The Catholic Side of Henry James (Cambridge Studies in American Literature and Culture)

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.