Henry James

Washington Square, The portrait of a lady, The Bostonians.

Lambert Strether, a mild middle-aged American of no particular achievements, is dispatched to Paris from the manufacturing empire of Woollett, Massachusetts. The mission conferred on him by his august patron, Mrs. Newsome, is to discover what, or who, is keeping her son Chad in the notorious city of pleasure, and to bring him home. But Strether finds Chad transformed by the influence of a remarkable woman; and as the Parisian spring advances, he himself...

An innocent young girl who is caught between her divorced parents attempts to understand life and its injustices. Shuttled between her parents, who value her only as a means for provoking each other, Maisie is drawn into an entangled adult world of intrigue and sexual betrayal.

Five novels dramatize the interaction of Americans with more sophisticated Europeans.

The 21 stories in Complete Stories 1892-1898 represent James at the peak of his storytelling powers. Among them are "The Turn of the Screw," one of his most popular works, a terrifying exercise in psychological horror centering on the corruption of childhood innocence; "The Real Thing," a playful consideration of the illusions of art and the paradoxes of authenticity; "The Figure in the Carpet," "The Death of the Lion," and "The Middle Years," three...

Presents three works from the distinguished American writer--"The Princess Cassimassima," "The Reverberator," and "The Tragic Muse"--That explore a range of ideas in a distinct realist style.