The Great Good Place

by Henry James

Dane picked out of his dim past a dozen halting similes. The sacred silent convent was one; another was the bright country-house. He did the place no outrage to liken it to an hotel; he permitted himself on occasion to feel it suggest a club. Such images, however, but flickered and went out--they lasted only long enough to light up the difference. An hotel without noise, a club without newspapers--when he turned his face to what it was "without" the view opened wide.

Genres: Classics, Short Stories

48 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1900

About the author

Henry 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."

Reviews

[Teresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I came to this story because the narrator of Greene's The Comedians reads it on a rainy night near the end of that novel. Before the novel concludes a "good place" is mentioned a couple more times in a different context, and my attention was piqued. To say why James' story fits with Greene's might be a spoiler to this long short story. (Though can there ever really be a spoiler for James where what happens is never the important thing?)

If you don't like James, you won't like this story. It's quintessential James with the interiority of "The Beast in the Jungle" and "The Jolly Corner" and with even less happening than in those two, though perhaps the sentences are not as lengthy or convoluted as in other of James' works.

[Bettie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bettie's Books

[Janelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a story for the overworked and stressed out. George Dane is such a man. The story starts in a confusing way, Dane himself appears confessed and even his servant suggests he is forgetful. Then a young man comes for breakfast and says he will complete Danes work. Dane goes to his “Great good place” which seems like a country club atmosphere with lots of other men in similar need of a break.
I was expecting something supernatural but that doesn’t happen. Still it’s a pleasant read.

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Let's just be upfront: James just does not appeal to me. The wandering sentences, the indirectness... There was a lot that was vague in this story, and it bothered me that I had to spend so much time guessing at what was being talked about. In short, what I found unpleasant was mostly that which is characteristic of James; no, I will not be reading more of him unless under duress. Or class assignment.

[Nina · Rating 1 out of 5]

The absolute worst. I've never wanted to rip the pages out of a book until this story. Never again. I hate school.

[Bel Hernández · Rating 3 out of 5]

AH, TO BE RICH AND TO BE ON A VACATION

[Salomé Al Husami · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really don't know what to think of this story. After I finished reading it, I had to go to Google in order to see if I can glean other meanings that I might have missed due to the language vagueness and the foreign style of writing. It's certainly difficult to read, being nothing like modern writing styles. I'm not used to the sentence structure and the confusing plot.
However, I'm happy to say that I got all the intended meaning according to what I found online. That's not to say that it wasn't a frustrating read. It certainly was.

[Kelle Treadwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wonderful short story. Very peaceful and enlightening.

[Elsa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un relato que nos invita a reflexionar sobre el éxito.

[Laura]

4* The Turn of the Screw
3* The Jolly Corner
3* The Art of Fiction
3* Roderick Hudson
4* The American
4* The Beast in the Jungle
2* Lady Barbarina and Other Tales
3* The Madonna of the Future
4* A Little Tour in France
3* What Maisie Knew
4* The Aspern Papers
2* The Real Thing
2* The Bostonians
4* The Portrait of a Lady
4* The Wings of the Dove
4* The Ambassadors
3* Washington Square
4* Daisy Miller
TR The Tragic Muse
TR The Spoils of Poynton
TR Hawthorne
TR The Pupil
TR The Princess Casamassima
TR The Great Good Place
TR Nona Vincent
TR The Art of the Novel
TR The Middle Years
TR Ghost Stories
TR The Ivory Tower
TR Italian Hours
TR Nona Vincent
TR The Great Good Place

About Henry James:
3* Henry James: A Life in Letters
3* Henry James at Work
3* The Real Henry James
TR A Private Life of Henry James: Two Women & His Art
TR The Realists: Eight Portraits: Stendhal, Balzac, Dickens, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Galdos, Henry James, Proust
TR The Great Tradition: George Eliot, Henry James, Joseph Conrad