Comprehensive survey and analysis of the scholarship and criticism on
perhaps the greatest American writer.
Although some of Henry James's contemporary critics deemed him just
short of a great writer, history has elevated him to indisputable
preeminence in the American canon. Linda Simon chronicles and analyzes
James criticism beginningwith contemporary newspaper and magazine
reviews and ending with current academic criticism. The story begins in
the 1870s, when critics saw James's works as mirrors of American
identity and sought to establish him in the nation's evolving canon.
James himself worked to secure that place with his prefaces to the
standard edition of his works; Simon analyzes criticism about those
prefaces. She also shows how James's reputation became contested after
his death: praised by some critics for psychological insight and
stylistic innovation, he was dismissed by others as socially and
politically irrelevant. But beginning in the 1940s, such critics as
Trilling, Rahv, Leavis, and, most influentially, Leon Edel secured
James's place at the forefront of the American canon. More recently,
James scholarship has focused on sexuality and gender, race and
morality, and the nature of consciousness; critical trends Simon also
considers. This book, the only comprehensive overview of James criticism
over the past 140 years, helps readers understand the paths that that
criticism has taken and how scholars and critics have built upon past
work.
Linda Simon is Professor Emerita of English at Skidmore College and
Editor-in-Chief of William James Studies. Her books include Genuine
Reality: A Life of William James, which was a New York Times Notable
Book of 1998.
