Culture and Conduct in the Novels of Henry James
Author: Alwyn Berland
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 1981-04-02
Total Pages: 250
ISBN-13: 0521233437
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAnalyzing Henry James' conception of civilization as culture and the relationship of this conception to his major works, Berland argues that James brought to his fiction the moral commitment that characterized a Puritan New England and a dedication to the aesthetic culture he found in England and in Europe. He concludes that these commitments provide James with his major themes, characters and fictional techniques and the two immutable Jamesian laws : Europe is better than America, but Americans are better than Europeans.