![]() First edition | |
Author | Henry James |
---|---|
Language | English |
Publisher | Macmillan and Co., London |
Publication date | 22 October 1886 |
Publication place | United Kingdom |
Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
Pages | Volume one, 252; volume two, 257; volume three, 242 |
The Princess Casamassima is a novel by Henry James, first published as a serial in The Atlantic Monthly in 1885 and 1886 and then as a book in 1886. It is the story of an intelligent but confused young London bookbinder, Hyacinth Robinson, who becomes involved in radical politics and a terrorist assassination plot. The book is unusual in the Jamesian canon for dealing with such a violent political subject. But it is often paired with another novel published by James in the same year, The Bostonians , which is also concerned with political issues, though in a much less tragic manner.
Amanda Pynsent, an impoverished seamstress, has adopted Hyacinth Robinson, the illegitimate son of her old friend Florentine Vivier, a French woman of less than sterling repute, and an English lord. Florentine had stabbed her lover to death several years ago, and Pinnie (as Miss Pynsent is nicknamed) takes Hyacinth to see her as she lies dying at Millbank prison. Hyacinth eventually learns that the dying woman is his mother and that she murdered his father.
Many years pass. Hyacinth, now a young man and a skilled bookbinder, meets revolutionary Paul Muniment and gets involved in radical politics. Hyacinth also has a coarse but lively girlfriend, Millicent Henning, and one night they go to the theatre. There Hyacinth meets the radiantly beautiful Princess Casamassima (Christina Light, from James' earlier novel, Roderick Hudson ).
The Princess has become a revolutionary herself and now lives apart from her dull husband. Meanwhile, Hyacinth has committed himself to carrying out a terrorist assassination, though the exact time and place have not yet been specified to him. Hyacinth visits the Princess at her country home and tells her about his parents. When he returns to London, Hyacinth finds Pinnie dying. He comforts her in her final days, then travels to France and Italy on his small inheritance.
This trip completes Hyacinth's conversion to a love for the sinful but beautiful world, and away from violent revolution. Still, he does not attempt to escape his vow to carry out the assassination. But when the order comes, he turns the gun on himself instead of its intended victim.
At first glance, the novel seems very different from James' usual work because of its concentration on radical politics and less-than-wealthy characters. But the novel also explores themes familiar from James' other works. Just as in The Bostonians , which was published in the same year, the novel concerns a group with a specific purpose- in this case, anarchists- who aim to make use of a talented but naïve individual. In the same way that The Bostonians revolves around various characters attempting to win the loyalty of Verena Tarrant, so too does The Princess Casamassima focus on Hyacinth Robinson, and his involvement in complex politics. [3]
Hyacinth finds himself in a difficult position, torn between the differing claims of elite culture and of socio-political justice for the poor, claims that he associates with his aristocratic father and his impoverished mother. He is attracted to the beauty of the world, but can't enjoy it completely because he sees how it is purchased at the cost of so much human suffering. The aristocracy is portrayed as corrupt, artificial, and extravagant; the anarchists, meanwhile, are ineffectual or power-hungry. Such hesitations and divided loyalties are common among James' perceptive central characters. [4]
The novel shows a broad panorama of European life at all levels, and the many supporting characters are presented with a generous helping of humour in a story which shows the influence of Dickens and Thackeray from James' early reading. [4]
The Guardian 's review, published in 1887, noted that The Princess Casamassima kept to the promise of Roderick Hudson, which James's other novels had not met. The review praised James's characterisation of Hyacinth's friends and comrades, but nonetheless found that James "does not understand" the English, with the result that his characters are "rather extremely clever attempts and conjectures than real life studies." The review concluded: "there is a great deal of interest in the book, interest which is not lessened by the fact that its catastrophe is quite unexpected, or rather is one which most readers are likely not to expect, exactly because it is so obvious." [5]
A vampiric incarnation of Christina Light features prominently in Kim Newman's Anno Dracula series. She appears alongside Paul Muniment in Anno Dracula 1895: Seven Days of Mayhem (2017), where she is a member of an anarchist council taken from G.K. Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thursday . She also features as a major character in Anno Dracula 1899: One Thousand Monsters (2017), where she is one of several vampires seeking sanctuary in Japan, and as a supporting antagonist in Anno Dracula 1999: Daikaiju (2019). [6] Kim Newman has referred to this series of novels as 'the Christina Light trilogy'. [7]
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 son of Henry James Sr. and the brother of philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James.
Kim James Newman is an English journalist, film critic and fiction writer. He is interested in film history and horror fiction—both of which he attributes to seeing Tod Browning's Dracula at the age of eleven—and alternative history. He has won the Bram Stoker Award, the International Horror Guild Award and the BSFA award.
The Anno Dracula series by Kim Newman—named after Anno Dracula, the series' first novel—is a work of fantasy depicting an alternate history in which the heroes of Bram Stoker's novel Dracula fail to stop Count Dracula's conquest of Britain, resulting in a world where vampires are common and increasingly dominant in society. While Dracula is a central figure in the events of the series, he is a minor character in the books and usually appears in only a few climactic pages of each book. While many of the characters from Newman's Diogenes Club stories appear in the Anno Dracula novels, they are not the same as the ones in those stories, nor is the Diogenes Club itself the same.
Pentonville is an area in North London, located in the London Borough of Islington. It is located 1.75 miles (2.82 km) north-northeast of Charing Cross on the Inner Ring Road. Pentonville developed in the northwestern edge of the ancient parish of Clerkenwell on the New Road. It is named after Henry Penton, the developer of the area.
The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare is a 1908 novel by G. K. Chesterton. The book has been described as a metaphysical thriller.
The Portrait of a Lady is a novel by Henry James, first published as a serial in The Atlantic Monthly and Macmillan's Magazine in 1880–81 and then as a book in 1881. It is one of James's most popular novels and is regarded by critics as one of his finest.
Wilhelmina "Mina" Harker is a fictional character and the main female character in Bram Stoker's 1897 Gothic horror novel Dracula.
Vampire films have been a staple in world cinema since the era of silent films, so much so that the depiction of vampires in popular culture is strongly based upon their depiction in films throughout the years. The most popular cinematic adaptation of vampire fiction has been from Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula, with over 170 versions to date. Running a distant second are adaptations of the 1872 novel Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu. By 2005, the Dracula character had been the subject of more films than any other fictional character except Sherlock Holmes.
Roderick Hudson is a novel by Henry James. Originally published between January and December 1875 as a serial in The Atlantic Monthly, it is a bildungsroman that traces the development of the title character, a sculptor.
The Bostonians is a novel by Henry James, first published as a serial in The Century Magazine in 1885–1886 and then as a book in 1886. This bittersweet tragicomedy centres on an odd triangle of characters: Basil Ransom, a political conservative from Mississippi; Olive Chancellor, Ransom's cousin and a Boston feminist; and Verena Tarrant, a pretty, young protégée of Olive's in the feminist movement. The storyline concerns the struggle between Ransom and Olive for Verena's allegiance and affection, though the novel also includes a wide panorama of political activists, newspaper people, and quirky eccentrics.
Watch and Ward is a short novel by Henry James, first published as a serial in The Atlantic Monthly in 1871 and later as a book in 1878. This was James' first novel, though he virtually disowned the book later in life. James later called Roderick Hudson (1875) his first novel instead of Watch and Ward.
The Reverberator is a short novel by Henry James, first published as a serial in Macmillan's Magazine in 1888, and then as a book later the same year. Described by a web authority on Henry James as "a delightful Parisian bonbon," the comedy traces the complications that result when nasty but true stories about a Paris family get into the American scandal sheet of the novel's title.
Negus is a drink made of wine, often port, mixed with hot water, oranges or lemons, spices and sugar.
Arthur "Art" Holmwood is a fictional character in Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula.
The New York Edition of Henry James' fiction was a 24-volume collection of the Anglo-American writer's novels, novellas and short stories, originally published in the U.S. and the UK between 1907 and 1909, with a photogravure frontispiece for each volume by Alvin Langdon Coburn. Two more volumes containing James' unfinished novels, The Ivory Tower and The Sense of the Past, were issued in 1917 in a format consistent with the original set. The entire collection was republished during the 1960s by Charles Scribner's Sons. The official title of the set was The Novels and Tales of Henry James, though the more informal title was suggested by James himself and appears as a subtitle on the series title page in each volume. It has been used almost exclusively by subsequent commentators.
Anno Dracula: The Bloody Red Baron, or simply The Bloody Red Baron, is a 1995 alternate history/horror novel by British author Kim Newman. It is the second book in the Anno Dracula series and takes place during the Great War, 30 years after the first novel.
Anno Dracula is a 1992 novel by British writer Kim Newman, the first in the Anno Dracula series. It is an alternate history using 19th-century English historical settings and personalities, along with characters from popular fiction.
Anno Dracula: Dracula Cha Cha Cha is an alternate history/horror novel by British writer Kim Newman. First published in 1998 by Carroll & Graf, it is the third book in the Anno Dracula series.
Hyacinth is a variant form of the given name Hyacinthe. The name is derived from a Greek word meaning the blue larkspur flower or the colour purple.
This is a list of the works of Henry James, an American writer who spent the bulk of his career in Britain.