Nearly thirty years in the making, The Library of America's
eleven-volume edition of the complete fiction of Henry James now
culminates with this authoritative volume collecting his final three
finished works. Considered by James to be his most finely constructed
novel, The Ambassadors (1903) recounts the attempts of a conscientious
American to convince the son of a friend to return home from Paris-and
in doing so plays the charm of the Old World against the provincialism
of the New. In The Golden Bowl (1904), an American woman marries an
Italian prince while her father unknowingly marries the prince's former
mistress; James underscores both the fragility and strength of human
ties and further develops what he once called the complex fate, being an
American. Originally written for the stage but never produced, James
reworked The Outcry (1911) into a highly successful comic novel of
social manners that also deals with the ethics of art collecting.
Included as an appendix is The Married Son, the chapter James
contributed to The Whole Family (1908), a multi-author novel conceived
by William Dean Howells and portraying a dysfunctional family whose
struggles mirror the frustrated collaborative efforts of the book's
twelve contributors.
LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization
founded in 1979 to preserve our nation's literary heritage by
publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America's best and most
significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than
300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in
length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are
printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.
