The Jolly Corner

Henry James (1843-1916) is among the most prominent turn-of-the-century writers, spanning literary schools (American and British) and eras (Realism and Modernism). Born to a family of intellectuals in New York, James spent time in various European countries growing up, and his literary influences included French writers like Honoré de Balzac as well as Americans like Nathaniel Hawthorne. James finally settled in England in 1875 and became a British citizen in 1915, and his works contain many notable characters who are expatriates like himself; critics have described James’s writing as “trans-Atlantic.” Many of James’s works, “The Jolly Corner” included, center on characters attempting to navigate the differences between the “young” nation of America and the “old” societies of Europe. This tension informs Spencer Brydon’s dissatisfaction with the industrialization of New York, which Alice Staverton is better able to embrace because she is less tied to any notion of “traditionalism.” “The Jolly Corner” also fits within James’s catalog of ghost stories. His most notable work in this genre is The Turn of the Screw, which also features a haunted family home.

Although James is best known as the novelist who penned works such as The Portrait of a Lady and The Ambassadors, he began his career as a writer of short stories and never fully abandoned the form.