The New York Stories of Henry James

By Henry James
Selected and with an introduction by Colm Tóibín

Henry James led a wandering life, which took him far from his native shores, but he continued to think of New York City, where his family had settled for several years during his childhood, as his hometown. Here Colm Tóibín, the author of the Man Booker Prize–shortlisted novel The Master, a portrait of Henry James, brings together for the first time all the stories that James set in New York City. Written over the course of James's career and ranging from the deliciously tart comedy of the early "An International Episode" to the surreal and haunted corridors of "The Jolly Corner," and including "Washington Square," the poignant novella considered by many (though not, as it happens, by the author himself) to be one of James's finest achievements, the nine fictions gathered here reflect James's varied talents and interests as well as the deep and abiding preoccupations of his imagination. And throughout the book, as Tóibín's fascinating introduction demonstrates, we see James struggling to make sense of a city in whose rapidly changing outlines he discerned both much that he remembered and held dear as well as everything about America and its future that he dreaded most.

Stories included:
The Story of a Masterpiece
A Most Extraordinary Case
Crawford's Consistency
An International Episode
The Impressions of a Cousin
The Jolly Corner
Washington Square
Crapy Cornelia
A Round of Visits

Download the complete text of "The Jolly Corner."

Reviews

Perhaps of all the provinces in [James's] realm whose contours remain shadowy and whose topography is unresolved, the city of New York is a prime example. James's writings about New York disclose, more than anything, an anger, quite unlike any other anger in James, at what has been lost to him, what has been done, in the name of commerce and material progress, to a place he once knew. It is not an ordinary anger at the destruction of beauty and familiarity; it is much stranger and more complex than that, and it deserves a great deal of attention.
— From the Introduction by Colm Tóibín

Also see:

The Other House By Henry James Introduction by Louis Begley The savage conclusion of The Other House makes it one of the most disturbing and memorable of Henry James's depictions of the uncontrollable passions that lie beneath the polished veneer of civilized life.

The Outcry By Henry James Introduction by Jean Strouse Henry James's final novel is an effervescent comedy of money and manners.

The Ivory Tower By Henry James Introduction by Alan Hollinghurst Beginning among the great houses and sweeping seaviews of Newport, Rhode Island, with the underhanded deals and enduring animosities of New York's financial world lurking in the background, The Ivory Tower explores the predicaments of Rosanna Gaw and Graham Fielder, heirs to two rival tycoons.

Henry James Collection Three classics by Henry James at a special discount.

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