Overview
A selection of the best of Henry James' travel-writing. Henry James was not only a novelist who wrote with the elegance of Marcel Proust: he was also a renowned travel writer and wrote prolifically for a dedicated following in American magazines, newspapers and journals. In this volume, his best work on Italy, Britain and the US was collected for a wider audience.
Full Product Details
Author: Henry James
Publisher: Duckworth Overlook
Imprint: Gerald Duckworth & Co Ltd
Dimensions:
Width: 12.60cm
, Height: 2.50cm
, Length: 19.80cm
Weight: 0.497kg
ISBN: 9780715630839
ISBN 10: 0715630830
Pages: 386
Publication Date: 27 September 2001
Audience:
General/trade
,
General
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: No Longer Our Product
Availability: Out of stock
The supplier is temporarily out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you on backorder and shipped when it becomes available.
Reviews
Henry James once advised fellow writer Logan Pearsall Smith that if he truly aimed to produce the best work possible, then he should prepare to be lonely. In the 20 articles collected here, a powerful sense of loneliness can be discerned. Whether the subject is Venice, tours of Rheims, Chartres and Rouen, a trip to Niagara, or an English Easter, James appears always to be at one remove from his subject, unable to engage fully with the people and places about him. In Rheims and Laon: a Little Tour, James states that climbing up cathedral towers and gazing down upon the building is 'a rather brutal pastime... it is like holding one's nose so close to a picture that one sees only the grain of the canvas'. When he does stand on the roof of Rheims cathedral, James is, almost in spite of himself, impressed with the building, yet the wider vista - the reason most people climb up towers - is ignored. Throughout this book, James's brilliance at capturing telling details is displayed. As in his novels, when describing a face, a street or a feeling, he offers subtle insights and at times seems to strike at the heart of the matter. However, his air of detachment - the voice of the Anglophile American, settled in Europe, yet never quite comfortable - leaves many pieces somewhat lacking in warmth. In An English Easter he suggests that the English are 'so much the handsomest people in Europe', yet he later notes with distaste that 'two-thirds of the London faces, among the masses , bear in some degree or other the traces of alcoholic action'. Such comments give the impression that James is never simply reporting what he sees, but coldly passing judgement. (Kirkus UK)
Author Information
Henry James (1843 - 1916) is still one of America's most acclaimed novelists, whose work, most recently The Golden Bowl, is regularly turned into Hollywood feature films.
