The Other House Henry James 9781293435359 Books
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This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.
The Other House Henry James 9781293435359 Books
This Henry James is one of the oddest novels I’ve ever read. The six main characters, three women and three men, all well-educated, well-spoken members of the English upper class, sip their tea, converse in the most highly polished civilized manor, but how civilized are they, really? On one level, this is a novel of manners, the six characters interacting as if they were members of a string sextet playing in a minor key, say Tchaikovsky’s string sextet in D minor; on another level, James’ work can be viewed as the shocking consequences of life reduced to its selfish surface, that is, having no authentic aesthetic dimension, questionable morals and an abysmal lack of any spiritual depth.But perhaps I am being too harsh, since, when it comes to drama performed on stage, what has more power than raw passion – no refined aesthetics; no taking moral high ground; no deep reflection on the transcendental – just a massive dose of unchecked primal fury translated into direct action, the spirit of ancient Medea rearing her murderous, frenzied head? And please don’t be fooled by James’ arched, baroque description and dialogue I alluded to above – this is a novel of dark passion; the last 100 pages contain some of the most disturbing and shocking scenes I’ve ever encountered.
I mention drama and the stage for a good reason: Henry James initially conceived of this story as a play and later reworked his material into “The Other House”. Incidentally, James spent a number of years attempting without success to be a first-rate playwright. Sorry, Henry, the muse can be fickle – you were a great novelist and teller of tales but far from an Ibsen. Perhaps that can be a lesson for us all – when it comes to artistic expression and creativity, we might want to think hard before we venture too far from our literary strengths.
Critics at the time chimed in, calling the novel “distinctly unpleasant,” and “inhuman,” and even “the one altogether evil book that James ever wrote.” Later, Edmund Wilson had a one word pronouncement: “Dreadful.” Yet, there is something compelling about this novel in three parts, so much akin to a play’s three acts, that really makes it worth the read, and it is a short novel -- this New York Review Book (NYRB) edition is 300 pages of large font and wide margins – a more usual print size could come in at under 200 pages.
Lastly, I would be derelict if I didn’t include a couple examples from the novel itself. Here are a few lines from the opening pages, where the narrator tells us what an older woman, Mrs. Beever, a mother, wishes for her son Paul: “She was a woman indeed of many purposes; another of which was that on leaving Oxford the boy should travel and inform himself: she belonged to the age that regarded a foreign tour not as a hasty dip, but as a deliberate plunge. Still another had for its main feature that on his final return he should marry the nicest girl she knew: that too would be a deliberate plunge, a plunge that would besprinkle his mother.” Sense a tincture of a mother’s selfishness?
And here is Rose Armiger with Dennis, a man who arrives on the scene early to propose marriage to her: “Rose manifested no further sense of this occasion than to go straight on with her idea. She placed her arm with frank friendship on his shoulder. It drew him closer, and he recovered his grasp of her free hand. With his want of stature and presence, his upward look at her, his small, smooth head, his seasoned sallowness and simple eyes, he might at this instant have struck a spectator as a figure actually younger and slighter than the ample, accomplished girl whose gesture protected and even a little patronized him. But in her vision of him she none the less clearly found full warrant for saying, instead of something he expected, something she wished and had her reasons for wishing, even if they represented but the gain of a minute of time.” Now, why does Rose Armiger want more time? You will have to take the readerly plunge into this Henry James black sheep to find out.
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The Other House Henry James 9781293435359 Books Reviews
If appears has acquired publishing rights to the works of Henry James; in order to do the author any justice at all, they should invest in proof readers.Henry James was a brilliant author and in my opinion, he is one of America's unsung literary geniuses. The Other House is a page turner, Tony and Julia have just had their first child, Julia believes she is dying and in order to protect her child she extracts a most unusual promise from him. Tony is young, rich, handsome and charming, and in the intervening years two women have fallen madly in love with him. Unfortunately for them, his promise to his late wife complicates matters somewhat. One of the two women is determined to do everything she can to get her man, will her audacious plan succeed? So if the book is so brilliant, why only one star? Well, one reads a classic for the intellectual stimulation, however, it is very difficult to enjoy a book if you keep tripping over typographical and punctuation errors. I bought the kindle version first but had to return it because there were so many typos and misplaced punctuation marks, i was disappointed but hardly surprised because it is not uncommon to encounter spelling mistakes on kindle. I then decided to order the paperback version because no publisher would publish a book without proof-reading it first....much to my surprise, does not proof-read. Here is a sample of some of the typos.."to-day", "dis tinguished", "sofa-back","capitalise' it", "preposter ously", "he &%?", "u Have we been talking of that?", "Dennis mournfully mar-veiled", "(( she is safe", "far' away?" etc etc etc. Every single page has spelling mistakes and rather unusual use of punctuation marks...so much for intellectual stimulation!!!!. I was determined to enjoy this book so i forked out 30$ and bought the hardcover version published by Library of America and i am glad i did.....it is proofread and well bound
This Henry James is one of the oddest novels I’ve ever read. The six main characters, three women and three men, all well-educated, well-spoken members of the English upper class, sip their tea, converse in the most highly polished civilized manor, but how civilized are they, really? On one level, this is a novel of manners, the six characters interacting as if they were members of a string sextet playing in a minor key, say Tchaikovsky’s string sextet in D minor; on another level, James’ work can be viewed as the shocking consequences of life reduced to its selfish surface, that is, having no authentic aesthetic dimension, questionable morals and an abysmal lack of any spiritual depth.
But perhaps I am being too harsh, since, when it comes to drama performed on stage, what has more power than raw passion – no refined aesthetics; no taking moral high ground; no deep reflection on the transcendental – just a massive dose of unchecked primal fury translated into direct action, the spirit of ancient Medea rearing her murderous, frenzied head? And please don’t be fooled by James’ arched, baroque description and dialogue I alluded to above – this is a novel of dark passion; the last 100 pages contain some of the most disturbing and shocking scenes I’ve ever encountered.
I mention drama and the stage for a good reason Henry James initially conceived of this story as a play and later reworked his material into “The Other House”. Incidentally, James spent a number of years attempting without success to be a first-rate playwright. Sorry, Henry, the muse can be fickle – you were a great novelist and teller of tales but far from an Ibsen. Perhaps that can be a lesson for us all – when it comes to artistic expression and creativity, we might want to think hard before we venture too far from our literary strengths.
Critics at the time chimed in, calling the novel “distinctly unpleasant,” and “inhuman,” and even “the one altogether evil book that James ever wrote.” Later, Edmund Wilson had a one word pronouncement “Dreadful.” Yet, there is something compelling about this novel in three parts, so much akin to a play’s three acts, that really makes it worth the read, and it is a short novel -- this New York Review Book (NYRB) edition is 300 pages of large font and wide margins – a more usual print size could come in at under 200 pages.
Lastly, I would be derelict if I didn’t include a couple examples from the novel itself. Here are a few lines from the opening pages, where the narrator tells us what an older woman, Mrs. Beever, a mother, wishes for her son Paul “She was a woman indeed of many purposes; another of which was that on leaving Oxford the boy should travel and inform himself she belonged to the age that regarded a foreign tour not as a hasty dip, but as a deliberate plunge. Still another had for its main feature that on his final return he should marry the nicest girl she knew that too would be a deliberate plunge, a plunge that would besprinkle his mother.” Sense a tincture of a mother’s selfishness?
And here is Rose Armiger with Dennis, a man who arrives on the scene early to propose marriage to her “Rose manifested no further sense of this occasion than to go straight on with her idea. She placed her arm with frank friendship on his shoulder. It drew him closer, and he recovered his grasp of her free hand. With his want of stature and presence, his upward look at her, his small, smooth head, his seasoned sallowness and simple eyes, he might at this instant have struck a spectator as a figure actually younger and slighter than the ample, accomplished girl whose gesture protected and even a little patronized him. But in her vision of him she none the less clearly found full warrant for saying, instead of something he expected, something she wished and had her reasons for wishing, even if they represented but the gain of a minute of time.” Now, why does Rose Armiger want more time? You will have to take the readerly plunge into this Henry James black sheep to find out.
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