ISBN10: 193108288X, ISBN13: 9781931082884, [publisher: The Library Of America Feb 2006] Hardcover Neuware - This Library of America volume brings togetherone of Henry James s most unusual experiments andone of his most beloved masterpiecesWriting to his friend William Dean Howells, Henry James characterized his experimental novel,The Sacred Fount, as the only one of his novels to be told in the first person, as a fine flight into the high fantastic. While traveling to the country house of Newmarch for a weekend party, the nameless narrator becomes obsessed with the idea that a person may become younger or cleverer by tapping the sacred fount of another person. Convinced that Grace Brissenden has become younger by drawing upon her husband, Guy, the narrator seeks to discover the source of the newfound wit of Gilbert Long, previously a fine piece of human furniture. His perplexing and ambiguous quest, and the varying reactions it provokes from the other guests, calls into question the imaginative inquiry central to James s art of the novel.James described the essential idea ofThe Wings of the Doveas a young person conscious of a great capacity for life, but early stricken and doomed, condemned to die under short respite, while also enamoured of the world. The heroine, a wealthy young American heiress, Milly Theale (inspired by James s beloved cousin Minny Temple), is slowly drawn into a trap set for her by the English adventuress Kate Croy and her lover, the ...

First printing. Very clean. No markings. Ribbon bookmark. Book is in a very good slipcase. Pictures on request Date: 2006. Library of America ISBN 193108288X 9781931082884 [US]