The Rumpus Mini-Interview #141: Tara Isabella Burton
“I want to make a case for the serious, literary legitimacy of the female experience of self-construction.”
...more
Posts Tagged: henry james
The Rumpus Mini-Interview Project #122: Nathan Hill
“Write what you want to write, he said, and let other people deal with taxonomies.”
...more
That Monster Is Right There: Talking with Colin Winnette
Colin Winnette discusses his new novel, The Job of the Wasp, the nature of horror and his approach to writing it, and the fear at the heart of the book.
...more
The Old Fetal Narrative
Maybe it has something to do with the watery world that a fetus inhabits—our words taking on the summersaulting quality of an internal water ballet.
...moreStylistically Tortuous
If you can grope your way through late James, you’ll find you have moved out of the Victorian era into the modern and, beyond that, into what we have come to refer to as the postmodern. Over at the Smart Set, Paula Marantz Cohen makes the argument that the difficult, late-period Henry James was “too […]
...moreWomen Writers Lost and Found
Henry James found in the stories of Constance Fenimore Woolson “a remarkable minuteness of observation and tenderness of feeling on the part of one who evidently did not glance and pass, but lingered and analyzed.” There’s a roll call of rediscovered and canonical women writers at Salon. From Clarice Lispector and Lucia Berlin, to Zora Neale […]
...more
The Rumpus Interview with Jessa Crispin
Jessa Crispin talks about The Dead Ladies Project and The Creative Tarot, founding Bookslut, why she has an antagonistic relationship with the publishing industry, and her estrangement from modern feminism.
...moreThe British and American Henry James
The memorial in Chelsea Old Church tactfully describes him as “a resident of this parish who renounced a cherished citizenship to give his allegiance to England in the first year of the Great War”—the “cherished” insisting from the grave that James had been a good American. The Paris Review marks the hundredth anniversary of Henry James’s […]
...more
The Sunday Rumpus Essay: How To Make Sure Your Writing Is Forgotten
Do you really want to have to listen from the grave as students discuss your themes and scholars analyze your syntax and trace your influence?
...more
The Rumpus Interview with Garth Greenwell
Garth Greenwell discusses his debut novel, What Belongs to You, crossing boundaries, language as defense, and the queer tradition of novel writing that blurs boundaries between fiction and essay and autobiography.
...moreThe Aesthetic Sentence
At Open Letters Monthly, Rohan Maitzen discusses the language of Henry James and the cost of a writer’s search for linguistic, aesthetic perfection: …what he interprets as a sign of progress feels to me, as the reader I am, like a loss, a decline. There’s something claustrophobic about this highly-crafted prose that never rushes, that’s […]
...more
HORN! REVIEWS: The Turn of the Screw
HORN! brings us an illustrated review of Henry James’s Turn of the Screw.
...more
A Brief History of Pandering
Erasing women writers like Woolson carries immense implications. It creates an environment ripe for the continued marginalization and silencing of women’s voices today.
...more
The Sunday Rumpus Interview: Kevin Oderman
Traveling abroad, of course, the world insists, asks, Where are you from?
...more
Against Realism
What is it Ferrante has that American fiction lacks?
...more
The Saturday Rumpus Review: Güeros
It’s a literal confrontation of his metaphorical fear, a visual take on Rilke’s words: to view Güeros is to see a “thing poem” on the screen, to witness something like “The Panther” materialize.
...moreJoseph Conrad’s Thank-You Note to Henry James
Clothed in the wonderful garment of your prose, they have stood, consoling, by my side under many skies,” Conrad wrote. “I trust that you will consent, by accepting this copy, to augment the precious burden of my gratitude. UT Austin’s Ransom Center released Project REVEAL, digitizing 25 of its manuscript collections. Pull up a chair […]
...more150 Years of Drum-Taps
“Mr. Whitman,” [Henry James] harrumphed, “is very fond of blowing his own trumpet.” The Boston Globe celebrates Walt Whitman’s Drum-Taps, which turned 150 this month, and discusses how when it was first published, not everyone thought it was worth celebrating.
...moreBefore There Was Facebook, There Was Oscar Wilde with a Yellow Handkerchief
In January 1882, before he wrote “The Importance of Being Earnest, The Picture of Dorian Gray, or any of the great works for which we honor him today,” Oscar Wilde went on a tour throughout the United States, lecturing about interior decorating, craft-making, and home aesthetics. In Washington, Henry James, always envious of the young […]
...moreHenry James & The Great YA Debate
Responding to the ongoing debate about whether or not American literature is saturated with young adult fiction (and if adults should read these novels), Christopher Beha, in the New Yorker, addresses A.O. Scott’s recent essay in the New York Times Magazine. While Scott dismisses Henry James and Edith Wharton as “outliers,” Beha refutes this point, […]
...moreThe 50 Scariest Books Of All Time!
Just in time for Halloween, Flavorwire has compiled a list of the 50 scariest books of all time (with cover art)! The list includes the requisite additions of Stephen King and Richard Matheson, but also literary masters like Margaret Atwood and Henry James!
...more
You Might Never Find Your Way Back: Shirley Jackson’s Hangsaman
There are other odd, improbable, tenuous connections, as if Hangsaman had a secret way of speaking to (or through) other artifacts beyond its time.
...moreHappy Birthday, Henry James!
Happy birthday to Henry James! He pioneered modern fiction techniques with novels like The Portrait of a Lady and The Ambassadors—and of course The Turn of the Screw remains an exemplar of the psychological thriller genre. You can read many of his books, which are now in the public domain, for free here.
...moreSimple Madness or Something Else?
Today is the day for ghost stories. At The New Yorker, Brad Leithauser analyzes Henry James’s “The Turn of the Screw,” focusing on the distinction still being puzzled out by readers and scholars alike: were the ghosts real, or was the unnamed governess real crazy? This is the sort of question that keeps stories, ghost […]
...moreNotable New York, This Week 11/29 – 12/5
This week in New York Colm Tólbín brings Henry James to us, Furnace Press Decomposes, Jonathan Franzen returns home, Sex workers share their family tales, Myla Goldberg gets crafty, Classic cocktails, classic film, Comic and Graphics Fest goes to church, poetry touches on wartime, and Free in ART.
...moreThe Victorian MFA Debate
The next time you get into a debate over the value of a creative writing MFA, try this handy visualization exercise: imagine that everyone involved is wearing a monocle.
...moreThe Rumpus Sunday Book Blog Roundup
Whoops! MacMillian is in trouble with The World Bank for offering bribes to Sudanese officials in exchange for textbook contracts. (via Bookninja) “35 essential posthuman novels.” (via Largehearted Boy) On that note, this is what happens when musicians read sci-fi. Apparently, Henry James thought historical fiction was “fatally cheap.” Austin Ratner has some choice words, […]
...more