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The Complete Notebooks of Henry James: The Authoritative and Definitive Edition
The Complete Notebooks of Henry James opens a wide, clear window into the private workshop of America's master novelist, the architect of modernism in fiction. It is a volume that deserves to be called definitive. Assembled and edited by Leon Edel, James' much-acclaimed prizewinning biographer, and Lyall H. Powers, critic and editor of James' letters to Edith Wharton, this book includes the nine scribbler-notebooks that were published by Oxford in 1947. These have been considerably updated and annotated to correct the identification of stories developed by James from his various notes and to reveal many noted Victorians James concealed thru use of their initials. Certain omitted portions of the notebooks have also been restored.
This volume is especially noteworthy for the body of new material that it contains. It includes a series of James' pocket diaries in which, amid appointments and luncheon dates, he jotted down observations and ideas for his fiction and commented on his personal relations. Also here are some fugitive dictated notes, in which James offered an autobiographcial meditation on the "turning Point in his life" and the "working out" of a story based on a passion murder by an American acquaintance in the south of France. James' long out-of-print statements for his unfinished novels The Ivory Tower and The Sense of the Past, scenarios for unfinished plays, the writer's deathbed dictation--all these are here as well.
An appendix includes a substantial fragment of a story James never completed. The book even provides insight into James' "cash accounts." Everywhere throughout the collection, in writings never intended for the public eye, the artist is seen at work. his private prayers to his Muse and exhortations to himself make exhilarating reading.
This volume is especially noteworthy for the body of new material that it contains. It includes a series of James' pocket diaries in which, amid appointments and luncheon dates, he jotted down observations and ideas for his fiction and commented on his personal relations. Also here are some fugitive dictated notes, in which James offered an autobiographcial meditation on the "turning Point in his life" and the "working out" of a story based on a passion murder by an American acquaintance in the south of France. James' long out-of-print statements for his unfinished novels The Ivory Tower and The Sense of the Past, scenarios for unfinished plays, the writer's deathbed dictation--all these are here as well.
An appendix includes a substantial fragment of a story James never completed. The book even provides insight into James' "cash accounts." Everywhere throughout the collection, in writings never intended for the public eye, the artist is seen at work. his private prayers to his Muse and exhortations to himself make exhilarating reading.
680 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1984
150 people want to read
About the author
Henry James
4,604 books3,958 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 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 12, 2019
The Complete Notebooks of Henry James (Edited by Leon Edel).
This particular edition of Henry James's journals is one that every lover of his novels (including myself) must own one day.
Inside this book, the readers experience the birth and development of the characters they have loved in Henry James's books, and they will get to know Henry James in a more intimate way as they are getting inside his very mind with the notes he kept during his process of writing.
I've read part of it years ago from a university library and I hope one day to have the book to read more of it.
This particular edition of Henry James's journals is one that every lover of his novels (including myself) must own one day.
Inside this book, the readers experience the birth and development of the characters they have loved in Henry James's books, and they will get to know Henry James in a more intimate way as they are getting inside his very mind with the notes he kept during his process of writing.
I've read part of it years ago from a university library and I hope one day to have the book to read more of it.
May 21, 2012
Interesting to those wanting to see the process and notes behind the writing - liked it at first, then I found it boring. Didn't finish.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews