The Catholic Side of Henry James

Description

The Catholic Side of Henry James reveals the profound Catholic imagery in the work of Henry James. Edwin Fussell questions conventional critical assumptions about James' secularity and shows that James' career began with narratives of Catholic conversion and ended with his masterpiece of Catholic eccentricity and alienation, The Golden Bowl. The interplay of men and women, of America and Europe - those acknowledged Jamesian themes - comes to be overlaid with the interplay between Protestant and Catholic. Fussell's examination ranges from James' early reviews of religious books for the Nation and early tales like 'De Grey: A Romance' through much of the canon, along the way re-examining James' overlooked play Guy Domville and climaxing with a magnificent reading of The Golden Bowl, convincingly demonstrating James' involvement with Catholic themes.

"Fussell's own style is Jamesian in wit and perceptiveness." Ronda Chervin, New Oxford Review "I am grateful to Fussell, one of our most subtle readers of American literature, for his close reading of the Catholic elements. Fussell does not believe that James embraced Catholicism, but he does demonstrate in a careful manner the 'fascination' the religion held for him." Irving Malin, The Henry James Review "The Catholic Side of Henry James, although quirky, extends our own tolerance for the mysteries embedded in James's cultural quest as well as for hermeneutic criticism of this sort, which bravely attempts to solve those mysteries--and sometimes creates new ones in the process." Peter Bien, English Literature in Transition, 1880-1920 "...one of the most thought-provoking aspects of Fussell's perceptive and knowledgeable book is the way it implicitly interrogates time-honored affiliates between American fiction and the great good places of Protestant self-reliance and freedom." Paul Giles, Nineteenth-Century Literature "The Catholic Side of Henry James is a significant contribution to the field of James Studies." Religion and the Arts