Selected Tales (James, Henry)

Throughout his writing life, Henry James was drawn to the short-story form for the freedom it offered him—and he made the genre his own. This new selection comprises both brief tales and longer works that explore James's concerns with the old world and the new, and with money, fame, class, and art. "Daisy Miller," "The Lesson of the Master," "The Real Thing," "The Figure in the Carpet," "In the Cage," "The Beast in the Jungle," and "The Jolly Corner" are included here, along with twelve others. Haunting, witty, and beautifully drawn, these stories are as rich and resonant as James's novels.

"Throughout his writing life Henry James was drawn to the short story form for the freedom it offered him. From brief tales to longer stories - the 'blessed nouvelle' - he made the genre his own." The nineteen stories in this new selection span James's career, ranging from more familiar pieces, such as 'Daisy Miller', the work that first brought him fame, to those less well-known, all exploring his concerns with the old world and the new, money, fame and art. In 'The Real Thing', a refined but impoverished husband and wife pose as an artist's models; in 'The Birthplace', a Stratford tour guide embellishes the Shakespeare legend; and in the late masterpiece 'The Jolly Corner', an elderly American returns from Europe to New York and encounters a strange apparition. Perhaps 'In the Cage' represents James at his finest, exploring class and communication, poverty and imagination. Haunting, witty and beautifully drawn, James's tales are as rich and resonant as his novels.

Henry James was a master at tracing the social boundaries of the Gilded Age -- between Old and New World, Europe and America, desire and convention, men and women. He brought an invaluably clear-eyed, and critical, sensibility to America's evolving cultural mores.