The Works of Henry James (Including Roderick Hudson; The American; The Europeans; Washington Square; The Portrait of a Lady; The Bostonians; What Masie Knew; The Tragic Muse; The Other House; The Awkward Age; The Sacred Fount; The Wings of the Dove; The Ambassadors; The Turn of the Screw; The Golden Bowl).

JAMES, Henry.

Item Number: 73089

London: Macmillan and Company, 1921-23.

Finely bound set of Henry James. The large format edition printed in London of the final and most complete collected works, with additions and corrections to the New York edition.  Octavo, 35 volumes, bound in contemporary three quarters red morocco, gilt titles and tooling to the spine, top edge gilt. Volume 24 constitutes the first English appearance of the short novel Watch and Ward. Prefatory notes by Percy Lubbock. In fine condition. A exceptional set.

Henry James is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the son of Henry James Sr. and the brother of renowned philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James. He is best known for a number of novels dealing with the social and marital interplay between emigre Americans, English people, and continental Europeans – examples of such novels include The Portrait of a Lady, The Ambassadors, and The Wings of the Dove. His later works were increasingly experimental. In describing the internal states of mind and social dynamics of his characters, James often made use of a personal style in which ambiguous or contradictory motivations and impressions were overlaid or closely juxtaposed in the discussion of a single character's psyche. For their unique ambiguity, as well as for other aspects of their composition, his late works have been compared to impressionist painting. In addition to voluminous works of fiction, James published articles and books of criticism, travel, biography, autobiography, and plays.