ISBN10: 193108288X, ISBN13: 9781931082884, [publisher: The Library of America, New York] Hardcover Hardcover. This Library of America volume brings togetherThe Sacred Fount(1901), one of Henry James's most unusual experiments, andThe Wings of the Dove(1902), one of his most beloved masterpieces and the novel that inaugurated the majestic and intricate "late phase" of his literary career.Writing to his friend William Dean Howells, James characterizedThe Sacred Fount, 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 ...

ISBN10: 193108288X, ISBN13: 9781931082884, [publisher: Library of America] Hardcover Henry James (1843-1916), born in New York City, was the son of noted religious philosopher Henry James, Sr., and brother of eminent psychologist and philosopher William James. He spent his early life in America and studied in Geneva, London and Paris.
[Greven, Germany] [Publication Year: 2006]
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