Essays in London and Elsewhere

Essays in London and Elsewhere

Infobox Book |
name = Essays in London and Elsewhere
author = Henry James
country = United Kingdom, United States
language = English
genre = Literary criticism
publisher = James R. Osgood, McIlvane & Co., London
Harper & Brothers, New York City
release_date = Osgood: 17-Jun-1893
Harper: 12-Sept-1893
media_type = Print
pages = Osgood: 320
Harper: 305

"Essays in London and Elsewhere" is a book of literary criticism by Henry James published in 1893. The book collected essays that James had written over the preceding several years on a wide range of writers including James Russell Lowell, Gustave Flaubert, Robert Browning and Henrik Ibsen. The book also included an interesting general essay on the role of the critic in literature and a piece of travel writing about London.

ummary and themes

James wrote many of these essays while he was busy with his ultimately disastrous effort to become a successful playwright. So it's not surprising that two of the essays deal with the theater. One of them is a graceful eulogy for his friend, the great actress Frances Anne Kemble, with "her fine, anxious humanity, the generosity of her sympathies, and the grand line and mass of her personality." The other is a surprisingly emphatic defense of Henrik Ibsen, whose work caused London audiences to "sweep the whole keyboard of emotion, from frantic enjoyment to ineffable disgust."

James shows his usual interest in French writers with three essays including a perceptive appreciation of Pierre Loti, who "speaks better than anything else of the ocean, the thing in the world that, after the human race, has most intensity and variety of life." James also writes generously of his old friend James Russell Lowell: "He had his trammels and his sorrows, but he drank deep of the tonic draught, and he will long count as an erect fighting figure on the side of optimism and beauty."

The book closes with an amusing dialogue called "An Animated Conversation". The characters talk long and wittily of the literary relationship between Britain and America. The wisest speaker finally concludes:

:"A body of English people crossed the Atlantic and sat down in a new climate on a new soil, amid new circumstances. It was a new heaven and a new earth. They invented new institutions, they encountered different needs. They developed a particular physique, as people do in a particular medium, and they began to speak in a new voice. They went in for democracy, and that alone would affect--it "has" affected--the tone immensely. "C'est bien le moins" (do you follow?) that that tone should have had its range and that the language they brought over with them should have become different to express different things. A language is a very sensitive organism. It must be convenient--it must be handy. It serves, it obeys, it accommodates itself."

Table of contents

Critical evaluation

James' ability to understand and appreciate writers very different from himself shines through this book's essays on Ibsen and Loti. He brings to each a deep appreciation of their outlook on life and their harsh but effective techniques for presenting it. James is never afraid to point out what he considers faults or omissions in the writers he discusses. But his criticism is never captious, never a wish that a writer was somebody he is not.

The essay on Ibsen has biographical relevance and even poignance for James, who would experience a very public failure in the theater just a few years after this book was published. The respect James pays to the renowned playwright betrays how much he wanted to succeed in the theater himself, and how bitter his eventual defeat would be.

References

*"Henry James Literary Criticism - Essays on Literature, American Writers, English Writers" edited by Leon Edel and Mark Wilson (New York: Library of America 1984) ISBN 0-940450-22-4
*"Henry James Literary Criticism - French Writers, Other European Writers, The Prefaces to the New York Edition" edited by Leon Edel and Mark Wilson (New York: Library of America 1984) ISBN 0-940450-23-2

External links

* [http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/pageviewer?coll=moa&root=/moa/cent/cent0037/&tif=00229.TIF&view=50&frames=1 Original magazine publication of the essay "London" (1888)]
* [http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/pageviewer?coll=moa&root=/moa/atla/atla0069/&tif=00041.TIF&view=50&frames=1 Original magazine publication of the essay "James Russell Lowell" (1892)]
* [http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/pageviewer?coll=moa&root=/moa/scri/scri0005/&tif=00379.TIF&view=50&frames=1 Original magazine publication of the essay "An Animated Conversation" (1889)]
* [http://www.loa.org/volume.jsp?RequestID=59&section=notes Note on the text of "Essays in London and Elsewhere"] at the Library of America web site


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно сделать НИР?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • London — /lun deuhn/, n. 1. Jack, 1876 1916, U.S. short story writer and novelist. 2. a metropolis in SE England, on the Thames: capital of the United Kingdom. 3. City of, an old city in the central part of the former county of London: the ancient nucleus …   Universalium

  • Art, Antiques, and Collections — ▪ 2003 Introduction       In 2002 major exhibitions such as Documenta 11 reflected the diverse nature of contemporary art: artists from a variety of cultures received widespread recognition for work ranging from installation to video to painting …   Universalium

  • Aristotle: Ethics and politics — Roger Crisp ETHICS BACKGROUND AND METHOD Aristotle wrote no books on ethics. Rather, he gave lectures, the notes for which subsequently were turned by others into two books, the Nicomachean Ethics (NE) and the Eudemian Ethics (EE). There is much… …   History of philosophy

  • Aristotle: Aesthetics and philosophy of mind — David Gallop AESTHETICS Aesthetics, as that field is now understood, does not form the subjectmatter of any single Aristotelian work. No treatise is devoted to such topics as the essential nature of a work of art, the function of art in general,… …   History of philosophy

  • Mill, John Stuart: Ethics and politics — J.S.Mill Ethics and politics R.F.Khan ON LIBERTY John Stuart Mill’s mature views on ethics and politics are to be found in On Liberty (published in 1859), Utilitarianism (1861), Considerations on Representative Government (1861) and The… …   History of philosophy

  • Ambrosian Liturgy and Rite — • The liturgy and Rite of the Church of Milan, which derives its name from St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan (374 397) Catholic Encyclopedia. Kevin Knight. 2006. Ambrosian Liturgy and Rite     Ambrosian Liturgy and Rite …   Catholic encyclopedia

  • Media and Publishing — ▪ 2007 Introduction The Frankfurt Book Fair enjoyed a record number of exhibitors, and the distribution of free newspapers surged. TV broadcasters experimented with ways of engaging their audience via the Internet; mobile TV grew; magazine… …   Universalium

  • Pythagoreans and Eleatics — Edward Hussey PYTHAGORAS AND THE EARLY PYTHAGOREANS Pythagoras, a native of Samos, emigrated to southern Italy around 520, and seems to have established himself in the city of Croton. There he founded a society of people sharing his beliefs and… …   History of philosophy

  • Aristotle’s logic and metaphysics — Alan Code PART 1: LOGICAL WORKS OVERVIEW OF ARISTOTLE’S LOGIC The Aristotelian logical works are referred to collectively using the Greek term ‘Organon’. This is a reflection of the idea that logic is a tool or instrument of, though not… …   History of philosophy

  • Exact sciences (The) in Hellenistic times: texts and issues — The exact sciences in Hellenistic times: Texts and issues1 Alan C.Bowen Modern scholars often rely on the history of Greco Latin science2 as a backdrop and support for interpreting past philosophical thought. Their warrant is the practice… …   History of philosophy

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”