Nicholas Clifford (1930-2019)
The Vicar of Tours
Over twenty years before Anthony Trollope wrote The Warden, in which the gentle but unfortunate Rev. Septimus Harding becomes the prey of an…
The Siege of London
In this work, first published in 1883, James once again writes of an American trying to settle in England. The woman at the center, however,…
The Lesson of the Master
A promising young writer meets an older man whose works have inspired him, as well as a highly intelligent and attractive young woman, at a …
A Little Swiss Sojourn
A charming brief account of a two months' autumnal stay on the shores of the Lake of Geneva. Howells, who was there with his family travelin…
The Last of the Valerii
An unnamed American painter resident in Rome serves as narrator in this story, watching as his god-daughter Martha, becomes the wife of Prin…
The Papers
Today the world is awash with “celebrities” whose only accomplishment is being celebrated by the media in all its various forms. Henry James…
Peccavi
How does a man who as committed a heavy sin — not a crime, but a sin with terrible consequences — atone for his behaviour? What if the man i…
Another Study of Woman
A series of tales -- told by men, of course -- about women. Though the book first appeared in 1842, Balzac later added to it as an addenfum …
Sir Edmund Orme
Henry James wrote a number of ghost stories -- The Turn of the Screw being the most famous. Did he believe in ghosts himself, as did many of…
The Birthplace
Neither the name of Shakespeare nor that of Stratford appears directly in this short piece by James, and yet both are absolutely central to …
Frederic the Great
Macaulay's review essay on Frederick the Great of Prussia is found in vol. iii of his Critical and Historical Essays, and concentrates prima…
Coningsby, or The New Generation
Coningsby is the first of trilogy of political novels that Disraeli published in the 1840s, and gives an insight into his views of the polit…
Lord Clive
Robert Clive was, in Macaulay’s view, the real founder of British power in India. Macaulay himself served on the Governor’s Council in India…
Seven Men
In order to liven up the literary history of Great Britain in the 1890s (as if Oscar Wilde, Stevenson, Kipling, Hardy, etc., were not lively…
Warren Hastings
"Warren Hastings" is Chapter IV of Thomas Macaulay's Critical and Historical Essays, vol. III. It first appeared in the Edinburgh …
La Grande Bretèche
La Grande Bretèche is an addendum to Balzac's Another Study of Woman, and is the final of a set of stories told around a dinner table…