Reading The Sacred Fount is a lot of work but a worthwhile endeavor for the veteran James reader. The short novel stands out among James' work for its use of a first-person narrator (this is unique among James' novels) and, loosely, the structure and lingo of a detective story. James' narrator goes

3.5⭐ Un'opera veramente ardua da leggere, qui James va aprendosi a forme più moderne di romanzo, con uno stile (volutamente?) elusivo e frustrante. Un senso di ambiguità latente in cui il dialogo sottaciuto conta più di quello esplicito.

James is a brilliant writer that doesn't quite know when to stop, take a look back, and try to piece together all the elements of his narration into a cohesive whole. I enjoyed reading this book, I have not read anything of the sort before, but at times I was completely befuddled by its narrative. W

This novel is the perfect pointlessness. I can give it no greater praise, and I thank those who conspired to get me into it. I hope I have given it a new lease of life to outlast me. Even if I got it all wrong. Reviewer and Narrator alike.

The detailed review of this book posted elsewhere in the past

More of an interesting examination into James’s style as a precursor to literary modernism than a typical Jamesian tale. I find it oddly pleasing that from beginning to end...nothing much happens.

For my money, the best late James, exploring the liminal space between his late tales and his late novels. Discursive, elusive, perverse, obtuse, opaque, unlimited.

Read it in conversation with Bataille and Daniel Paul Schreber for a great time wrestling with the violence of epistemology, or somethi

I'm not sure whether I was supposed to find this book funny and delightful or not, but I did. The plot of the novel is a bit hard to figure. Its narrator is a leisured society man who notices some unexpected changes in a few of the guests on a weekend social engagement: a dull, middle-aged bachelor

A cent'anni dalla morte di Henry James (morì nel 1916), nel 2016 Neri Pozza riedita questo romanzo.
Ritorno a leggere James dopo molto tempo e quello che provo è una sensazione di straniamento, come se non fossi riuscita a capirlo fino in fondo.
La fonte sacra gioca sul non detto, sulle illazioni, s

This turn-of-the-century novel by James is a surprising throwback to the kind of story he is best known for today: an ambiguous tale told by an unreliable narrator a la _The Turn of the Screw_. The basic idea, that couples come more and more to resemble each other the longer they are associated, is

The key to "The Sacred Fount" is to remember that Henry James loved a good ghost story. An unreliable-seeming narrator describing a supernatural occurrence that, in the end, nobody else has actually seen, with a rather ambiguous conclusion, is much more "The Turn of the Screw" then, say, "What Maisi