, the book being unavailable.

I have since ordered a used copy and received it without delay!

The stories, of course, all five volumes, are perfection, delight, wondrous! The edition is beautiful and feels good to hold: print is very small and on thin paper but still easy to read. The hardback bindings hold the pages together securely yet allow the reader to hold the book open without a lot of effort. The little ribbon marker is a nice touch.