The Sense of the Past

Already considered a master of short fiction by his mid-20s, Henry James went on to complete twenty novels, 112 short stories, and 12 plays, within his fifty-one year career. Because James traveled and moved frequently throughout his life, his writing shows the influence of an outsider's perspective. His transatlantic novels, such as Portrait of a Lady, pit American individuality and naiveté against old-world sophistication and impurity. Most of his work mirrors his affluent and cosmopolitan upbringing, and he remains one of the consummate analysts of genteel thought and psychology.