詹姆斯(1843～1916年)

James, Henry

美国出生的英国小说家。出身纽约市一个显赫家庭，哥哥是威廉.詹姆斯，受私人教育。童年开始就经常到欧洲旅游。作品的基本主题是新大陆的乡土气和旺盛生机同旧世界的腐败和精明之间的冲突。《黛西.米勒》（1879）使他获得国际声誉，接着相继出版《欧洲人》（1879）、《华盛顿广场》（1880）、《贵妇的画像》（1881）。《波士顿人》（1886）和《卡萨玛西玛公主》（1886）的主题是社会改革者和革命家。在《波音顿的珍藏品》（1897）、《梅西所知道的》（1897）和《碧庐冤孽》（1898）这些小说中，他开始运用复杂的道德和暧昧的心理手法。《鸽翼》（1902）、《奉使记》（1903）和《金碗》（1904）是他晚年写的最後几部伟大小说。在《虚构小说的艺术》评论中可看出他对小说灌注了十分的热情，把它当作一种艺术形式；他还为自己所有的选集作品以及多部文学评论写序。他的主要技巧革新也许是把焦点聚集在中心人物的个人意识，反映出他感受到那个时代大众和集体价值的衰微。

English version：

1843～1916年

James, Henry

U.S.-British novelist. Born in New York City to a distinguished family, the brother of William James, he was privately educated. He traveled frequently to Europe from childhood on; after 1876 he lived primarily in England. His fundamental theme was to be the innocence and exuberance of the New World in conflict with the corruption and wisdom of the Old. Daisy Miller (1879) won him international renown; it was followed by The Europeans (1879), Washington Square (1880), and The Portrait of a Lady (1881). In The Bostonians (1886) and The Princess Casamassima (1886), his subjects were social reformers and revolutionaries. In The Spoils of Poynton (1897), What Maisie Knew (1897), and The Turn of the Screw (1898), he made use of complex moral and psychological ambiguity. The Wings of the Dove (1902), The Ambassadors (1903), and The Golden Bowl (1904) were his great final novels. His intense concern with the novel as an art form is reflected in the essay The Art of Fiction (1884), his prefaces to the volumes of his collected works, and his many literary essays. Perhaps his chief technical innovation was his strong focus on the individual consciousness of his central characters, which reflected his sense of the decline of public and collective values in his time.

参考文章

• 詹姆斯岛及附近区域建筑与名胜