Henry James, The Sense of the Past

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 1917

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

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The Sense of the Past

was left uncompleted at James’s death in 1916. However, by then he had been working on the project in fits and starts over nearly two decades. He began work on the text in 1899, with the intention of writing a tale of some 50,000 words for Doubleday. However, as with

The Sacred Fount,

which James was writing at the same time, it quickly became obvious that the idea for the tale would outgrow the original word limit. He also found the time-travel theme of

The Sense of the Past

difficult to handle, and he put the text aside in August 1900 before he had completed Book Three. At this point he diverted his attention to plans for two new novels, these being

The Ambassadors

(1903)

and

The Wings of the Dove

(1902). James did not return to the project until 1914, after…

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2336 words

Citation: Hutchison, Hazel McNair. "The Sense of the Past". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 10 November 2006 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=7692, accessed 21 November 2024.]

Henry James, The Sense of the Past

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