Reading Henry James

As I prepare to start reading Henry James, and writing about his works, I wanted to post some information about how I’m planning to proceed, and what I’m planning to post. While my reading will be chronological, I’m going to make one exception, and read a short story out of order. The first story I read, and write about, will be The Figure in the Carpet. Those who are familiar with the story will understand why – for the rest of you, you’ll just have to find out on your own, either by reading the story, or by reading what I have to say about it.

For each story, novella or novel, I’ll be posting some information: the date the work was published, the number of words it contains (rounded to the nearest hundred), the number of pages in the Library of America edition, the genre (I’ll be making up some genres that I think fit the works), and links to the Library of America edition containing the work, as well as to other editions or online texts.

All of my posts about Henry’s works will contain spoilers. So if you haven’t read certain works, and don’t want to know what happens, don’t read what I’ve written. You can always come back later and search for specific works using the search box to the right, or look in the category listing, which will have links for Stories, Novellas and Novels.

I’m happy that the Library of America is giving me some support by publicizing this site to their readers. I’ve given them a free ad that you can see in the sidebar to the right. If you don’t have Henry’s stories, you should certainly get the five Library of America volumes. For only $140, you get nearly 5,000 pages of Henry’s great stories; it’s an unbeatable offer. (And, while you’re at it, you can join the Library of America to get other books by great American authors, especially the other books of Henry James’s novels, travel writings, and critical writings.)

So stay tuned for the beginning of my reading and writing project. I’m actually planning to read The Figure in the Carpet soon, and will make my first post about my reading later today. If you want to stay up-to-date, use the RSS links in the right sidebar. (If you don’t know how RSS works, there’s a good article on the BBC web site explaining it and how you can subscribe to a web site.)

I’ve added a new page to the site: a chronology of Henry James’s life. (You can see a link to in in the sidebar at the right.) Since “pages” I add to the site don’t show up in the RSS feed, I’ll post a brief article each time I add one. I’ll be adding a few more in the coming weeks, to provide resources about Henry’s life and works.

The chronology comes from the Library of America’s Henry James series. They were kind enough to allow me to reproduce it here. I’ve said in other posts how much I appreciate their series of Henry James’s works. With currently 14 volumes, they’ve got two more books planned to finish off the series (though there’s always a chance that they’ll publish more, such as his plays and notebooks).

I’ve got links to their books in my Henry James Bibliography. These are links to pages on Amazon.com (your purchases give me a small commission to defray my costs for this site, and my book habit). You can also go to the Library of America site and search for Henry James’s books. If you’re a real Henry James fan, you should check out their editions; there is no equivalent. You may also be interested in subscribing to their offerings, which include other great American authors.

But I digress. Enjoy the chronology, and stay tuned for some information on my first reading in my project. If you’re new to the site, and haven’t yet read my mission statement, do so. You’ll see what my strange project is all about.

The Nobel Prize for literature was today awarded to Herta Müller, a Romanian-born German author “who, with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed.” I must admit to never having read her work.

Yet again, Henry James was ignored, and was not awarded the prize, which he certainly deserved more than many of its winners. (Granted, they only give prizes to living authors, but the prize was awarded during 15 years of Henry’s life, and he certainly merited it more than some of the now forgotten authors who received it. Not that Henry needed such a prize to be recognized, but it is easy to notice that the Nobel committee pretty ignored American authors for the first thirty years of the prize. (Though they could have considered Henry to be English at the end of his life.)