Henry James

Catalog description

In this course, we will read select works from the mature phase of Henry James's fiction. This body of work is among the greatest and most profound fictional art in English. Its style is also sometimes found boring or unreadable. Unquestionably, the prose is difficult, with sentences so complex, wandering, and ambiguous, that the sense may be hard to construe. While little overt action occurs, topics illuminated include love, money, sex-gender-sexuality, evil, and other major themes of modern life. We will do our best to plumb these works' beauty, strangeness, artistry, and their subtlest meanings. Recommended for very advanced and searching students and readers. Please enroll if you find difficult prose manageable and rewarding, and you are prepared to have fiction confront you with some of the deepest questions of life without offering clear or certain answers.