Henry James, The Middle Years

Pat Righelato (University of Reading)

Ed. by Neil Cornwell, University of Bristol
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.3: American (US) Writing and Culture: The Early Twentieth-century , 1900-1945.
Vol. editors: J. Michael Duvall (College of Charleston), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Tony Papanikolas (San Jose State University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1914

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Non-Fiction
- Autobiography (literary)

Resources

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The Middle Years

, the third volume of Henry James’s autobiographical writings, was unfinished at the time of his death. It was published posthumously in 1917. The first volume,

A Small Boy and Others

, had been published in 1913, followed by the second,

Notes of a Son and Brother

, in 1914. The three volumes, edited by Frederick W. Dupee, were published with the collective title

Henry James: Autobiography

in 1956.

The fifty pages of the incomplete The Middle Years were written as war was brewing in Europe and the opening metaphor is a military one as if James, under the new threat, is recalling the intensities and wastage of the American Civil War: youth is conceived as an “army” reluctantly marching into age, “the enemy’s country, the country of the general lost freshness”

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864 words

Citation: Righelato, Pat. "The Middle Years". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 14 July 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=162, accessed 22 November 2024.]

Henry James, The Middle Years

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