The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare | James, Henry
James, Henry(1843–1916), American novelist and essayist. James directly refers to Shakespeare in memoirs, letters, prefaces, notebooks, and criticism; and indirectly, as a ‘precedent’, through novels such as The Portrait of a Lady (1881), The Princess Casamassima (1886), and The Tragic Muse (1890). Between 1873 and 1896 he reviewed eleven productions of Shakespeare, and The Birthplace (1903) reflects on the life of the artist, through the caretakers of a Shakespeare shrine in Stratford. James admired the works for ‘realist’ rather than ‘symbolist’ qualities, but in 1903 expressed scepticism of either Shakespeare's (or indeed Bacon's) actual authorship of the plays.
Tom Matheson
[The entire page is 108 words long]
Join eNotes
The above is a free excerpt. Get total access to this content with the:
