Principessa Casamassima

I chose this (early in my acquaintance with James) for the plot: Henry James does radical London. I stayed for the style… I understand this is his ‘middle period’, without the tortuosity of his late; still with traits you either like or don’t. For me it was word-perfect – only a suspicion of wafflin Leggi tutto

Senryu Review: Dithering bookworm ponders violent revolt but prefers being bland

A great novel, even read as an inexpensive and indifferently copyedited ebook. Of course, it’s an even greater novel when followed up by Lionel Trilling’s famous essay about James’s novel in Trilling’s The Liberal Imagination (the essay is included in some editions of The Princess Casamassima as a p Leggi tutto

I got this title from a Thomas Pynchon novel I couldn't finish. (I think a dog was reading it.) That should have been a red flag. It's a weird book in that there's a lot to admire. Certainly, with its oppressive 1880s London atmosphere, I can see how this book would later impact Eliot ("Preludes") a Leggi tutto

Happy chance led me to read The Princess Casamassima directly after George Gissing’s Born in Exile . I had no idea that the two novels were so close in setting and theme. The leading character of James’s novel (published in 1886) is, like Gissing’s (1892), “born in exile.” Both are highly intelligent Leggi tutto

This is my first foray into the work of Henry James. His writing and character development are extraordinary. In his preface, James said, "One can never tell everything", and he is masterful in his choice of what he tells about each character. One of the pleasures of reading this novel is the delicio Leggi tutto