The Portrait Of A Lady

Henry James (15 April 1843-28 February 1916) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the son of Henry James Sr. and the brother of philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James. He is best known for his novels dealing with the social and marital interplay between émigré Americans, English people and continental Europeans. His fundamental theme was the innocence and exuberance of the New World in clash with the corruption and wisdom of the Old, as illustrated in such works as Daisy Miller (1879), The Portrait of a Lady (1881), The Bostonians (1886) and The Ambassadors (1903). His later works were increasingly experimental. In describing the internal states of mind and social dynamics of his characters, James often wrote in a style in which ambiguous or contradictory motives and impressions were overlaid or juxtaposed in the discussion of a character's psyche. By his mid-20s James was regarded as one of the most skilful writers of short stories in America. Critics, however, deplored his tendency to write of the life of the mind rather than of action. For their unique ambiguity, as well as for other aspects of their composition, his late works have been compared to impressionist painting.