Henry James facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Henry James
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James in 1913
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| Born | 15 April 1843 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | 28 February 1916 (aged 72) Chelsea, London, England |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Citizenship | American (1843–1915) British (1915–1916) |
| Alma mater | Harvard Law School |
| Period | 1863–1916 |
| Notable works | The American (1877) Daisy Miller (1879) Washington Square (1880) The Portrait of a Lady (1881) The Bostonians (1886) The Aspern Papers (1888) What Maisie Knew (1897) The Turn of the Screw (1898) The Wings of the Dove (1902) The Ambassadors (1903) The Golden Bowl (1904) |
| Relatives | Henry James Sr. (father) William James (brother) Alice James (sister) |
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Henry James (born April 15, 1843 – died February 28, 1916) was a famous American-British writer. Many people think he was one of the greatest novelists in the English language. He helped change writing from a realistic style to a more modern one.
Henry James was the son of Henry James Sr., a philosopher. His older brother was William James, a well-known philosopher and psychologist. His younger sister was Alice James, who kept a diary.
He is best known for his novels about how Americans, English people, and Europeans interacted. His stories often showed the social rules and challenges when people from different cultures met. Some of his famous novels include The Portrait of a Lady, The Ambassadors, and The Wings of the Dove. His later books became more experimental. He often wrote about his characters' inner thoughts and feelings in a complex way. People have compared his later writing style to impressionist painting.
His short novel The Turn of the Screw is a very famous and often discussed ghost story. It has been made into movies and TV shows more than any of his other works. He also wrote other well-known ghost stories.
Besides novels, James wrote articles and books about criticism, travel, biographies, and plays. He was born in the United States but moved to Europe when he was young. He eventually settled in England and became a British citizen in 1915, a year before he died. Henry James was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature three times.
Contents
Life of Henry James
Early Years (1843–1883)
Henry James was born in New York City on April 15, 1843. His parents were Mary Walsh and Henry James Sr. His father was a smart philosopher who had money from his own father, a banker. His mother came from a rich family in New York City. Henry was one of five children; he had three brothers (William, Wilkinson, Robertson) and one sister (Alice).
When he was very young, his family moved to Europe for a short time. They lived in England before returning to New York in 1845. Henry spent his childhood moving between his grandmother's home in Albany and a house in Manhattan. His father wanted him to learn about many different things, especially science and philosophy. Because of this, his education was not very organized. He did not study classic languages like Latin and Greek.
Between 1855 and 1860, his family traveled a lot in Europe, living in London, Paris, and Geneva. They would return to the U.S. when they needed more money. Henry mostly had private teachers and went to school only for short periods. He spent the longest time in France, where he learned to speak French very well. He had a stutter when he spoke English, but not when he spoke French.
In 1860, his family moved back to Newport, Rhode Island. There, Henry became friends with the painter John La Farge. La Farge introduced him to French books, especially those by Honoré de Balzac. James later said Balzac was his "greatest master" and taught him the most about writing stories.
In 1861, Henry hurt his back while fighting a fire. This injury came back at different times in his life and meant he could not join the army during the American Civil War.
In 1864, the James family moved to Boston, Massachusetts. Henry went to Harvard Law School in 1862, but he soon realized he didn't want to be a lawyer. He was more interested in writing. He became friends with other writers and critics in Boston and Cambridge.
His first published work was a review of a play in 1863. About a year later, his first short story, "A Tragedy of Error", was published without his name on it. He wrote stories and articles for magazines like The Nation and Atlantic Monthly. In 1871, his first novel, Watch and Ward, was published in parts in the Atlantic Monthly.
During a trip to Europe in 1869–70, he met famous writers like Charles Dickens and George Eliot. He loved Rome and wrote to his brother, "At last—for the first time—I live!" He tried to be a freelance writer in Rome and a reporter in Paris, but it didn't work out. He returned to New York City. In 1874 and 1875, he published Transatlantic Sketches and Roderick Hudson. During this time, he was influenced by the American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne.
In 1875, he went to Paris and then settled in London in 1876. He worked with publishers who paid him for stories that were printed in magazines and then as books. His readers were mostly middle-class women. He lived in rented rooms but joined gentlemen's clubs where he could read and meet friends. He met important people in English society.
In Paris, he met famous French writers like Émile Zola and Guy de Maupassant. He stayed in Paris for only a year before moving to London.
In England, he met important people in politics and culture. He continued to write a lot. In 1878, his short novel Daisy Miller made him famous in both America and England. It was noticed because it showed a young American woman who did not follow the usual social rules in Europe. He also started writing The Portrait of a Lady, which came out in 1881.
In 1877, he visited Wenlock Abbey in England, which inspired the lake in his famous ghost story The Turn of the Screw.
From 1878 to 1881, he published The Europeans, Washington Square, and The Portrait of a Lady.
The years 1882 and 1883 were sad for James. His mother died in January 1882 while he was visiting America. He returned to his family home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was with all his siblings for the first time in 15 years. He went back to Europe but returned to America later that year when his father died. His brother Wilkie and his friend Turgenev also died in 1883.
Middle Years (1884–1897)
In 1884, James visited Paris again and met with Zola and other French writers. He was very influenced by their realistic writing style. In 1886, he published The Bostonians and The Princess Casamassima. These books did not sell well. He wrote to a friend that they had "reduced the desire, and demand, for my productions to zero.”
During this time, he became friends with writers like Robert Louis Stevenson and artists like John Singer Sargent. His third novel from the 1880s was The Tragic Muse. Because his novels were not selling well, he decided to try writing for the theater.
In 1889, he translated a French book called Port Tarascon. This translation was praised and published in 1891.
After his play Guy Domville failed in 1895, James felt very sad. He was also dealing with the deaths of his sister Alice in 1892 and several close friends.
Even though his plays didn't do well, the time he spent on them helped him learn new ways to write his novels. In the late 1880s and 1890s, James traveled through Europe. He stayed in Italy for a long time in 1887. That year, he published the short novels The Aspern Papers and The Reverberator.
Later Years (1898–1916)
In 1897–1898, Henry James moved to Rye, Sussex in England. There, he wrote The Turn of the Screw. In 1899–1900, he published The Awkward Age and The Sacred Fount. From 1902–1904, he wrote three of his most famous novels: The Wings of the Dove, The Ambassadors, and The Golden Bowl.
In 1904, he visited America again and gave talks about Balzac. From 1906–1910, he published The American Scene and put together a 24-volume collection of his works called the "New York Edition". In 1910, his brother William died. Henry had just joined William in Europe and was with him when he passed away. This was Henry's last visit to the United States.
In 1913, he wrote his autobiographies, A Small Boy and Others and Notes of a Son and Brother. When World War I started in 1914, he helped with war efforts. In 1915, he became a British citizen. The next year, he received the Order of Merit, a special honor. He died on February 28, 1916, in Chelsea, London. He was cremated, and his ashes were buried in Cambridge Cemetery in Massachusetts, as he had asked.
Works
Writing Style and Themes
Henry James is an important writer in trans-Atlantic literature. His stories often compare characters from the "Old World" (Europe) with those from the "New World" (United States). European characters might be seen as elegant but sometimes corrupt. American characters are often bold, open, and value personal freedom. James explored how these different personalities and cultures clashed in his stories. He often showed how power was used, either well or badly, in relationships.
His main characters were often young American women who faced challenges or unfair treatment. His secretary, Theodora Bosanquet, noted that James was very good at writing about what women thought and felt.
People often divide James's writing into three periods. In his early years, his style was simpler. He wrote about romance and social issues. His most famous work from this time is The Portrait of a Lady. In his second period (1890-1897), he focused on short stories and plays. In his third and final period, he returned to writing long novels. In his later works, his style became more complex. He used many descriptive words and long sentences to show how a character was thinking or feeling. Some people found this later style difficult to read.
James's focus on his characters' inner thoughts was very new for his time. It influenced later writers who used a "stream-of-consciousness" style, like Virginia Woolf.
James lived in Europe for most of his life. This made him an outsider in some ways. He worked hard to understand different levels of society, and his stories show characters from working-class people to nobles. He often wrote about middle-class Americans trying to fit into European cities. He got many of his story ideas from listening to gossip at dinner parties.
Many of James's stories can be seen as "thought experiments." For example, The Portrait of a Lady might be an experiment to see what happens when an idealistic young woman suddenly becomes very rich. In his stories, characters often represent different possible futures or choices.
Major Novels
James's early novels, ending with The Portrait of a Lady, often explored the differences between Europe and America. His writing style in these books was usually clear and typical of 19th-century novels. Roderick Hudson (1875) was his first full-length novel. It tells the story of a talented but unstable sculptor named Roderick Hudson. The book is known for its strong characters: Roderick, his friend and supporter Rowland Mallet, and the charming but difficult Christina Light.
The Portrait of a Lady (1881) is considered the best novel from his early period and is still very popular. It's about a lively young American woman, Isabel Archer, who faces many challenges. She inherits a lot of money and then becomes a victim of two American people living in Europe who try to trick her. The story mostly takes place in England and Italy. This book is seen as a psychological novel because it explores the characters' minds. It also looks at the differences between Europeans and Americans.
The second period of James's career includes less popular novels like The Princess Casamassima (1885–1886) and The Bostonians (1885–1886). This period also includes his famous Gothic short novel, The Turn of the Screw (1898).
The third period of James's career produced three very important novels around 1900: The Wings of the Dove (1902), The Ambassadors (1903), and The Golden Bowl (1904). Critics call these three books James's "major phase." The Wings of the Dove tells the story of Milly Theale, a rich American woman who is very sick. It shows how she affects the people around her, some of whom have good intentions and others who are selfish. James said that Milly was based on his cousin, Minny Temple, who died young from tuberculosis.
Shorter Narratives
James was very interested in what he called the "beautiful and blessed nouvelle", which is a longer type of short story. He also wrote many very short stories that managed to cover complex topics in a small space. Here are some of his notable shorter works:
- "A Tragedy of Error" (1864), short story
- "The Story of a Year" (1865), short story
- A Passionate Pilgrim (1871), short novel
- Madame de Mauves (1874), short novel
- Daisy Miller (1878), short novel
- The Aspern Papers (1888), short novel
- The Lesson of the Master (1888), short novel
- The Pupil (1891), short story
- "The Figure in the Carpet" (1896), short story
- The Beast in the Jungle (1903), short novel
- In the Cage (1898), short novel
- The Sacred Fount (1901), short novel
Plays
At different times in his life, Henry James wrote plays. He started with short plays for magazines in the 1860s and 1870s. In 1882, he turned his popular short novel Daisy Miller into a play. From 1890 to 1892, he tried very hard to succeed as a playwright in London. He wrote several plays, but only one, based on his novel The American, was performed. This play was shown for several years by a traveling theater group and had a good run in London, but it didn't make much money for James.
In 1893, he wrote a serious play called Guy Domville. On its opening night in January 1895, there was a lot of noise from the audience, with some people booing when James came out at the end. This upset him greatly. The play received mixed reviews and ran for four weeks before being replaced by Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest.
After these difficult experiences, James said he would not write for the theater anymore. However, he soon agreed to write a short play for actress Ellen Terry. This play, "Summersoft," was later turned into a short story and then a full-length play called The High Bid. It had a short run in London in 1907. He wrote three new plays, but two of them were being performed when King Edward VII died in 1910. This caused theaters in London to close. Discouraged by his health and the stress of theater work, James stopped trying to write for the stage. Instead, he turned his plays into successful novels. The Outcry was a best-seller in the United States when it was published in 1911.
Some people believe that the failure of Guy Domville deeply affected James and caused him to be depressed. However, others think that he gained new energy from his theater experiences, which helped him write his later successful novels.
Nonfiction
Besides his stories, Henry James was also an important literary critic. In his famous essay The Art of Fiction (1884), he argued that writers should have a lot of freedom in what they write about and how they write it. He believed this freedom would keep fiction writing lively and interesting. James wrote many critical articles about other novelists. His book about Nathaniel Hawthorne is a good example.
When James put together the "New York Edition" of his works later in his life, he wrote introductions for each book. In these, he looked closely at his own writing, sometimes being quite critical of it.
At age 22, James wrote an essay for the first issue of The Nation magazine in 1865. Throughout his life, he wrote over 200 essays and reviews about books, art, and theater for the magazine.
James also wrote about art. He wrote a positive review of his fellow American artist John Singer Sargent, whose paintings are now very famous. James also wrote interesting articles about the places he visited and lived. His travel books include Italian Hours and The American Scene.
James was also a great letter writer. More than 10,000 of his personal letters still exist, and over 3,000 have been published. These letters cover everything from small everyday things to serious discussions about art, society, and personal matters. He wrote to many famous people, including Robert Louis Stevenson and Edith Wharton.
Late in his life, James started writing his autobiography. These books were A Small Boy and Others, Notes of a Son and Brother, and the unfinished The Middle Years. They show how he developed as a keen observer who loved creating art but was a bit shy about fully joining in the world around him.
Portrayals in Fiction
Henry James has been a character in many other novels and stories, including:
- Boon by H.G. Wells
- Author, Author by David Lodge
- The Master by Colm Tóibín
- Hotel de Dream by Edmund White
- Dictation by Cynthia Ozick
- The Fifth Heart, by Dan Simmons
- Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess
- Empire, by Gore Vidal
Adaptations
Henry James's stories and novels have been made into films, TV shows, and even music videos over 150 times. These adaptations happened between 1933 and 2018. Most of them are in English, but some are in French, Spanish, Italian, German, Portuguese, Yugoslavian, and Swedish.
The stories that have been adapted the most include:
- The Turn of the Screw (28 times)
- The Aspern Papers (17 times)
- Washington Square (8 times), also as The Heiress (6 times)
- The Wings of the Dove (9 times)
- The Beast in the Jungle (5 times)
- The Bostonians (4 times)
- Daisy Miller (4 times)
- The Sense of the Past (4 times)
- The Ambassadors (3 times)
- The Portrait of a Lady (3 times)
- The American (3 times)
- What Maisie Knew (3 times)
- The Golden Bowl (2 times)
Images for kids
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Portrait of Henry James, charcoal drawing by John Singer Sargent (1912)
See also
In Spanish: Henry James para niños
