''The Middle Years'' is an incomplete book of autobiography by

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 ...

, posthumously published in 1917. The book covers the early years of James' residence in Europe and his meetings with writers such as

George Eliot Mary Ann Evans (22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880; alternatively Mary Anne or Marian), known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She wro ...

Alfred Tennyson Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of his ...

, and

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 ...

Summary and themes

The seven chapters of this fragment show promise as a record of James' young manhood in Europe. He met many of the leading writers of the day, though his opinions of them were not always flattering. Tennyson he found rather dull and commonplace, not at all the fine mind he expected. The poet's reading of ''Locksley Hall'' left James unimpressed. George Eliot appealed much more to James with her interesting conversation and alert consideration of ideas. James tells a story of how he helped summon a doctor when George Eliot's injured stepson required urgent medical aid. He compliments the novelist on how carefully she attended to the young man. James also has much to say about the London of his first impressions: the rooms he stayed in, the Londoners he talked with on the streets, the theaters and museums he visited. The fragment concludes with a remembrance of Lady Waterford, a painter who possessed "that combination of rare beauty and rare talent which the

Victorian age In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardian ...

had for many years not ceased to acclaim."

References

* ''Henry James: Autobiography'' edited by F.W. Dupee (New York: Criterion Books 1956) * ''A Companion to Henry James Studies'' edited by Daniel Fogel (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press 1993)

External links

Description of ''The Middle Years'' and James' other autobiographical books
{{DEFAULTSORT:Middle Years 1917 non-fiction books Books by Henry James Books published posthumously William Collins, Sons books