''Essays in London and Elsewhere'' is a book of

literary criticism Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...

Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...

published in 1893. The book collected essays that James had written over the preceding several years on a wide range of writers including

James Russell Lowell James Russell Lowell (; February 22, 1819 – August 12, 1891) was an American Romantic poet, critic, editor, and diplomat. He is associated with the fireside poets, a group of New England writers who were among the first American poets that ri ...

Gustave Flaubert Gustave Flaubert ( , , ; 12 December 1821 – 8 May 1880) was a French novelist. Highly influential, he has been considered the leading exponent of literary realism in his country. According to the literary theorist Kornelije Kvas, "in Flauber ...

Robert Browning Robert Browning (7 May 1812 – 12 December 1889) was an English poet and playwright whose dramatic monologues put him high among the Victorian poets. He was noted for irony, characterization, dark humour, social commentary, historical settings ...

and

Henrik Ibsen Henrik Johan Ibsen (; ; 20 March 1828 – 23 May 1906) was a Norwegian playwright and theatre director. As one of the founders of modernism in theatre, Ibsen is often referred to as "the father of realism" and one of the most influential playw ...

. The book also included an interesting general essay on the role of the

critic A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as art, literature, music, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their subject social or governmen ...

literature Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...

and a piece of

travel writing Travel is the movement of people between distant geographical locations. Travel can be done by foot, bicycle, automobile, train, boat, bus, airplane, ship or other means, with or without luggage, and can be one way or round trip. Travel can ...

about

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Summary and themes

James wrote many of these essays while he was busy with his ultimately disastrous effort to become a successful playwright. So it's not surprising that two of the essays deal with the theater. One of them is a graceful eulogy for his friend, the great actress

Frances Anne Kemble Frances Anne "Fanny" Kemble (27 November 180915 January 1893) was a British actress from a theatre family in the early and mid-19th century. She was a well-known and popular writer and abolitionist, whose published works included plays, poetry ...

, with "her fine, anxious humanity, the generosity of her sympathies, and the grand line and mass of her personality." The other is a surprisingly emphatic defense of Henrik Ibsen, whose work caused

audiences to "sweep the whole keyboard of emotion, from frantic enjoyment to ineffable disgust." James shows his usual interest in French writers with three essays including a perceptive appreciation of

Pierre Loti Pierre Loti (; pseudonym of Louis Marie-Julien Viaud ; 14 January 1850 – 10 June 1923) was a French naval officer and novelist, known for his exotic novels and short stories.This article is derived largely from the ''Encyclopædia Britannica El ...

, who "speaks better than anything else of the ocean, the thing in the world that, after the human race, has most intensity and variety of life." James also writes generously of his old friend James Russell Lowell: "He had his trammels and his sorrows, but he drank deep of the tonic draught, and he will long count as an erect fighting figure on the side of optimism and beauty." The book closes with an amusing dialogue called ''An Animated Conversation''. The characters talk long and wittily of the literary relationship between Britain and America. The wisest speaker finally concludes: :"A body of English people crossed the Atlantic and sat down in a new climate on a new soil, amid new circumstances. It was a new heaven and a new earth. They invented new institutions, they encountered different needs. They developed a particular physique, as people do in a particular medium, and they began to speak in a new voice. They went in for democracy, and that alone would affect--it ''has'' affected--the tone immensely. ''C'est bien le moins'' (do you follow?) that that tone should have had its range and that the language they brought over with them should have become different to express different things. A language is a very sensitive organism. It must be convenient--it must be handy. It serves, it obeys, it accommodates itself."

Critical evaluation

James' ability to understand and appreciate writers very different from himself shines through this book's essays on Ibsen and Loti. He brings to each a deep appreciation of their outlook on life and their harsh but effective techniques for presenting it. James is never afraid to point out what he considers faults or omissions in the writers he discusses. But his criticism is never captious, never a wish that a writer was somebody he is not. The essay on Ibsen has biographical relevance and even poignance for James, who would experience a very public failure in the theater just a few years after this book was published. The respect James pays to the renowned playwright betrays how much he wanted to succeed in the theater himself, and how bitter his eventual defeat would be.

References

*''Henry James Literary Criticism - Essays on Literature, American Writers, English Writers'' edited by

Leon Edel Joseph Leon Edel (9 September 1907 – 5 September 1997) was an American/Canadian literary critic and biographer. He was the elder brother of North American philosopher Abraham Edel. The ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' calls Edel "the foremo ...

and Mark Wilson (New York:

Library of America The Library of America (LOA) is a nonprofit publisher of classic American literature. Founded in 1979 with seed money from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Ford Foundation, the LOA has published over 300 volumes by authors rangi ...

1984) *''Henry James Literary Criticism - French Writers, Other European Writers, The Prefaces to the New York Edition'' edited by Leon Edel and Mark Wilson (New York:

1984)

External links

Original magazine publication of the essay ''London'' (1888)Original magazine publication of the essay ''James Russell Lowell'' (1892)Original magazine publication of the essay ''An Animated Conversation'' (1889)Note on the text of ''Essays in London and Elsewhere''
at the

web site {{Henry James 1893 non-fiction books Books by Henry James Essay collections Books about London

Summary and themes

Table of contents

Critical evaluation

References

External links