Il carteggio di Aspern e altri racconti

I need to write a review, but it is the first Henry James I’ve ever read and I am totally converted. Such an artistry and psychological insight! And suspense as well- superb.

Though others may have more sanguine ideas about Venice, my first visceral response when I think of the city is one of creepiness. I guess this is informed by my viewing the Nicolas Roeg direction of the Daphne du Maurier story "Don't Look Now" over thirty years ago. A subsequent reading of the stor Leggi tutto

This new Oxford edition (2013) sites `The Aspern Papers' alongside some of James' other short fictions which are concerned with literary life, especially the relationships between author, texts, and critics. Written between 1888-1896, the four stories collected here (`The Death of the Lion', `The Fig Leggi tutto

metterci un mese a leggere un libro di ottanta pagine può voler dire varie cose: attenzione fagocitata dal lavoro (possibile) lettrice in via di rimbambimento rapido (molto possibile) rapporto autore/lettrice non buono (certo). Le tre cose non si escludono a vicenda, ma quella certa è - appunto - certa. Leggi tutto

It’s funny, James and I can never quite click. I always remain impressed with him, but I can never fall in love. Something about his style feels too mannered somehow (and this from someone who loves William Gass!). I don’t know. But these were good, and well worth reading

Tre sono i racconti di Henry James raccolti in questo libro, accomunati dall’ambientazione italiana in cui si muovono personaggi quasi esclusivamente anglosassoni: Il carteggio Aspern a Venezia, Daisy Miller a Roma e Il diario di un uomo di cinquant’anni a Firenze. A narrare la prima storia è un cr Leggi tutto

Every so often, I resolve to try to read Henry James: last time was about ten years ago, when I came across a copy of Italian Hours , which James' level of condescension towards Italy made me abandon after about 50 pages. Having been given this slim volume, I decided once again to see whether I coul Leggi tutto

This masterpiece by James is probably well known to most readers of this brief review. All I'm going to say, therefore, is that I was very impressed by James's ability to build tension/anticipation into his narrative. About half way through I began to read more continuously and perhaps even a bit ha Leggi tutto

Although I used to joke that this book and a few of the shorter novels constituted my "HJ training wheels" phase, this is not a collection to be taken lightly. I especially enjoy all of the Oxford World Classics versions of James, something to do with the way the paper feels and the font they use. I Leggi tutto

Henry James at the height of his prowess, in a collection of novellas and stories centering around the artist, his dedication to art, and to the adulation critics or admirers sometimes bestow on the artist. Surely no one in the English language writes novellas like James did--I think he is, at his s Leggi tutto