Person

Henry James

Henry James was an American-British writer and a master of the psychological novel, turning social encounters, quiet tension, and unspoken motives into subtle investigations of the human mind. In The Portrait of a Lady, Washington Square, and The Turn of the Screw, he wrote with extraordinary precision about characters caught between desire, morality, money, and social expectation. His work includes novels, novellas, short stories, literary criticism, travel writing, plays, and a vast correspondence. Although he was born in America, James spent much of his adult life in Europe and eventually became a British citizen. That life between two worlds gave him one of his richest themes: the charged meeting of American openness with European experience, elegance, and hidden rules.