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Some Short Stories

Henry James

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Some Short Stories | Henry James

Some Short Stories

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Collection of short stories by Henry James
friend lodged in a short sordid street in Marylebone, one of those corners of London that wear the last expression of sickly meanness. The room into which I was shown was above the small establishment of a dyer and cleaner who had inflated kid gloves and discoloured shawls in his shop-front. There was a great deal of grimy infant life up and down the place, and there was a hot moist smell within, as of the "boiling" of dirty linen. Brooksmith sat with a blanket over his legs at a clean little window where, from behind stiff bluish-white curtains, he could look across at a huckster's and a tinsmith's and a small greasy public-house. He had passed through an illness and was convalescent, and his mother, as well as his aunt, was in attendance on him. I liked the nearer relative, who was bland and intensely humble, but I had my doubts of the remoter, whom I connected perhaps unjustly with the opposite public-house—she seemed somehow greasy with the same grease—and whose furtive eye followed every movement of my hand as to see if it weren't going into my pocket. It didn't take this direction—I couldn't, unsolicited, put myself at that sort of ease with Brooksmith. Several times the door of the room opened and mysterious old women peeped in and shuffled back again. I don't know who they were; poor Brooksmith seemed encompassed with vague prying beery females.

He was vague himself, and evidently weak, and much embarrassed, and not an allusion was made between us to Mansfield Street. The vision of the salon of which he had been an ornament hovered before me however, by contrast, sufficiently. He assured me he was really getting better, and his mother remarked that he would come round if he could only get his spirits up. The aunt echoed this opinion, and I became more sure that in her own case she knew where to go for such a purpose. I'm afraid I was rather weak with my old friend, for I neglected the opportunity, so ex

Vern 03/21/2022
Difficult sentence structure or writing style, I don't know which, but I had a tough time following the plot.
Maddy 03/18/2022
I haven't made it through a lot of Henry James before (I read part of Washington Square and then left it on a bus!) so these were an education. I'm not sure I always get the subtle commentary but I appreciate the look into the nooks and crannies of the British class system.

Brooksmith - a servant get
Steve 10/23/2021
This collection from the early 1920s was my first experience of James. I found his writing to be social, not natural; nuanced rather than active and almost pictorial as opposed to being narrative. In addition, he is at times frustratingly obtuse. The actual point of what his characters are trying to
Samye88 12/19/2017
Breathtakingly good! Every single story unique and intriguing, albeit of another time (people today might find it hard to get a grip on). I'm struck most by the last story 'Mrs Medwin', of how an American 'placing agent' Miss Cutter is at work, her power of discerning the 'real need' from various pe
Börkur 10/08/2016
I liked Henry James' short stories very much. Had I been born a century earlier I am sure I would have liked them even more.
susan 12/24/2015
Melodrama in James is sordid in a very instrumentalist way; there is nothing overly redemptive or sickly touching about the characters. It is the atmosphere that is the result, the outcome, the end of the situation, and the action unfolding is mere fleshing out of character. My favorites from this c
Chazzi 02/19/2015
While reading "Dust" by Martha Grimes, Henry James' house and works were woven into the plot line. Knowing it is considered a classic author, I thought I'd give it a go and read something by him. I have read classic lit authors and enjoyed them, Trollope, Dickens, Joyce, Maugham and others and expec
Bre 02/07/2015
Nice book, good solid stories. Sad, interesting, and attention-holding. Sometimes the dialogue is too vague for me, I have felt that in other Henry James books, although I like Henry James and persist in reading through his stuff.

I read this book while reading short stories by D.H. Lawrence at the

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