New Releases by Henry James

No, no-there are depths, depths! The more I go over it, the more I see in it, and the more I see in it, the more I fear. I don''t know what I don''t see-what I don''t fear!".... Henry James In "The Turn of the Screw", Henry James has created a different kind of ghost story; what he later described as "the strange and sinister embroidered on the very type of the normal and easy." Although the imagery is reminiscent of the gothic genre, the approach is more subtle, inviting the reader to ponder the true nature of the evil that may be present.

The Portrait of a Lady (Penguin Classics) Regarded by many as Henry James''s finest work, and a lucid tragedy exploring the distance between money and happiness, The Portrait of a Lady contains an introduction by Philip Horne in Penguin Classics. When Isabel Archer, a beautiful, spirited American, is brought to Europe by her wealthy aunt Touchett, it is expected that she will soon marry. But Isabel, resolved to enjoy the freedom that her fortune has opened up and to determine her own fate, does not hesitate to turn down two eligible suitors. Then she finds herself irresistibly drawn to Gilbert Osmond. Charming and cultivated, Osmond sees Isabel as a rich prize waiting to be taken. Beneath his veneer of civilized behaviour, Isabel discovers cruelty and a stifling darkness. In this portrait of a ''young woman affronting her destiny'', Henry James created one of his most magnificent heroines, and a story of intense poignancy. This edition of The Portrait of a Lady, based on the earliest published copy of the novel, is the version read first and loved by most readers in James''s lifetime. It also contains a chronology, further reading, notes and an introduction by Philip Horne. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

At the little town of Vevey, in Switzerland, there is a particularly comfortable hotel. There are, indeed, many hotels, for the entertainment of tourists is the business of the place, which, as many travelers will remember, is seated upon the edge of a remarkably blue lake-a lake that it behooves every tourist to visit. The shore of the lake presents an unbroken array of establishments of this order, of every category, from the "grand hotel" of the newest fashion, with a chalk-white front, a hundred balconies, and a dozen flags flying from its roof, to the little Swiss pension of an elder day, with its name inscribed in German-looking lettering upon a pink or yellow wall and an awkward summerhouse in the angle of the garden. One of the hotels at Vevey, however, is famous, even classical, being distinguished from many of its upstart neighbors by an air both of luxury and of maturity.

The Aspern Papers is about a researcher searching for some love letters written by a great poet to a young woman he was thought to love when he himself was young. The researcher finds that the woman, now very old, is living in an old palace in Venice on very limited means. In an attempt to secure the papers, he rents a room in her dilapidated palace and attempts to worm his way into her regard by promising to restore her flower garden. The old woman has a young niece living with her and looking after her, and the researcher finally attempts to get at the papers through the niece. This is a tight-knit suspense story, the tension of which increases as the old woman lies dying. It is one of Henry James'' must-read novellas, in a class with The Turn of the Screw.

This Is A New Release Of The Original 1914 Edition.

One of the best books of all time, Henry James''s The Turn of the Screw. If you haven''t read this classic already, then you''re missing out - read The Turn of the Screw by Henry James today!

The Beast in the Jungle is the story of John Marcher, the protagonist, and May Bartram, a woman he has known in the past. They meet at a luncheon and May remembers that John had been tormented in the past by the idea that he would meet a catastrophic end what this will be he does not know, but he refers to it as the beast in the jungle, metaphorically lying in wait to destroy his life.

The Aspern Papers is a novella set in Venice. A young man travels to the city and takes lodgings with an old woman--the former lover of the dead American poet Aspern. The man believes the old woman still has some letters from Aspern and he ingratiates himself with her niece in an attempt to find them. Suspense builds around the motives and actions of James'' masterfully drawn characters.

First published in 1886, The Bostonians is one of James'' wittiest social satires. It begins with the arrival in Boston of Basil Ransom, in search of a career. The book turns on the relationship between Ransom, a conservative civil war veteran, his feminist cousin Olive Chancellor, and Verena Tarrant, a newcomer to their circle whose affections are sought by both Olive and Basil. James'' ambivalence towards the reformist movement is made plain in this novel, which is crowded with eccentric and colourful characters. The narrative moves us in turns to sneer at the Boston reformers and to sympathise with Olive as she struggles to keep the reformist flame burning in her protege''s heart.

The Prince had always liked his London, when it had come to him; he was one of the modern Romans who find by the Thames a more convincing image of the truth of the ancient state than any they have left by the Tiber. Brought up on the legend of the City to which the world paid tribute, he recognised in the present London much more than in contemporary Rome the real dimensions of such a case. If it was a question of an Imperium, he said to himself, and if one wished, as a Roman, to recover a little the sense of that, the place to do so was on London Bridge, or even, on a fine afternoon in May, at Hyde Park Corner.

Neither beautiful in her looks nor brilliant in her manner, Catherine Sloper is an unlikely object for a sublime passion. Yet this is precisely what she appears to have inspired in the breast of Morris Townsend. But then who knows the secrets of the human heart? Love, the centuries have shown, is the strangest, most unpredictable of emotions. And, if money is at stake, even more unpredictable. For Catherine is the only daughter of one of New York''s wealthiest physicians. And Morris, though handsome, is both idle and impoverished.

What Maisie Knew (1897) represents one of James''s finest reflections on the rites of passage from wonder to knowledge, and the question of their finality. The child of violently divorced parents, Maisie Farange opens her eyes on a distinctly modern world. Mothers and fathers keep changing their partners and names, while she herself becomes the pretext for all sorts of adult sexual intrigue.In this classic tale of the death of childhood, there is a savage comedy that owes much to Dickens. But for his portrayal of the child''s capacity for intelligent `wonder'', James summons all the subtlety he devotes elsewhere to his most celebrated adult protagonists. Neglected and exploited by everyone around her, Maisie inspires James to dwell with extraordinary acuteness on the things that may pass between adult and child. In addition to a new introduction, this edition of the novel offers particularly detailed notes, bibliography, and a list of variant readings.

When Isabel Archer, a young American with looks, wit, and imagination, arrives in Europe, she sees the world as bright and open. Rejecting suitors who offer her wealth and devotion, she follows her own path, and finds it leads to a dark and constricted future. This is the masterpiece of James''s middle period, and Nicola Bradbury''s new introduction provides a stimulating way in to this moving novel. The text is that of the New York Edition and includes Henry James''s own Preface. - ;When Isabel Archer, a young American woman with looks, wit, and imagination, arrives in Europe, she sees the world as `a place of brightness, of free expression, of irresistible action''. She turns aside from suitors who offer her their wealth and devotion to follow her own path. But that way leads to disillusionment and a future as constricted as `a dark narrow alley with a dead wall at the end''. In a conclusion that is one of the most moving in modern fiction, Isabel makes her final choice. The Portrait of a Lady is the masterpiece of James''s middle period, and Isabel is perhaps his most engaging central character. This edition provides a challenging new introduction and detailed notes; the text is that of the New York Edition and includes Henry James''s own Preface. -

"When timid and plain Catherine Sloper acquires a dashing and determined suitor, her father, convinced that the young man is nothing more than a fortune-hunter, decides to put a stop to their romance. Torn between a desire to win her father''s approval and passion for the first man who has ever declared his love for her, Catherine faces an agonizing choice, and eventually becomes all too aware of the restrictions that others seek to place on her freedom. James''s novel interweaves the public and private faces of nineteenth-century New York society, and is also a study of innocence destroyed."--BOOK JACKET.

Sent to Paris by a wealthy matron to retrieve her son, Strether becomes sidetracked by intriguing complications

Cultural Writing. Memoir. In A SMALL BOY AND OTHERS, Henry James applies his superb skills as a storyteller to his won early life. Written after the death of his brother William the completion of his last novel, James felt at last able to chart this revealing portrait of the artist as a young man. With a wit and curiosity evident on every page, this book transformed the art of autobiography. "Henry James looked back at his past with the same search for the truths of the emotions which Proust was to show in his novel A la recherchT du temps perdu" - Leon Edel.

The Ambassadors is a 1903 novel by Henry James, originally published as a serial in the North American Review (NAR). The novel is a dark comedy which follows the trip of protagonist Lewis Lambert Strether to Europe in pursuit of Chad Newsome, his widowed fiancée''s supposedly wayward son; he is to bring the young man back to the family business, but he encounters unexpected complications. The third-person narrative is told exclusively from Strether''s point of view. Lambert Strether, a middle-aged, yet not broadly experienced, man from Woollett, Massachusetts, agrees to assume a mission for his wealthy fiancée: go to Paris and rescue her son, Chad Newsome, from the clutches of a presumably wicked woman. On his journey, Strether stops in England and there meets Maria Gostrey, an American who has lived in Paris for years. Her cynical wit and worldly opinions start to rattle Strether''s preconceived view of the situation. In Paris, Strether meets Chad and is impressed by the much greater sophistication Chad seems to have gained during his years in Europe. Chad takes him to a garden party, where Strether meets Marie de Vionnet, a lovely woman of impeccable manners, separated from her reportedly unpleasant husband, and Jeanne, her exquisite daughter. Strether is confused as to whether Chad is more attracted to the mother or the daughter. At the same time, Strether, himself, feels an overwhelming attraction to Marie de Vionnet, which he suspects she might requite, and so begins questioning his commitment to return to Woollett and marry Chad''s mother, despite his admiration for her.

Eugenia, an expatriated American, is the morganatic wife of a German prince, who is about to reject her in favor of a state marriage. With her artist brother Felix Young she travels to Boston to visit relatives she has never before seen, in hopes of making a wealthy marriage. The men of Bostonsoon realize her deceitfulness, and she returns to Europe, feeling that her fortune-hunting scheme is impractical in unsusceptible America. Its wit, gaiety, and what Rebecca West calls its "clear sunlit charm" have made this masterly short novel the most popular of James''s novels.