A Companion to Henry James Studies

(Hardback)

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Description

Twenty leading Jamesians, in chapters written especially for this reference volume, canvas all areas of Henry James studies, including James' own criticism and critical theory, his novels, tales, plays, travel writings, notebooks, letters and autobiographies, and his critical reception. Also featured are two appendixes comprising annotated chronologies, one of James' principal publications in book form, the other of landmarks of James criticism and scholarship. The first section, on criticism and theory, opens with a concise overview of criticism on Henry James. The central section of the volume is devoted to James' fiction, from the early years, middle years, the experimental period, and the later fiction, including the short stories. Additional writings focus on special topics, including comparison of James with his European peers, a study of James from a feminist view, an assessment of James' use of the visual arts, and an analysis of James' many revisions of his own works. A section on James' non-fiction includes his epistolary art, his travel book "English Hours", his drama and the social commentary in James' account of his return to America from an expatriate life abroad in "The American Scene". The scholars draw upon nearly 700 hundred books and articles, which are compiled in a list of works cited. Itself a companion to Robert Gale's "A Henry James Encyclopedia" (Greenwood Press, 1989), "A Companion to Henry James Studies" is a structured survey, designed as a library reference volume that should be of interest and value to students and scholars of Henry James and specialists in American literature generally.

Reviews

A narrative history of James criticism by Richard Hocks and annotated chronologies of James's works and of the major critical studies from 1905 to 1991 enhance the value of this unique book, a landmark of James criticism and scholarship, which students and teachers will find as valuable as any single volume on James's work.-Choice
Covering all aspects of James studies, the 20 original essays in this companion are divided into sections on "Criticism and Theory," "Fiction," and "Nonfiction." The essays provide excellent critical and bibliographic overviews of the current state of James studies in such areas as James's theory of fiction, his tales, and his "inveterate habit of revising his fiction." The essays are by established scholars, most of whom have published extensively on James and/or his time. Even the appendixes are interesting with the first a "lightly annotated" chronological listing of James's books, including citations to the magazines in which many of these books first appeared serially. The second appendix lists "landmarks" of James criticism in chronological order. This is a fine resource for scholars and advanced students, though its state-of-the-art purpose will make an update imperative in a decade or so.-Library Journal
"A narrative history of James criticism by Richard Hocks and annotated chronologies of James's works and of the major critical studies from 1905 to 1991 enhance the value of this unique book, a landmark of James criticism and scholarship, which students and teachers will find as valuable as any single volume on James's work."-Choice
"Covering all aspects of James studies, the 20 original essays in this companion are divided into sections on "Criticism and Theory," "Fiction," and "Nonfiction." The essays provide excellent critical and bibliographic overviews of the current state of James studies in such areas as James's theory of fiction, his tales, and his "inveterate habit of revising his fiction." The essays are by established scholars, most of whom have published extensively on James and/or his time. Even the appendixes are interesting with the first a "lightly annotated" chronological listing of James's books, including citations to the magazines in which many of these books first appeared serially. The second appendix lists "landmarks" of James criticism in chronological order. This is a fine resource for scholars and advanced students, though its state-of-the-art purpose will make an update imperative in a decade or so."-Library Journal

Author Bio

DANIEL MARK FOGEL is Professor of English and Interim Dean of the Graduate School at Louisiana State University. The founding editor of the Henry James Review, he is the author of Henry James and the Structure of the Romantic Imagination (1981), Daisy Miller: A Dark Comedy of Manners (1990), and Covert Relations: James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, and Henry James (1990), the co-editor, with J. Gerald Kennedy, of American Letters and the Historical Consciousness (1987), and the editor of the Library of America edition of Henry James's Novels 1886-1890 (1989), as well as numerous book chapters, journal articles, and other publications.