Henry James : Critical Assessments

This set of volumes on Henry James is the third in the "Critical Assessments of Writers in English" series, the aim of which is to provide complete collections of previously published, formative critical assessments covering the whole work of individual writers.

They should be useful to serious readers of literature, researchers and advanced students.

Many of the pieces included were originally published in journals or books which are now out of print or very difficult to obtain.

Each set has an authoritative introductory survey, as well as a full bibliography and biographical details.

The choice of material in this set attempts both to gauge the changing response to James and also to establish how consistent has been his stature as a writer.

It also attempts to reflect his image - as novelist, critic, dramatist, short-story writer, cultural commentator, travel writer and as a personality as equivocal as his texts.

The first volume offers a series of memories of James: friends and critics who help to place the personality in context, followed by responses from 14 writers, poets and novelists. The second volume offers in chronological progression a series of contemporary reviews and views of James's work from both America and Britain together with a series of general essays written between 1879 and 1919.

The third volume offers a 20th-century overview from 1919 to the 1980s reflecting the range of the response to James both in terms of subject matter and critical variety.

The final volume offers a series of 20th-century interpretations of the major works.

This collection provides the student of James with a range of writing on James' work from the 19th century to the 1980s.

The bibliography offers a selective listing of the major critical texts and bibliographies as well as details of the publication and serialization of James' works.