Louisa Pallant

Henry James

Henry James ((1843-04-15)15 April 1843 – (1916-02-28)28 February 1916) 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 theologian Henry James Sr. and the brother of philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James. James's novels deal with the social and marital interplay between émigré Americans, the English, and continental Europeans, such as The Portrait of a Lady (1881). His later works, such as The Wings of the Dove (1902), The Ambassadors (1903), and The Golden Bowl (1904) 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 described as Impressionist. His novella The Turn of the Screw (1898) has garnered a reputation as the most analysed and ambiguous ghost…