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  3. The Cambridge Edition of the Complete Fiction of Henry James

Born in the New York of 1843, publishing his first story during the American Civil War, and dying in London in 1916 during World War I, Henry James in his writing career offers an extraordinary account of the literary and cultural preoccupations of his period. His body of fiction, drawing on several literary traditions - notably those of America, Britain and France - registers in its often startling variations and experiments changing relations between literature and society, shifting conditions of publishing and authorship, and an increasingly sophisticated awareness of the critical and theoretical dimensions of modern narrative. The Cambridge Edition of the Complete Fiction of Henry James is the first full scholarly edition of his novels and tales. Based on first book editions, it offers an opportunity to observe at close hand his development as a writer, while providing authoritative texts, substantial introductions, a comprehensive listing of textual variants, and illuminating annotation.

  • General Editors: Adrian Poole, University of Cambridge, Philip Horne, University College London, Tamara L. Follini, University of Cambridge, Michael Anesko, Pennsylvania State University

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14 results in The Cambridge Edition of the Complete Fiction of Henry James

Confidence
  • Henry James
  • Edited by Gert Buelens
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    September 2025
    Print publication:
    30 September 2025
  • The Cambridge Edition of the Complete Fiction of Henry James provides, for the first time, a scholarly edition of a major writer whose work continues to be read, quoted, adapted and studied. Confidence is one of James's least-known novels, but its handling of point of view and the ethics of observing other people, its succession of often vividly-evoked settings – Siena, Baden-Baden, New York City, Paris, London – and its fascinating similarities to other of James's works make it deserving of serious attention. The story of its composition, publication and reception is also told here, illuminating how James negotiated his establishment as a major writer, including a readiness for radical revision at the manuscript stage. At its heart, Confidence offers a compelling portrait of a deracinated group of leisured Americans in a new era of global travel, tracing the twists and turns of a moral-psychological experiment in relations between the sexes.

The Prefaces
  • Henry James
  • Edited by Oliver Herford
  • Published online:
    08 March 2024
    Print publication:
    28 March 2024
  • The Cambridge Edition of the Complete Fiction of Henry James provides, for the first time, a scholarly edition of a major writer whose work continues to be read, quoted, adapted and studied. James wrote the eighteen Prefaces included in this volume to accompany the revised, selective New York Edition of his novels and tales (1907–9). They are unique and various writings: at once a digest of James's critical principles, an unsystematic treatise on fiction theory, an account of his rereading and revision of his own work, an oblique autobiography of the writing life and a public performance of authorial identity. This is the first scholarly edition of the Prefaces, and includes a detailed contextual introduction, a full textual history and extensive explanatory notes. It will be of value to researchers, scholars and advanced students of Henry James, and of 19th- and 20th-century British and American literature and book history.

Watch and Ward
  • Henry James
  • Edited by Pierre A. Walker, Jay S. Spina
  • Published online:
    17 February 2023
    Print publication:
    09 March 2023
  • The Cambridge Edition of the Complete Fiction of Henry James provides, for the first time, a scholarly edition of a major writer whose work continues to be read, quoted, adapted and studied. While Watch and Ward has long been dismissed as an early apprentice work, it marks an important stage in James's development as a fiction writer, building upon the stories he wrote during the late 1860s and pointing, at the same time, to the works he would write during the ensuing decade and which would secure his reputation, including 'Daisy Miller', The American and The Portrait of a Lady. Extensive explanatory notes enable modern readers to understand the novel's historical, cultural and literary references.

Washington Square
  • Henry James
  • Edited by Gert Buelens, Susan M. Griffin
  • Published online:
    11 August 2022
    Print publication:
    08 September 2022
  • The Cambridge Edition of the Complete Fiction of Henry James provides, for the first time, a scholarly edition of a major writer whose work continues to be read, quoted, adapted and studied. Published in two volumes in 1880, Washington Square dramatises the plight of Catherine Sloper, a rich heiress, whose father, a successful doctor, identifies her one suitor, Morris Townsend, as a fortune-hunter. The novel thus draws on the sentimental tradition, which it develops with subtle, sympathetic irony, in a realist direction. This edition is the first to provide a full account of the context in which the book was composed and received, and to include the original illustrations by Punch-cartoonist George Du Maurier. Extensive explanatory notes enable modern readers to understand its nuanced historical, cultural and literary references, and its complex textual history.

The Aspern Papers and Other Tales, 1884–1888
  • Henry James
  • Edited by Rosella Mamoli Zorzi, Simone Francescato
  • Published online:
    17 March 2022
    Print publication:
    07 April 2022
  • The Cambridge Edition of the Complete Fiction of Henry James provides, for the first time, a scholarly edition of a major writer whose work continues to be read, quoted, adapted and studied. The nine tales in this volume, published between 1884 and 1888, include 'The Aspern Papers', set in Venice and featuring a devious scholar attempting to steal the letters of an American poet from his former lover, and 'The Liar,' on the world of painters and their models. These tales exemplify James's continuing interest in the art of short fiction during a period which saw him responding to the stimulations of French naturalism and successfully reworking the international theme that had made him famous at the end of the 1870s. Extensive explanatory notes enable modern readers to understand the tales' historical, cultural and literary references.

The Reverberator
  • Henry James
  • Edited by Richard Salmon
  • Published online:
    23 April 2021
    Print publication:
    09 August 2018
  • Often overlooked by modern critics, The Reverberator was a departure from Henry James' immediately preceding novels, The Bostonians and The Princess Casamassima, returning to the popular 'international theme' of his earlier fiction. Its comedy of manners explores the conflicting values of American and Europeanized characters in the context of topical cultural concerns. Most notably, in its satire on popular journalism and an emerging mass-media through the scandal sheet 'The Reverberator', the novel dramatizes what James presciently saw as the 'devouring publicity' of modern life. This edition, based on the most reliable of the work's first book appearances (Macmillan, 1888), provides a thorough account of the novel's sources and composition, literary and historical contexts, and extensive revision for the New York Edition (1908), as well as extensive annotation. It will be of interest to James scholars, students of nineteenth-century Anglo-American literature and culture, and historians of journalism and new media.

The Jolly Corner and Other Tales, 1903–1910
  • Henry James
  • Edited by N. H. Reeve
  • Published online:
    11 April 2021
    Print publication:
    21 September 2017
  • The Cambridge Edition of the Complete Fiction of Henry James provides, for the first time, a scholarly edition of a major writer whose work continues to be read, quoted, adapted and studied. The Jolly Corner and Other Tales, 1903–1910 includes the final ten stories James wrote. Many involve satirical critiques of an increasingly narcissistic, acquisitive society - from 'The Papers', with its attack on celebrity culture, to 'The Birthplace', offering a sardonic view of the Shakespeare industry, and 'A Round of Visits', which conducts a horrified tour through selfishness and swindling in early twentieth-century New York. The title story itself was in James's own view 'a miraculous masterpiece in the line of the fantastic-gruesome, the supernatural-thrilling … the best thing of this sort I've ever done'. With its extensive textual history and wide-ranging notes, this volume will interest not only James scholars, but all students of early twentieth-century Anglo-American literature and culture.

The Outcry
  • Henry James
  • Edited by Jean Chothia
  • Published online:
    11 April 2021
    Print publication:
    17 November 2016
  • The Cambridge Edition of the Complete Fiction of Henry James provides, for the first time, a scholarly edition of a major writer whose work continues to be read, quoted, adapted and studied. The Outcry, James's last completed novel, is an ironic depiction of the contemporary art market in which wealthy Americans are plundering British-owned treasures. James adapted the work, originally written as a play, into novel form with great success. This edition, based on the work's first book appearance in 1911, reconstructs the novel's literary, cultural and historical contexts, includes extensive annotation, and gives a detailed textual history. In exploring the process of adaptation it allows particular insight into James's skills as a novelist. The volume will be of interest to James scholars, art and theatre historians and students of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Anglo-American literature, while also contributing to the developing field of adaptation studies.

The Portrait of a Lady
  • Henry James
  • Edited by Michael Anesko
  • Published online:
    11 April 2021
    Print publication:
    12 May 2016
  • The Cambridge Edition of the Complete Fiction of Henry James provides, for the first time, a scholarly edition of a major writer whose work continues to be read, quoted, adapted and studied. Widely considered James's first great work of fiction and highly innovative in its narrative techniques, The Portrait of a Lady follows the story of an ardent, idealistic American heroine, Isabel Archer, in a cosmopolitan Europe. It explores individual freedom amidst confining circumstance, romantic choice, and the consequences of disillusionment and betrayal. This edition, based on the most reliable of the work's first book appearances (Macmillan, 1882), provides an authoritative text of one of James's finest long novels, with extensive annotations, a detailed textual history and an analysis of the reasons for its long-held popular appeal. It will be of particular interest not only to James scholars, but also book historians and students of nineteenth-century Anglo-American literature and culture.

The Ambassadors
  • Henry James
  • Edited by Nicola Bradbury
  • Published online:
    11 April 2021
    Print publication:
    15 September 2015
  • The Cambridge Edition of the Complete Fiction of Henry James provides, for the first time, a scholarly edition of a major writer whose work continues to be read, quoted, adapted and studied. One of Henry James's last three great novels, The Ambassadors offers a witty, observant and profound exploration of the contrast between American and European cultures and of the desire to 'live all you can'. It follows the journey of self-discovery taken by a middle-aged literary gentleman, Lambert Strether, as he sheds his New England perspective and comes to appreciate cosmopolitan society and values, although not without personal cost. This edition, based on the work's first book appearance (Methuen, 1903), illuminates its literary and cultural contexts, contains comprehensive annotation, and provides a detailed textual history. It will appeal to James scholars, book historians and students of early twentieth-century Anglo-American literature and culture, and re-introduce readers to this masterpiece.

The Princess Casamassima
  • Henry James
  • Edited by Adrian Poole
  • Published online:
    11 April 2021
    Print publication:
    19 March 2020
  • The Cambridge Edition of the Complete Fiction of Henry James provides, for the first time, a scholarly edition of a major writer whose work continues to be read, quoted, adapted and studied. Published in three volumes in 1886, The Princess Casamassima follows Hyacinth Robinson, a young London craftsman who carries the stigma of his illegitimate birth, and his French mother's murder of his patrician English father. Deeply impressed by the poverty around him, he is driven to association with political dissidents and anarchists including the charismatic Princess Casamassima - who embodies the problems of personal and political loyalty by which Hyacinth is progressively torn apart. This edition is the first to provide a full account of the context in which the book was composed and received. Extensive explanatory notes enable modern readers to understand its nuanced historical, cultural and literary references, and its complex textual history.

The Bostonians
  • Henry James
  • Edited by Daniel Karlin
  • Published online:
    11 April 2021
    Print publication:
    11 July 2019
  • The Cambridge Edition of the Complete Fiction of Henry James provides, for the first time, a scholarly edition of a major writer whose work continues to be read, quoted, adapted and studied. The Bostonians is an extraordinary political and psychological drama narrating the struggle between Northern feminist Olive Chancellor and her cousin, former slaveholder and radical conservative Basil Ransom, for 'possession' of the beautiful, talented Verena Tarrant. The issues raised of the relations between the sexes, between North and South and between differing visions of 'progress' in America are as timely - and contentious - as when the novel first appeared. This fully annotated scholarly edition of one of James's most distinctive and important works features a detailed contextual introduction, full textual history and helpful explanatory annotation. It will be of interest to researchers, scholars and advanced students of Henry James, and of nineteenth- and twentieth-century British and American fiction and literature.

The Sacred Fount
  • Henry James
  • Edited by T. J. Lustig
  • Published online:
    11 April 2021
    Print publication:
    03 October 2019
  • The Cambridge Edition of the Complete Fiction of Henry James provides, for the first time, a scholarly edition of a major writer whose work continues to be read, quoted, adapted and studied. One of James's strangest works, The Sacred Fount, explores ideas of sexual desire and power in an English country house setting. The novel aroused considerable critical bewilderment and hostility on its original publication in 1901 but was retrieved by a subsequent generation of critics who found its ambiguity and stylistic elaboration an instance of James's 'mastery' and an early example of literary modernism. This is the first critical edition of James' landmark text and is supported by a full critical apparatus including introduction, notes, glossary, textual variants and bibliography. The volume will be of interest to researchers, scholars and advanced students of Henry James, and of nineteenth- and twentieth-century British and American fiction and literature.

The Europeans
  • Henry James
  • Edited by Susan M. Griffin
  • Published online:
    11 April 2021
    Print publication:
    16 September 2015
  • The Cambridge Edition of the Complete Fiction of Henry James provides, for the first time, a scholarly edition of a major writer whose work continues to be read, quoted, adapted and studied. James's The Europeans gently satirizes both early nineteenth-century New England society and the sophisticated visiting Europeans who encounter it. While this wryly comic novel has had its critical champions - F. R. Leavis and Richard Poirier among them - it has not previously received the scholarly attention it deserves. This edition, based on the work's first book appearance (Macmillan, 1878), reconstructs the novel's literary, cultural and historical contexts, provides extensive annotation, and gives a detailed textual history of the work, drawing on newly available James letters. It will be of interest to James scholars, book historians and students of nineteenth-century Anglo-American literature and culture, and will also re-introduce readers to the pleasures of Henry James's early style.