The Novels and Bruise off Henry James, New York Edition

Last edition of works of Henry James, realized by the author himself between 1905 and 1909.

New York Edition

Concerned of its artistic posterity, Henry James conceived the project of an edition of its works, news and novels. Benefitting from its stay to the the United States in 1903, it developed this project with the editions Scribner.

It considered a selective edition right from the start (in particular, the " scenes américaines" were put aside: the novels The Europeans , Washington Public garden and The Bostonians , as well as the majority of the American news do not appear in it).

It wished to entitle this edition “ New York Edition ” in order to “ to explicitly connect the unit to my natale city; ”.

This “ New York Edition ” was to be made up of 23 volumes (just like complete works of Balzac that James admired) and was organized not in the chronological order, but by topics and subjects. Actually, in front of the big number of news, the Éditions Scribner were obliged to add a twenty-fourth volume and James, irritated, wrote in a long letter “ the happy unit is - I see it well - dérangé ”.

More than one simple meeting, James took again all his old texts and modified appreciably them, in particular The Portrait off has Lady .

Between 1906 and 1908, it wrote eighteen forewords which detail at the same time the genesis of works and its own literary theories.

Published between December 1907 and 1909, this edition was increased, after the death of the author, of two new volumes containing respectively The Ivory Tower and The Sense off the Past .

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