Henry James: Selected Literary Criticism

These critical essays cover the entire span of James' career, from the essay on Whitman (1965) to The New Novel (1914).

Morris Shapira (Edited by), F. R. Leavis (Preface by)

9780521283656, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 30 April 1981

374 pages
21.6 x 14 x 2.1 cm, 0.48 kg

This 1981 book is a reissue of a selection of Henry James' literary criticism by Heinemann Educational Books in 1963. Few artists of any kind have applied to their work the degree of critical intelligence that James devoted to his, and the perfectionist care that he devoted to the practise of his own craft made him a great critic of the art of fiction in general. The essays included in this volume cover the entire span of James' career, from the essay on Whitman (1965) to The New Novel (1914). Of particular interest are the essays dealing with the great fiction writers of the nineteenth century: Dickens, George Eliot, Maupassant, Flaubert, Balzac and Zola. The book also includes by way of a preface F. R. Leavis' essay on James as a critic, in which Leavis analyses what he sees as the strengths of James' work in this field.

1. Mr Walt Whitman, 1865
2. Our Mutual Friend, 1865
3. The Belton Estate, 1866
4. Taine's English Literature, 1876
5. Swinburne's Essays, 1875
6. Charles Baudelaire, 1876
7. Daniel Deronda: A Conversation, 1876
8. The Art of Fiction, 1884
9. Emerson, 1887
10. Guy de Maupassant, 1888
11. The Journal of the Brothers de Goncourt, 1888
12. Criticism, 1891
13. Gustave Flaubert, 1893
14. George Sand, 1897
15. London Notes (The Diamond Jubilee), 1897
16. London Notes (The Classical Spirit), 1897
17. The Future of the Novel, 1899
18. Honoré de Balzac, 1902
19. Gustave Flaubert, 1893
20. Emile Zola, 1903
21. Gabriele D'Annunzio, 1904
22. The Tempest, 1907
23. The New Novel, 1914
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: general [DSB]