Henry James, The Jolly Corner

Hazel McNair Hutchison (University of Leeds)

Ed. by Neil Cornwell, University of Bristol
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.3: American (US) Writing and Culture: The Early Twentieth-century , 1900-1945.
Vol. editors: J. Michael Duvall (College of Charleston), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Tony Papanikolas (San Jose State University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1908

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United States (Country of Origin)

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Story

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James conceived the story of “The Jolly Corner” during his extended visit to America of 1904-5. Returning to his home country for the first time in over twenty years, James was overwhelmed by the speed and extent of the changes that had taken place in his absence. He notes in

The American Scene

(1907) that the New York of his childhood had been so “violently overpainted” with new tenements and skyscrapers that the city skyline now resembled “some colossal hair-comb turned upward and … deprived of half its teeth”. James saw social as well as material change. Industrialisation and immigration had transformed the demographics of the Eastern Seaboard, and had problematised the concept of an American national identity. In “The Jolly Corner”, published in the

English Review

in…

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1003 words

Citation: Hutchison, Hazel McNair. "The Jolly Corner". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 04 February 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=20113, accessed 21 November 2024.]

Henry James, The Jolly Corner

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