Product Description

Henry James led a wandering life, which took him far from his native shores, but he continued to think of New York City, where his family had settled for several years during his childhood, as his hometown. Here Colm Tóibín, the author of the Man Booker Prize–shortlisted novel The Master, a portrait of Henry James, brings together for the first time all the stories that James set in New York City. Written over the course of James’s career and ranging from the deliciously tart comedy of the early "An International Episode" to the surreal and haunted corridors of "The Jolly Corner," and including Washington Square, the poignant novella considered by many (though not, as it happens, by the author himself) to be one of James’s finest achievements, the nine fictions gathered here reflect James’s varied talents and interests as well as the deep and abiding preoccupations of his imagination. And throughout the book, as Tóibín’s fascinating introduction demonstrates, we! see James struggling to make sense of a city in whose rapidly changing outlines he discerned both much that he remembered and held dear as well as everything about America and its future that he dreaded most.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #203335 in Books
• Published on: 2005-11-30
• Released on: 2005-11-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 592 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781590171622
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From the Author
"Perhaps of all the provinces in [James’s] realm whose contours remain shadowy and whose topography is unresolved, the city of New York is a prime example. James’s writings about New York disclose, more than anything, an anger, quite unlike any other anger in James, at what has been lost to him, what has been done, in the name of commerce and material progress, to a place he once knew. It is not an ordinary anger at the destruction of beauty and familiarity; it is much stranger and more complex than that, and it deserves a great deal of attention." —From the Introduction by Colm Tóibín

About the Author
Henry James (1843–1916), the younger brother of the psychologist William James and one of the greatest of American writers, was born in New York but lived for most of his life in England. Among the best known of his many stories and novels are The Portrait of a Lady, The Turn of the Screw, and The Wings of the Dove. In addition to The New York Stories of Henry James, New York Review Classics has published several long-unavailable James novels: The Other House, The Outcry, and The Ivory Tower.

Colm Tóibín is the author of five novels, including The Story of the Night, The Blackwater Lightship, and The Heather Blazing. The Master, a novel based on the life of Henry James, was published in 2004 and shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Among his nonfiction works are Bad Blood: A Walk Along the Irish Border, Homage to Barcelona, The Sign of the Cross: Travels in Catholic Europe, and, most recently, Love in a Dark Time. In 2004, his first play, Beauty in a Broken Place, was produced in Dublin, where Tóibín currently lives.

Customer Reviews

Clarification and Caveat Emptor
There is nothing wrong with the fiction contained in this volume of stories and novels by Henry James. However, its publishing history makes it a dubious online purchase.

I was working in a bookstore when this title was first released and an early printing of this title did in fact, accidentally, leave off the last chapter of "Jolly Corner". That mistake has since been rectified by the NYRB. Most likely, if you order this book from Amazon, you'll get "The Jolly Corner" in its entirety. But you can't be sure. Amazon surely will replace your defective copy --hopefully, not with a second defective copy-- because it's not the buyer's fault a book is printed wrong. Still, why risk it?

It's a decent collection, and it appears the NYRB has started to collect other writers' New York stories, which is nice.

Great Selection
Great selection of James stories (though I would call "Washington Square" a novel). It's nice to see unusual selections.

And no... they did not leave out the third chapter of "A Jolly Corner" as a misinformed "simple man" stated. It's all there. Verify it for yourself... The book is widely available in stores.

the partial image of a ghost of a story
I am a simple man. And when I read a story, I would like to have the entire story before me, and not be forced to go to the internet to find the rest of it!!!!!!!
This volume, incredibly, omits the third and final chapter of "A Jolly Corner"! It was an intersting experience, accidentally, because reading it without the last chapter made one confront the basic construct of the tale. It seemed incomplete after chapter two, but complete after chapter three. What was the missing element? The female character of absorption and empathy. So, I am glad that the compilation is a complete disaster, as it forced me to confront what this particular short story is really about: female human-ness vs male ego driven self-delusion.

"Washington Square" is the only truly great work in the collection. I loved it.
I rate it a one because surely a person can read these stories on the internet in their complete form.