Henry James

A Passionate Pilgrim Henry James

- This version of A Passionate Pilgrim includes a biography of the author Henry James at the end of the book
- This includes life before and after the release of the book First published in two installments in The Atlantic Monthly (1871), A Passionate Pilgrim is the earliest production of his imagination which James included in his collected works. It is not only a successfully realized tale, but it is thoroughly representative, containing what would later be considered frequent Jamesian themes: the innocence heart of the American, the calculating mind of the European, and how they appreciate-and exploit-the beauties of the European world. In this story, naive American Clement Searle, middle-aged but already in declining health, is convinced by the narrator-a recent acquaintance-to tour Lackley, the English estate he had once hoped might be his, but whose claim upon it has been rejected as insufficiently strong. Once there he meets his charming cousin, Miss Searle, and a tender friendship arises. But her brother Richard considers Clement nothing but a fortune hunter. To avoid further conflict, Clement and his friend depart for Oxford. But the saga of Clement Searle and Lackley is not yet done.