Henry James

An unscrupulous critic, determined to get his hands on the private papers of a great poet, finds himself duelling with the grim old lady who was once the poet's mistress and muse. Aspern's lost world of beauty and romance still seems to hand in the glamorous air of Venice, but the price of admission turns out to involve another party, the old...

Catherine Sloper is heiress to a fortune and is easily overwhelmed by the attentions of a handsome but penniless suitor. Her clever father is implacably opposed to the match, and the scene for a classic confrontation is set. This new edition of James's most enduringly popular work offers more information than any previous edition....

A young, inexperienced governess is charged with the care of Miles and Flora, two small children abandoned by their uncles at his grand country house. She sees the figure of an unknown man on the tower and his face at the window. It is Peter Quint, the master's dissolute valet, and he has come for little Miles. But Peter Quint is dead. Like...

As well as 'The Aspern Papers', this selection includes 'The Death of the Lion', 'The Figure in the Carpet', and 'The Birthplace'. All four stories concern the figure of the artist and the cult of celebrity. This new edition includes extracts from James's Prefaces and Notebooks that shed light on the genesis of the stories....

Considered by many as one of the finest novels in the English language, The Portrait of a Lady is both a dramatic Victorian tale of betrayal and a wholly modern psychological study of a woman caught in machinations she only comes to understand too late. This new edition usefully tracks the major textual changes James made for his New York Edition....

As well as 'The Aspern Papers', this selection includes 'The Death of the Lion', 'The Figure in the Carpet', and 'The Birthplace'. All four stories concern the figure of the artist and the cult of celebrity. This new edition includes extracts from James's Prefaces and Notebooks that shed light on the genesis of the stories....