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Georgina's Reasons

Georgina's Reasons

by Henry James

Henry James's 1884 tale “Georgina's Reasons” presents readers with an insoluble hermeneutic problem regarding its heroine's motivation. This essay applies four interpretative frameworks — theological, political, scientific and geographical — to the question of the heroine's “reasons”. Each way of interpreting the story aligns with a genre of ninete..

Sir Dominick Ferrand

Sir Dominick Ferrand

by Henry James

Levity is not a word often applied to Henry James, but this story has about it an attractively lighthearted quality. It tells of Peter Baron, a poor, young struggling writer of adequate, if not transcendent, talent, who lives in a dreary London boarding house inhabited also by a mysteriously clairvoyant and beautiful young widow, with her small boy..

The Diary of a Man of Fifty

The Diary of a Man of Fifty

by Henry James

Henry James' short story The Diary of a Man of Fifty is a moving and thought-provoking meditation on aging and coming to terms with one's past. The narrator pays a return visit to Italy, where he spent some time many years before, and revisits memories of an ultimately doomed love affair, some painful and some enriching...

Eugene Pickering

Eugene Pickering

by Henry James

Eugene Pickering is a short story by Henry James. Most of the spectators were too attentive to the play to have many thoughts for each other; but before long I noticed a lady who evidently had an eye for her neighbours as well as for the table.  She was seated about half-way between my friend and me, and I presently observed that she was ..

Louisa Pallant

Louisa Pallant

by Henry James

Louisa Pallant by Henry James is a 1879 classic, novel about an American traveling to Europe with his prosperous nephew and encounters an old love, Louisa. ExcerptsI scarce know how long I had sat when I became aware of a recognition which made my meditations definite. It was on my own part, and the object of it was a lady who moved to and fro, unc..

The Pension Beaurepas

The Pension Beaurepas

by Henry James

The Pension Beaurepas is a novel by Henry James. Two American families are staying at the Pension Beaurepas in Geneva - the young narrator observes them, as does M. Pigeonneau, an older Frenchman. The novella contrasts their characters and their different ways of "being American." Despite the vaunted "freedom" of American society, several of t..

The Point of View

The Point of View

by Henry James

Henry James was one of the leaders in the school of realism in fiction. He is known for his series of novels in which he portrayed the encounter of America with Europe. James is considered to be the master of the novel and novella. James wrote about personal relationships and the power within these relationships. James explored consciousness and pe..

The Secret Sharer

The Secret Sharer

by Joseph Conrad

The Secret Sharer is a short story by Polish-British author Joseph Conrad, originally written in 1909. The Secret Sharer takes place on a sailing ship in the Gulf of Siam (now the Gulf of Thailand), at the start of a voyage with cargo for Britain. The date is probably in the 1880s, when Conrad was at sea himself. In common with many of Conrad's sto..