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Explore timeless questions about spirituality, love, remembrance, and mortality with this tale from the pen of Henry James, a master of psychological suspense fiction. The two protagonists featured in The Altar of the Dead have dedicated their lives to remembering those who have passed on from this world, but find that honoring the dead can make living one's own life to the fullest a challenge.
Like many of Henry James' tales, A Passionate Pilgrim plays on tensions between American and European culture. Two Americans living in England attempt to secure a contested inheritance before one of the pair, the destitute and terminally ill Clement Searle, finally succumbs to his illness.
Grace Mavis may be engaged to be married, but to say she has mixed feelings about the impending union would be putting it mildly. On the sea voyage to reunite with her betrothed, Grace is determined to have one last wild time. But when her behavior crosses the bounds of propriety, tragedy ensues.
4) Nona Vincent
In this tale from prominent nineteenth-century literary realist Henry James, an effort to resuscitate a foundering theatrical work serves as the backdrop for a burgeoning love triangle between the playwright, the lead actress, and the playwright's married confidante and mentor.
Like many of Henry James' short stories, The Figure in the Carpet revolves around an artist whose body of work hides a deeper meaning and several other characters who bear the heavy burden of a momentous secret. When a group of friends unlocks the true significance of a misunderstood novelist's oeuvre, the weight of this knowledge bears unforeseen—and terrible—consequences.
Regarded as one of Henry James' finest works, the short story The Beast in the Jungle centers around protagonist John Marcher and his seemingly bizarre phobia—a pervasive sense of doom that prevents him from living his life to the fullest and precludes the possibility of him ever finding true love. This fascinating read highlights the psychological complexity that has earned James' fiction so much critical acclaim.
American author Henry James often grappled with weighty topics in his work, and the story The Madonna of the Future—longer than a typical short story, but shorter than a novella—is no exception. Framed as an anecdote related among a group of men engaged in post-dinner chitchat, the story deals with an artist whose outsize ambitions and perfectionism have frozen him in a kind of creative paralysis. It's a profoundly thought-provoking
...8) Pandora
Many of Henry James' most acclaimed works of fiction are set at the intersection between European and American culture. The novella Pandora takes its tension from the differences between the Old World and the New—as well as the surprising similarities between the two realms. Free-spirited American Pandora Day crosses paths with the reserved Count Vogelstein, and the two learn a great deal about their respective countries and worldviews.
...This finely crafted novella from fiction master Henry James combines several themes from James' body of work: the clash of cultures between Europe and America, an uncanny encounter with a doppelganger, and a pervasive sense of unease and ambiguity. After living abroad for decades, American Spencer Brydon returns to his native New York to take care of some business dealings, but he soon succumbs to an obsessive preoccupation with his past life.
10) Four Meetings
Sometimes, it's not the lingering relationships that stick in our memories, but rather the brief, fleeting encounters. In the brilliant short story Four Meetings, literary master Henry James explores an intense infatuation that ran its entire course in only four meetings.
A number of Henry James' stories and novels focus on the clash of cultures between America and Europe, and the novella An International Episode tackles this issue head-on. A pair of British gentlemen cross paths with a duo of American women and sparks fly, in more ways than one.
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