Henry James
Henry James: A Master of Literature
It started with a love of knowledge, and a wide appreciation for cultures around the world. And by the time Henry James, Jr., was receiving a college education he simply could not think about anything but literature. Once James settled down and built a life, he spent time with some of the greatest minds of his era, and eventually became one of them. His compositions are greatly esteemed still, as we read them today, and he grew to be one of the most analyzed critical novelists of the last century. Henry James became a master of transatlantic literature who wrote about what he knew, and is therefore an honest representation of his time period and the ever-evolving world he observed around him.
Henry James, Jr., was born in New York in on April 15th, 1843 and because of his father’s high expectations for Henry and his siblings, the James family moved around much of the European continent to study with tutors and governesses (Tanner 23). Henry grew to be a highly intellectual young man and at the age of nineteen he briefly attended Harvard Law School, but left because he had a greater interest in literature than in studying law. James began writing soon after his stint at Harvard, and was immediately published and praised. While Henry James, Sr., did have a tremendous hand in his children’s education, he seemingly left them alone to learn and grow throughout their youth. It has been implied that James Sr., “gave his children an unusually free rein during their childhood, which doubtless, contributed to the notable ‘freedom’ of both Henry and William’s thought” (Tanner 24). This personal experience of his fathers almost abandonment effected the relationships between characters he wrote about.
James’s works seem to have an acute understanding of human relations (Edel ix). He demonstrated his fascination with human motives in books like Washington Square, where it was easy for him to depict a complex relationship between a...
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