Those who have doubts as to how far Mr. James has travelled from his earlier style will find interesting testimony in a bit of early criticism. Writing of The Passionate Pilgrim and Transatlantic Sketches J. C. Heywood says, “Ambiguities and obscurities', as well as inadequacies of expression, are so uncommon in these books that those which appear are all the more displeasing and inexcusable, since the writer has plainly shown that they might have been avoided.”