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Some Short Stories [By Henry James]
Excerpt: ... one," she had said to Voyt in answer to a question about her usual practice; "for I seem with it to get hold more of the real thing-to get more life for my money. Only I'm not so infatuated with them but that sometimes for months and months on end I don't read any fiction at all." The two books were now together beside them. "Then when you begin again you read a mass?" "Dear no. I only keep up with three or four authors." He laughed at this over the cigarette he had been allowed to light. "I like your 'keeping up, ' and keeping up in particular with 'authors.'" "One must keep up with somebody," Mrs. Dyott threw off. "I daresay I'm ridiculous," Mrs. Blessingbourne conceded without heeding it; "but that's the way we express ourselves in my part of the country." "I only alluded," said Voyt, "to the tremendous conscience of your sex. It's more than mine can keep up with. You take everything too hard. But if you can't read the novel of British and American manufacture, heaven knows I'm at one with you. It seems really to show our sense of life as the sense of puppies and kittens." "Well," Maud more patiently returned, "I'm told all sorts of people are now doing wonderful things; but somehow I remain outside." "Ah it's THEY, it's our poor twangers and twaddlers who remain outside. They pick up a living in the street. And who indeed would want them in?" Mrs. Blessingbourne seemed unable to say, and yet at the same time to have her idea. The subject, in truth, she evidently found, was not so easy to handle. "People lend me things, and I try; but at the end of fifty pages-" "There you are! Yes-heaven help us!" "But what I mean," she went on, "isn't that I don't get woefully weary of the eternal French thing. What's THEIR sense of life?" "Ah voila!" Mrs. Dyott softly sounded. "Oh but it IS one; you can make it out," Voyt promptly declared. "They do what they feel, and they feel more things than we. They strike so many more notes, and with so different a...
72 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1902
About the author
Henry James
4,856 books4,156 followersHenry James was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the son of Henry James Sr. and the brother of philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James.
He is best known for his novels dealing with the social and marital interplay between émigré Americans, the English, and continental Europeans, such as The Portrait of a Lady. His later works, such as The Ambassadors, The Wings of the Dove and The Golden Bowl were increasingly experimental. In describing the internal states of mind and social dynamics of his characters, James often wrote in a style in which ambiguous or contradictory motives and impressions were overlaid or juxtaposed in the discussion of a character's psyche. For their unique ambiguity, as well as for other aspects of their composition, his late works have been compared to Impressionist painting.
His novella The Turn of the Screw has garnered a reputation as the most analysed and ambiguous ghost story in the English language and remains his most widely adapted work in other media. He wrote other highly regarded ghost stories, such as "The Jolly Corner".
James published articles and books of criticism, travel, biography, autobiography, and plays. Born in the United States, James largely relocated to Europe as a young man, and eventually settled in England, becoming a British citizen in 1915, a year before his death. James was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1911, 1912, and 1916. Jorge Luis Borges said "I have visited some literatures of East and West; I have compiled an encyclopedic compendium of fantastic literature; I have translated Kafka, Melville, and Bloy; I know of no stranger work than that of Henry James."
He is best known for his novels dealing with the social and marital interplay between émigré Americans, the English, and continental Europeans, such as The Portrait of a Lady. His later works, such as The Ambassadors, The Wings of the Dove and The Golden Bowl were increasingly experimental. In describing the internal states of mind and social dynamics of his characters, James often wrote in a style in which ambiguous or contradictory motives and impressions were overlaid or juxtaposed in the discussion of a character's psyche. For their unique ambiguity, as well as for other aspects of their composition, his late works have been compared to Impressionist painting.
His novella The Turn of the Screw has garnered a reputation as the most analysed and ambiguous ghost story in the English language and remains his most widely adapted work in other media. He wrote other highly regarded ghost stories, such as "The Jolly Corner".
James published articles and books of criticism, travel, biography, autobiography, and plays. Born in the United States, James largely relocated to Europe as a young man, and eventually settled in England, becoming a British citizen in 1915, a year before his death. James was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1911, 1912, and 1916. Jorge Luis Borges said "I have visited some literatures of East and West; I have compiled an encyclopedic compendium of fantastic literature; I have translated Kafka, Melville, and Bloy; I know of no stranger work than that of Henry James."
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
December 24, 2015
Melodrama in James is sordid in a very instrumentalist way; there is nothing overly redemptive or sickly touching about the characters. It is the atmosphere that is the result, the outcome, the end of the situation, and the action unfolding is mere fleshing out of character. My favorites from this collection are 'The Story of It', and 'Flickerbridge'.
'The Story of It' has a metaphysical intrigue accentuated by its unreliable narrator. The definition of the male protagonist of passion as 'the enemy to behavior' and the subsequent debate whether a women can remain innocent after having seen or having 'floundered out' is very lucid.
I love James's male hysterical characters. The doom felt by Granger in 'Flickerbridge' is an adequate mirror of his ego in its sexual flourishes maddening the basic argument he makes. There is no way feminists can be kind to him. Still I wonder, if I ever come to finding something as beautiful or perfect like that, if I could share it- if I could share it with someone benevolent to share it with more people. I like to call this the magic paradox: how can you know if someone close to you knows magic? What if he loses his power if he tells you?
One of the grand secret themes of James's work is his concern with the past and its 'spoiling'. Look at this evocative line from 'The Beast in the Jungle': It was in the way the autumn day looked into the high windows as it waned; the way the red light, breaking at the close from under a low sombre sky, reached out in a long shaft and played over old wainscots, old tapestry, old gold, old colour.
James describes weather so adeptly, especially afternoons.
'The Story of It' has a metaphysical intrigue accentuated by its unreliable narrator. The definition of the male protagonist of passion as 'the enemy to behavior' and the subsequent debate whether a women can remain innocent after having seen or having 'floundered out' is very lucid.
I love James's male hysterical characters. The doom felt by Granger in 'Flickerbridge' is an adequate mirror of his ego in its sexual flourishes maddening the basic argument he makes. There is no way feminists can be kind to him. Still I wonder, if I ever come to finding something as beautiful or perfect like that, if I could share it- if I could share it with someone benevolent to share it with more people. I like to call this the magic paradox: how can you know if someone close to you knows magic? What if he loses his power if he tells you?
One of the grand secret themes of James's work is his concern with the past and its 'spoiling'. Look at this evocative line from 'The Beast in the Jungle': It was in the way the autumn day looked into the high windows as it waned; the way the red light, breaking at the close from under a low sombre sky, reached out in a long shaft and played over old wainscots, old tapestry, old gold, old colour.
James describes weather so adeptly, especially afternoons.
March 18, 2022
I haven't made it through a lot of Henry James before (I read part of Washington Square and then left it on a bus!) so these were an education. I'm not sure I always get the subtle commentary but I appreciate the look into the nooks and crannies of the British class system.
Brooksmith - a servant gets "above his station" getting interested in intellectual salons and can't find a place after his employer dies, gradually taking worse jobs and getting sicker. Pretty brutal deconstruction of the class system. What if you're not a "servile" or unintellectual person but you're born into it?
The Real Thing - the gentile poor try to become artists' models but can't be anything other than themselves.
The Story of It - honestly I already forgot this one. Two widows who are friends, one has a boyfriend who charms the other. Not totally sure what this is about. She's into French novels but finds them repetitive so maybe looking for a non-repetitive romance?
Flickerbridge - this is the one that confuses me the most. An artist falls in love with the idea of a spinster relative of his fiancee's - not in love with her but the picturesqueness of her in her crumbling mansion. He's convinced the fiancee, a writer, will write about it and ruin it, so he just leaves, abandoning the fiance. Cold! I guess he realizes they have a fundamentally different way of seeing the world. He wants to preserve, she wants to advertise? Maybe?
Mrs. Medwin - interesting one. A poor American uses her charm to get British women (I guess, upper middle class? New money?) in with the cool girls (gentry?). Then they pay her. For some reason, no one wants Mrs. Medwin at the cool table. The poor American's rapscallion brother at first seems like he'll throw a wrench in the works but actually helps.
Brooksmith - a servant gets "above his station" getting interested in intellectual salons and can't find a place after his employer dies, gradually taking worse jobs and getting sicker. Pretty brutal deconstruction of the class system. What if you're not a "servile" or unintellectual person but you're born into it?
The Real Thing - the gentile poor try to become artists' models but can't be anything other than themselves.
The Story of It - honestly I already forgot this one. Two widows who are friends, one has a boyfriend who charms the other. Not totally sure what this is about. She's into French novels but finds them repetitive so maybe looking for a non-repetitive romance?
Flickerbridge - this is the one that confuses me the most. An artist falls in love with the idea of a spinster relative of his fiancee's - not in love with her but the picturesqueness of her in her crumbling mansion. He's convinced the fiancee, a writer, will write about it and ruin it, so he just leaves, abandoning the fiance. Cold! I guess he realizes they have a fundamentally different way of seeing the world. He wants to preserve, she wants to advertise? Maybe?
Mrs. Medwin - interesting one. A poor American uses her charm to get British women (I guess, upper middle class? New money?) in with the cool girls (gentry?). Then they pay her. For some reason, no one wants Mrs. Medwin at the cool table. The poor American's rapscallion brother at first seems like he'll throw a wrench in the works but actually helps.
October 15, 2015
Some Stories by Henry James is a small Kindle collection of tales long out of copyright that can be downloaded for free and freely enjoyed. In some ways the best of them is “Brooksmith,” about a head butler who descends to the depths when the master whom he apparently was made to serve dies. After that comes “The Real Thing” about a socially threadbare couple desperate to find a way to make a living and finding that handsome though they are, they lack the spark and flair necessary to be good artist’s models. And then there is “Mrs.Medwin,” which is less about Mrs. Medwin than about Miss Cutter, an American who helps other Americans get a footing in the English social scene . . . for a fee, of course.
But the subject of all these tales is the perennial Jamesian theme of social relations, upside down or downside up, and their essence is not really the story but rather James’s unflagging craftsmanship in turning almost any toy box into a museum quality collection. These are not “great” stories in the way that A Portrait of a Lady or “The Turn of the Screw” are great stories, but they are excellent examples of what a brilliant writer who wrote for a living can do when there is no great story to be written. The “lesser” James is better than most other writers because of his psychological acuity, his skill as a stylist, and his tempo in presenting scene after scene in such a way that a complete fiction comes together at just the right time.
There are readers who probably could not care less about many of the characters in this collection who nonetheless will enjoy the way those characters are “worked up,” to use a Jamesian formulation. He is ironic but never unkind, penetrating but never excessively so. He has a knack for pinpointing the meaningful weaknesses of a figure without discrediting completely said figure’s innate dignity. In a sense James’s overarching purpose is to handle his work objectively but morally. He does not need war or political chicanery to hit this note because he is so deft in summoning the metaphors of war and political chicanery as he describes the antics of the drawing room, where ordinary people live subtly extraordinary lives in the works of a master.
Don’t read this collection first if you are new to James. Read it if you’ve read lots of him and want to read a bit more.
June 2, 2015
Loooooong winded. Excruciatingly slow and wordy. Stuffy. Outdated. Irritating. At the same time, deep. Truthful. Tragic. Sad. Beautiful. It was an ordeal to read, but two of the stories made it worthy of my trouble: Brooksmith and The Real Thing. The author is deeply sympathetic and understanding towards the predicament of the characters (the butler in the first and the couple in the second), making them stand out in all their doomed glory. He's gut-wrenching in those two stories. They were the reason I finished the book.
February 3, 2015
Nice book, good solid stories. Sad, interesting, and attention-holding. Sometimes the dialogue is too vague for me, I have felt that in other Henry James books, although I like Henry James and persist in reading through his stuff.
I read this book while reading short stories by D.H. Lawrence at the same time. And, while D.H. is an incredible writer when it comes to interpersonal relationships, he is so so so repetitive, I have to say that Henry James by far Takes. The. Cake.
I read this book while reading short stories by D.H. Lawrence at the same time. And, while D.H. is an incredible writer when it comes to interpersonal relationships, he is so so so repetitive, I have to say that Henry James by far Takes. The. Cake.
October 8, 2016
I liked Henry James' short stories very much. Had I been born a century earlier I am sure I would have liked them even more.
October 23, 2021
This collection from the early 1920s was my first experience of James. I found his writing to be social, not natural; nuanced rather than active and almost pictorial as opposed to being narrative. In addition, he is at times frustratingly obtuse. The actual point of what his characters are trying to get at or feeling is far too often subsumed under sentences and paragraphs so long winded and opaque as to make the careful reader have to go back and read the sentence or passage again. And this does not always clarify the confusion.
In one of the five stories, there is a one or two paragraph preliminary describing the weather. And that is it for the entirety of all five stories. It is as if James was totally oblivious to the fact that there is a natural world of trees, clouds, waters and weather within which human beings live and with which they have at times quite an emotional interconnection. His is a totally social analysis of the human condition: everything has to do with one’s relation to other people and nothing to one’s place in the natural world.
I cannot think of another writer as nuanced in his descriptions. His writing can be very delightful when he gets down to describing people and the impressions they make on others. When Granger is fascinated by Miss Wenham at Flickerbridge, he thinks of her thus: ‘The term of comparison to him was that of some obsolete musical instrument. The old time order of her mind and her air had the stillness of a painted spinet that was duly dusted, gently rubbed but never played on.’ Scott Homer in ‘Mrs. Medwin' represents ‘the perfection of an indifference … he looked all his shabbiness, all his cleverness, all his history … in his premature baldness, his seamed strained face, the lapse from bravery of his long tawny moustache, above all in his easy friendly universally acquainted eye, so much too sociable for mere conversation’. Rather than having to reread such descriptions for a better understanding, one rereads them to marvel at the penetration of the writer’s understanding.
It is no accident that two of the protagonists in five of these stories are artists: one a portrait painter, the other an illustrator of novels. I came increasingly to feel that James was not really telling a narrative story in any of these short pieces as much as he was colouring in a tableau to depict his vision of a reality: a servant without a good post, a destitute couple trying to make a go of modelling, a reader of French novels who tries to hide her true feelings, a young man who was planning to marry but realizes they are not suited and a woman astute enough to turn her seemingly feckless brother to positive account. In each of these stories it is a static, stationary impression that is left, not one of a flowing narrative arc.
I’m not going to give up on James and will definitely take on some of longer works. For flexing one’s receptive muscles as a reader, he really has few challengers.
Recommended, but only for the stout of heart.
In one of the five stories, there is a one or two paragraph preliminary describing the weather. And that is it for the entirety of all five stories. It is as if James was totally oblivious to the fact that there is a natural world of trees, clouds, waters and weather within which human beings live and with which they have at times quite an emotional interconnection. His is a totally social analysis of the human condition: everything has to do with one’s relation to other people and nothing to one’s place in the natural world.
I cannot think of another writer as nuanced in his descriptions. His writing can be very delightful when he gets down to describing people and the impressions they make on others. When Granger is fascinated by Miss Wenham at Flickerbridge, he thinks of her thus: ‘The term of comparison to him was that of some obsolete musical instrument. The old time order of her mind and her air had the stillness of a painted spinet that was duly dusted, gently rubbed but never played on.’ Scott Homer in ‘Mrs. Medwin' represents ‘the perfection of an indifference … he looked all his shabbiness, all his cleverness, all his history … in his premature baldness, his seamed strained face, the lapse from bravery of his long tawny moustache, above all in his easy friendly universally acquainted eye, so much too sociable for mere conversation’. Rather than having to reread such descriptions for a better understanding, one rereads them to marvel at the penetration of the writer’s understanding.
It is no accident that two of the protagonists in five of these stories are artists: one a portrait painter, the other an illustrator of novels. I came increasingly to feel that James was not really telling a narrative story in any of these short pieces as much as he was colouring in a tableau to depict his vision of a reality: a servant without a good post, a destitute couple trying to make a go of modelling, a reader of French novels who tries to hide her true feelings, a young man who was planning to marry but realizes they are not suited and a woman astute enough to turn her seemingly feckless brother to positive account. In each of these stories it is a static, stationary impression that is left, not one of a flowing narrative arc.
I’m not going to give up on James and will definitely take on some of longer works. For flexing one’s receptive muscles as a reader, he really has few challengers.
Recommended, but only for the stout of heart.
June 20, 2022
It may be the time of day that I read this ie bedtime that has coloured my view of this collection. The overall impression is that James was not a storyteller, in marked contrast to Naguib Mahfouz (I am also reading The Quarter at bedtime). I confess that James as an author intimidates me but I feel, like Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas Present, that I should know him better. Portrait of a Lady has sat on my shelves so long that the pages have become foxed. Nothing in this collection of short stories has convinced me to take The Portrait down from its dusty shelf just yet.
September 27, 2017
You gotta know when to hold em, know when to fold em, know when to walk away, know when to run. Never count your money when you’re sitting at the table. There will be time enough for counting when the dealings done.
It’s a game.
It’s a game.
Read
November 19, 2019Felt like a drag, couldn't connect with it. Read only 60% and then zipped to the end...
March 20, 2022
Difficult sentence structure or writing style, I don't know which, but I had a tough time following the plot.
December 13, 2017
Breathtakingly good! Every single story unique and intriguing, albeit of another time (people today might find it hard to get a grip on). I'm struck most by the last story 'Mrs Medwin', of how an American 'placing agent' Miss Cutter is at work, her power of discerning the 'real need' from various people. I'm quite glad at knowing of the fees she earns, justly, of placing people willing to pay to be included in the presence of grander personages.
January 24, 2015
While reading "Dust" by Martha Grimes, Henry James' house and works were woven into the plot line. Knowing it is considered a classic author, I thought I'd give it a go and read something by him. I have read classic lit authors and enjoyed them, Trollope, Dickens, Joyce, Maugham and others and expected this to be similar. It was very different.
James' style is very verbose and his sentences and thought seem to meander. I found myself re-reading portions to see if I understood what I had just read. The plots were interesting but...
I will probably try and read another by him just to give him a fair chance, but based on this particular read...it is not my cup of tea.
James' style is very verbose and his sentences and thought seem to meander. I found myself re-reading portions to see if I understood what I had just read. The plots were interesting but...
I will probably try and read another by him just to give him a fair chance, but based on this particular read...it is not my cup of tea.
November 6, 2013
Excellent!!!!
January 8, 2015
I used to love Henry James, but now find him depressing. But he is of course a great writer.
March 29, 2017
As I'm doing with some oft-appearing authors on the 1,001 Books to Read Before You Die list, I'm sampling some of their shorter fare before I take on their behemoths.
Henry James is one such, and a short trip through his short fiction did the trick.
I don't know if they style will be similar for the big boys, but this collection proved an eye for detail, a focus on class differences, some nice turns of phrase, and a bit of an elevation of the mundane.
None of the stories blew me away in any sense, but that's what I was looking for: a sense.
Henry James is one such, and a short trip through his short fiction did the trick.
I don't know if they style will be similar for the big boys, but this collection proved an eye for detail, a focus on class differences, some nice turns of phrase, and a bit of an elevation of the mundane.
None of the stories blew me away in any sense, but that's what I was looking for: a sense.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews