num_pages: 456
description: In this, the second volume of Leon Edel's superb edition of the letters, we see Henry James in his thirties, pursuing his writing in Paris and London and finding his first literary successes in Daisy Miller and The Portrait of a Lady . The letters of these years, describing for family and friends in Boston the expatriate's days, reveal the usual wit and sophistication, but there is a new James is relentlessly building a personal career and begins to see himself as a professional writer. Few other letters so fully document the process of an artist in the making.James was a social success in in Mr. Edel's words, "England speedily opened its arms to him, as it does to anyone who is at ease with the world." The letters of this period pull us into the atmosphere of Victorian England, its drawing rooms, manors, and clubs, and James's keen American eyes give us views of this world probably unique in our literary annals. He used these observations to forge his great international theme, the confrontation of the Old and New Worlds.
language: English
title: The Letters of Henry James, Vol. 2, 1875-1883
titlecomplete: The Letters of Henry James, Vol. 2, 1875-1883
genres: English Literature, Biography, Nonfiction
ratings_count: 7
publisher: Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press