The novelist Henry James arrived in Venice as a tourist, and instantly fell in love with the city – particularly with the splendid Palazzo Barbaro, home of the expatriate American Curtis family. This selection of letters covers the period 1869-1907 and provides a unique record of the life and work of this great writer. Includes historical photographs and a foreword by Leon Edel, Henry James’s biographer.
"James is one of the most satisfying of all letter-writers because of thte endlessly surprising plasticity with which he handles the language of even his most trifling communications... and may our correspondence be as lovingly edited and presented as it is here by Dottoressa Rosella Mamoli Zorzi of Venice University." - Jonathan Keates, Spectator
"Paints a vivid and absorbing picture of life in fin de siecle Venice." - Rachelle Thackeray, Independent on Sunday
"This well-edited and beautifully produced little volume allows one, however fleetingly, to be a mosquito on the palazzo wall." - Stephen Coote, Gay Times
"Marvellously observant." - Caroline Gascoigne, Sunday Times
"Writing with an impressionistic immediacy and familiarity of tone, he conveys the breadth of his experience with all of his powers of psychological shading, and none of his usual restraint." - Ivan Juritz, Observer
Henry James (1843-1916) is one of the most prominent figures of American and British Literature. Son of a clergyman, and brother of the philosopher and psychologist William James, he moved between America and Europe during his early life, eventually settling in England at the age of twenty. A prolific novelist, essayist and literary critic, James was much concerned with questions of identity, belonging, creativity and consciousness. He is perhaps most famous for his novels The Bostonians, The Portrait of a Lady, Daisy Miller and What Maisie Knew, and for his ghost story, The Turn of the Screw. Between 1906 and 1910, James revised much of his fiction for the so-called New York Edition of his complete works, adding now-famous Prefaces. In 1915, prompted by the First World War, he became a British citizen; he received the Order of Merit in 1916, shortly before his death.
The novelist Henry James arrived in Venice as a tourist, and instantly fell in love with the city – particularly with the splendid Palazzo Barbaro, home of the expatriate American Curtis family. This selection of letters covers the period 1869-1907 and provides a unique record of the life and work of this great writer. Includes historical photographs and a foreword by Leon Edel, Henry James’s biographer.
Reviews
"James is one of the most satisfying of all letter-writers because of thte endlessly surprising plasticity with which he handles the language of even his most trifling communications... and may our correspondence be as lovingly edited and presented as it is here by Dottoressa Rosella Mamoli Zorzi of Venice University." - Jonathan Keates, Spectator
"Paints a vivid and absorbing picture of life in fin de siecle Venice." - Rachelle Thackeray, Independent on Sunday
"This well-edited and beautifully produced little volume allows one, however fleetingly, to be a mosquito on the palazzo wall." - Stephen Coote, Gay Times
"Marvellously observant." - Caroline Gascoigne, Sunday Times
"Writing with an impressionistic immediacy and familiarity of tone, he conveys the breadth of his experience with all of his powers of psychological shading, and none of his usual restraint." - Ivan Juritz, Observer
Author
Henry James (1843-1916) is one of the most prominent figures of American and British Literature. Son of a clergyman, and brother of the philosopher and psychologist William James, he moved between America and Europe during his early life, eventually settling in England at the age of twenty. A prolific novelist, essayist and literary critic, James was much concerned with questions of identity, belonging, creativity and consciousness. He is perhaps most famous for his novels The Bostonians, The Portrait of a Lady, Daisy Miller and What Maisie Knew, and for his ghost story, The Turn of the Screw. Between 1906 and 1910, James revised much of his fiction for the so-called New York Edition of his complete works, adding now-famous Prefaces. In 1915, prompted by the First World War, he became a British citizen; he received the Order of Merit in 1916, shortly before his death.
