{"product_id":"2940012706195","title":"Henry James PREFACES: in his own words about his writings","description":"Scanned, proofed and corrected from the original hardcover edition for your reading pleasure. (Worth every penny!)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e***\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis is a collection of Prefaces written by Henry James exclusively for the \"New York Edition\" of \"The Novels and Tales of Henry James.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eUnder one cover we have the inside insights to his multiple collection of works in his own words.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIncluded here are discussions about:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePreface I. Roderick Hudson \u003cbr\u003e(New York Edition, 1)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePreface II. The American\u003cbr\u003e(New York Edition, 2)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePreface III. The Portrait Of A Lady\u003cbr\u003e(New York Edition, 3, 4)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePreface IV. The Princess Casamassima\u003cbr\u003e(New York Edition, 5,6)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePreface V. The Tragic Muse\u003cbr\u003e(New York Edition, 7,8)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePreface VI. The Awkward Age\u003cbr\u003e(New York Edition, 9)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePreface VII. The Spoils of Poynton; \u003cbr\u003eA London Life; The Chaperon\u003cbr\u003e(New York Edition, 10)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePreface VIII. What Maisie Knew; \u003cbr\u003eIn The Cage; The Pupil\u003cbr\u003e(New York Edition, 11)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePreface IX. The Aspern Papers; The Turn of the Screw; \u003cbr\u003eThe Liar; The Two Faces.\u003cbr\u003e(New York Edition, 12)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePreface X. The Reverberator; Madame de Mauves; \u003cbr\u003eA Passionate Pilgrim; The Madonna of the Future; Louisa Pallant\u003cbr\u003e(New York Edition, 13)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePreface XI. Lady Barbarina; The Siege of London; An International Episode;\u003cbr\u003eThe Pension Beaurepas; A Bundle of Letters; The Point of View\u003cbr\u003e(New York Edition, 14)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePreface XII. The Lesson of the Master; The Death of the Lion; \u003cbr\u003eThe Next Time; The Figure in the Carpet; The Coxon Fund\u003cbr\u003e(New York Edition, 15)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePreface XIII. The Author of Beltraffio; The Middle Years; Greville Fane;\u003cbr\u003eBroken Wings; The Tree of Knowledge; The Abasement of the Northmores;\u003cbr\u003eThe Great Good Place; Four Meetings; Paste; Europe;\u003cbr\u003eMiss Gunton of Poughkeepsie; Fordham Castle\u003cbr\u003e(New York Edition, 16)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePreface XIV. The Altar of the Dead; The Beast in the Jungle; The Birthplace; \u003cbr\u003eThe Private Life; Owen Wingrave; The Friends of the Friends;\u003cbr\u003eSir Edmund Orme; The Real Right Thing; The Jolly Corner; Julia Bride\u003cbr\u003e(New York Edition, 17)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePreface XV. Daisy Miller; Pandora; The Patagonia; The Marriages; \u003cbr\u003eThe Real Thing; Brooksmith; The Beldonald Holbein;\u003cbr\u003eThe Story in It; Flickerbridge; Mrs. Medwin\u003cbr\u003e(New York Edition, 18)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePreface XVI. The Wings of the Dove\u003cbr\u003e(New York Edition, 19, 20)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePreface XVII. The Ambassadors\u003cbr\u003e(New York Edition, 21, 22)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePreface XVIII. The Golden Bowl\u003cbr\u003e(New York Edition, 23, 24)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e***\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAn excerpt:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePREFACE XVI.\u003cbr\u003eTHE WINGS OF THE DOVE\u003cbr\u003eThe Wings of the Dove, published in 1902, represents to my memory a very old – if I shouldn’t  perhaps rather say a very young – motive; I can scarce remember the time when the situation on which this long-drawn fiction mainly rests was not vividly present to me. The idea, reduced to its essence, is that of a young person conscious of a great capacity for life, but early stricken and doomed, condemned to die under short respite, while also enamoured of the world; aware moreover of the condemnation and passionately desiring to ‘put in’ before extinction as many of the finer vibrations as possible, and so achieve, however briefly and brokenly, the sense of having lived. Long had I turned it over, standing off from it, yet coming back to it; convinced of what might be done with it, yet seeing the theme as formidable. The image so figured would be, at best, but half the matter; the rest would be all the picture of the struggle involved, the adventure brought about, the gain recorded or the loss incurred, the precious experience somehow compassed. These things, I had from the first felt, would require much working-out; that indeed was the case with most things worth working at all; yet there are subjects and subjects, and this one seemed particularly to bristle. It was formed, I judged, to make the wary adventurer walk round and round it – it had in fact a charm that invited and mystified alike that attention; not being somehow what one thought of as a ‘frank’ subject, after the fashion of some, with its elements well in view and its whole character in its face. It stood there with secrets and compartments, with possible treacheries and traps; it might have a great deal to give, but would probably ask for equal services in return, and would collect this debt to the last shilling. It involved, to begin with, the placing in the strongest light a person infirm and ill – a case sure to prove difficult and to require much handling; though giving perhaps, with other matters, one of those chances for good taste, possibly even for the play of the very best in the world, that are not only always to be invoked and cultivated, but that are absolutely to be jumped at from the moment they make a sign.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYes then, the case prescribed for its central figure a sick young woman, at the whole course of whose disintegration and the whole ordeal of whose consciousness one would have quite honestly to assist. The expression of her state and that of one’s intimate relation to it might therefore well need to be discreet and ingenious...","brand":"OGB","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47068546400496,"sku":"2940012706195","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940012706195_p0.jpg?v=1763571842","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940012706195","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}