Henry James: A Very Short Introduction

Very Short Introductions #677

by Susan L Mizruchi

An elegant introduction to one of America's most complex and influential writers.From his childhood in a family of leading American intellectuals through his mature life as a major American man of letters, Henry James (1843-1916) created a unique body of fiction that represents one of the greatest achievements in the nation's literary history. James's transnational life in the US and England and his extraordinary siblings (the philosopher William James and diarist Alice James) made his life as complicated as the fictions he produced. In this elegant introduction to the work of Henry James, Susan L. Mizruchi places the notoriously difficult and obscure writings in their historical and biographical context. As James grew in confidence as a writer, his fictions evolved accordingly. These complex accounts of human experience engage with the vital issues of both James's era and our own. Among the works treated in this introduction are Washington Square, The Europeans, Daisy Miller, The Portrait of a Lady, The Golden Bowl, and The Turn of the Screw. Through his novels, as well as his journalistic and critical endeavors, James explores themes related to gender relations, human sexuality, the nature of modernity, the threat of relativism, the rise of mass culture, and the role of art.Since their creation, James's writings have been a consistent subject of both literary theory and popular culture, receiving a diverse array of theoretical treatments, from formalism, deconstruction, phenomenology, and pragmatism to Marxism, new historicism, and gender and queer theory. James's novels have been adapted into numerous films by directors including William Wyler, Peter Bogdanovich, Michael Winner, Merchant/Ivory, and Jane Campion. The impact of Henry James cannot be overstated.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Literary Criticism, Literature

152 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 1, 2020

Reviews

[AC · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 — the “very short introduction” series is very uneven. A few, like the volume on Buddha, are outstanding. Many are useless, often corrupted by the pretentiousness of the humanities today in Oxbridge. More than a few are useful, if not brilliant. This falls into this latter category. Susan Mizruchi is an intelligent and thoughtful writer. The biographical sections are useful. Her analyses of a large number of James’s writings are not too laden with theory and do not give too much away, but they are also somewhat too general. Those who don’t want to know the ending of a book, might want to skip them; those who have read the book in question, will find her analysis only occasionally illuminating. The final chapter, the epilogue, deals with film and with some later books or essays about Henry James. She does not explore in any depth, the controversies about James’s sexuality. And she does not even mention *What Maisie Knew* (one of my very favorite James novels). There is a useful bibliography appended at the end.

[Ken · Rating 4 out of 5]

The VSIs are hit or miss, but this one is quite good. The authors covers the three most important things about James’ themes, covers his life very briefly and focuses on a few works. An appendix at the end points you to other important works. Exemplary intro to his work.

[Daniel]

Useful in deciding how to approach James, I suppose.

[Patrick Bair · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my intro to Oxford's VSI, a series of books I will be exploring more completely. Mizruchi does an excellent job of explaining and analyzing James' work.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Professor of Humanities Susan L. Mizuchi published Henry James: A Very Short Introduction in 2021. The book has an index. The book has illustrations. The book has a section of references. The book has a section on “Further Reading” (Mizuchi 123-126). The Publishers Weekly writes, “in five chapters, she covers James’s family roots and his career as a book reviewer. She closely identifies the “James's brand” as a cosmopolitan sensibility focused on Americans who traveled abroad to discover the world and themselves.” The book also summarizes and analyzes several of Henry James's significant novels. The book covers the legacy of Henry James. Publishers' Weekly writes that Mizuchi does an excellent job showing James's influence on writers such as “Alan Hollinghurst, Emma Tennant, and Colm Tóibín.” The first chapter analyzes a passage from The Portrait of a Lady. Mizuchi’s book covers James’ writing about the “situations of women and girls” (Mizuchi 5). I read the book on my Kindle. Mizuchi writes that “in George Eliot, James encountered an author whose work would deeply inform his own. Thus, it is no surprise that when James writes about Eliot, he can seem competitive, even petty” (Mizuchi 36). I found this a notable fun fact. I thought Susan L. Mizuchi’s introduction to Henry James was readable. I found the review of Henry James by Publisher’s Weekly helpful in writing this ‘review.’