The stories here at our disposal, biographically considered,Show James deploying certain purely external facts of his personal and family story, and at the,same time projecting his deepest apprehensions and most vital priyate concerns. In the leisurely opening of Daisy Miller, for example, the young American dilettante Winterboume is said to be spending a good deal of time in the Swiss city of Geneva because, in part, he "had an old attachment for the little mea'opolis of Calvinism; he had been put to school there as a boy.”So Henry James had been, going to school in Geneva in 1859--60, at the close-of a long stay by the whole family. The Jameses had come over in 1855,when Henry was twelve, the very age at which Winter-bourne had been brought to Europe, and about the same age(Winterbourne reflects) as the bumptious child Randolph Miller,whom Winterbourne encounters in the hotel at Vevey.

To read a story by Henry James is to enter a world - a rich, perfectly crafted domain of vivid language and splendid, complex characters. Devious children, sparring lovers,capricious American girls, obtuse bachelors,sibyllinespinsters and charming Europeans populate these five fascinating nouvelles - works which represent the author in both his early and late phases. From the apparitions of evil that haunt the governess in THE TURN OF THE SCREW to the startling self-scrutiny of an egotistical man in THE BEAST IN THE JUNGLE, the mysterious turnings of human behavior are skillfully and coolly observed - proving Henry James to be a master of psychological insight as well as one of the finest stylists of modern English literature.

INTRODUCTION by R. W. B. Lewis

THE TURN OFTHE SCREW

WASHING'TON SQUARE

DAISY MILLER: A STUDY

THE BEAST IN THE/UNGLE

THE JOLLY CORNER