"The Story of a Year" is a

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

writer

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 ...

that first appeared in the March 1865 issue of the ''

Atlantic Monthly ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

''. This story was never collected and published by James in

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form, but appears in the

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 ...

edition of his stories that cover the years 1864-1874. The story is approximately 16,600 words in length and divided into five parts.

Plot summary

The story starts in "early May, two years ago" during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

. Jack and Elizabeth, a newly-engaged young couple, walk through the country to their

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

home. Jack asks Elizabeth to keep their engagement a secret, and she agrees. That night Jack confides in his mother about the engagement. His mother, who is also Elizabeth's guardian, does not approve—she accuses Lizzie of being shallow. The next day Jack gets called off to war. While he is away, Lizzie goes to Leatherborough to stay with a friend, Mrs. Littlefield. While there, she meets Mr. Bruce, whom she falls in love with. No one knows that she is engaged, so his courtship is encouraged. Jack comes home fatally wounded and dies with Elizabeth by his side. Mr. Bruce proposes to Elizabeth and is refused.

External links

Full text of the story at The Atlantic Online
1865 short stories Short stories by Henry James Works originally published in The Atlantic (magazine) {{Story-stub