даниель дефо биография

1. Biography

2. Childhood & Early Life
Career
Major Works
Awards & Achievements
Personal Life & Legacy

3. Henry James was born on 15 April 1843 in
New York City, United States, to Mary
Walsh and Henry James, Sr. His father, a
lecturer and philosopher, was an intelligent
man with intellectual interests. Henry had
three brothers and one sister.

4. He was exposed to scientific and
philosophical influences from a young age.
Accompanied by his family, he travelled
widely, visiting London, Paris, Geneva,
Boulogne-sur-Mer and Newport, Rhode
Island. Henry received his education
primarily from tutors and briefly attended a
few schools while the family traveled in
Europe.

5. The family returned to New Port in 1860.
During this time Henry became friends with
painter John La Farge, who introduced him
to French literature, especially to the works
of Balzac.

6. He decided to become a lawyer and
enrolled at the Harvard Law School when
he was 19. However it did not take him
long to realize that his true interest lay in
literature and not law. Instead of focusing
on his studies, he spent his time reading
Balzac, Henrik Ibsen, Charles Dickens,
and Nathaniel Hawthorne.

7. Who was his father ?
How many brothers did he have ?
What places did Henry visit and travel ?
Which painter did he make friends ?
Why did he change his profession ?

8. Henry James never married. Some
sources state that he was once in love with
his cousin Mary Temple who died from
tuberculosis.
After living in Britain for several years, he
became a naturalized English citizen in
1915. He died on 28 February, 1916, in
Chelsea, London.

9. Henry James began his literary career
writing articles, book reviews and short
stories. His first short story appeared
anonymously in the ‘New York Continental
Monthly’ and his first book reviews in the
‘North American Review’ when he was in
his early twenties.

10. Soon he established himself as one of the
most skillful writers of short stories in
America. He then left America and lived for
a time in Paris, France before moving to
London, England in 1876. He continued
his prolific writing, publishing literary
pieces such as ‘The American’ (1877),
‘The Europeans’ (1878), a revision of
‘Watch and Ward’ (1878), ‘French Poets
and Novelists’ (1878), and ‘Hawthorne’
(1879).

11. In 1881, he published his novel ‘The
Portrait of a Lady’, which was first
published as a serial in ‘The Atlantic
Monthly’ and ‘Macmillan's Magazine’. The
plot revolves around a spirited young
American woman, Isabel Archer who
inherits a large amount of money and
subsequently becomes the victim of
scheming by two American expatriates. It
is regarded by critics as one of his finest
works.

12. He wrote two novels on social reformers
and revolutionaries in the 1880s. ‘The
Bostonians’ (1886) is a bittersweet
tragicomedy dealing with political activists
and the feminist movement while ‘The
Princess Casamassima’, also published in
1886, is the story of a bookbinder who
becomes involved in radical politics and a
terrorist assassination plot.

13. James was also a noted literary critic and
a playwright. In 1891 he converted his
novel ‘The American’ into a play which
enjoyed moderate success. He also wrote
several other plays, most of which went
unproduced. He could not achieve much
success as a playwright and this fact
greatly disappointed him even though he
was a famed novelist.

14. His career reached its peak at the
beginning of the 20th century. In 1902, he
published the novel ‘The Wings of the
Dove’ which is about the story of Milly
Theale, an American heiress stricken with
a serious disease. The book was followed
by ‘The Ambassadors’ (1903), and ‘The
Golden Bowl’ (1904). All the three of these
novels received intense critical study.

15. How Henry began his literary career ?
What novel did he publish in 1881 ?
What did Henry talk about in the novel
‘The Wings of the Dove’ ?
Who is Milly Theale ?

16. His novel, ‘The American’, originally
published as a serial in ‘The Atlantic
Monthly’ focused on the adventures and
misadventures of Christopher Newman, an
American businessman on his first tour of
Europe. The novel was also made into a
successful play.

17. Henry James’ best known work is ‘The
Portrait of a Lady’, the story of a spirited
young American woman, Isabel Archer
who inherits a large amount of money and
falls victim to two scheming American
expatriates. The novel explores themes of
personal freedom, responsibility, and
betrayal.

18. Another one of his most popular works is
‘Daisy Miller’, a novella which portrays the
courtship of the beautiful American girl
Daisy Miller by Winterbourne, a
sophisticated man. The work which serves
as a psychological description of the mind
of a young woman contains many
symbolisms and allegories.

19. What is the best known work of Henry
James ? what themes explored in it ?

20. Thrice during his career Henry James was
nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature
(1911, 1912, and 1916).
He was awarded the Order of Merit in
1916.

21. How many times has he won the Nobel
prize ?