The Ambassadors

by Michaela Bronstein The Ambassadors was the first written (1900–1901), but second published (1903), of the three major works with which Henry James concluded his career as a novelist. Like The Wings of the Dove and The Golden Bowl, it treats Americans abroad in Europe, and like those novels it relies on careful choice of… Continue Reading The Ambassadors

What Maisie Knew

Henry James’s What Maisie Knew (1897) is the story of a disintegrating marriage told in free indirect discourse from the perspective of a young child. The question implicit in the title, namely how much Maisie really understands about her parents’ mistreatment of each other, offered James great scope for the exploration of the limits of… Continue Reading What Maisie Knew

Henry James

Biography by Anthony Domestico Henry James was a fierce defender of the novelistic tradition and of formal complexity.  A master of focalization, he showed in works like What Maisie Knew (1897) and The Golden Bowl (1904) the centrality of perspective to a novel’s construction.  His works explored the encounter between Americans and Europeans, between the… Continue Reading Henry James