Editing Henry James (section)

===Middle years, 1884–1897===

In 1884, James made another visit to Paris, where he met again with Zola, Daudet, and Goncourt. He had been following the careers of the French "realist" or "naturalist" writers, and was increasingly influenced by them.<ref name="harvp|Powers|1970|p=17"/> In 1886, he published ''[[The Bostonians]]'' and ''[[The Princess Casamassima]]'', both influenced by the French writers that he had studied assiduously. Critical reaction and sales were poor. He wrote to Howells that the books had hurt his career rather than helped because they had "reduced the desire, and demand, for my productions to zero".<ref>Edel 1955, p. 55.</ref> During this time, he became friends with [[Robert Louis Stevenson]], [[John Singer Sargent]], [[Edmund Gosse]], [[George du Maurier]], [[Paul Bourget]], and [[Constance Fenimore Woolson]]. His third novel from the 1880s was ''[[The Tragic Muse]]''. Although he was following the precepts of Zola in his novels of the '80s, their tone and attitude are closer to the fiction of Alphonse Daudet.<ref>{{harvp|Powers|1970|p=19}}</ref> The lack of critical and financial success for his novels during this period led him to try writing for the theatre;<ref>{{harvp|Powers|1970|p=20}}</ref> His dramatic works and his experiences with theatre are discussed below.

In the last quarter of 1889, "for pure and copious lucre,"<ref>Letter to [[Grace Norton]], 22 Septembre 1890. Quoted in E. Harden, ''A Henry James Chronology'', p. 85.</ref> he started translating ''Port Tarascon'', the third volume of Daudet's adventures of [[Tartarin|Tartarin of Tarascon]]. Serialized in ''[[Harper's Magazine|Harper's Monthly]]'' from June 1890, this translation – praised as "clever" by ''[[The Spectator]]''<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=jkg9AQAAIAAJ&lpg=PA147 Port Tarascon], ''Literary supplement to The Spectator'', n°3266, 31 January 1891, p. 147.</ref> – was published in January 1891 by [[Sampson Low|Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington]].

After the stage failure of ''[[Guy Domville]]'' in 1895, James was near despair and thoughts of death plagued him.<ref>{{harvp|Powers|1970|p=28}}</ref> His depression was compounded by the deaths of those closest to him, including his sister Alice in 1892; his friend [[Wolcott Balestier]] in 1891; and Stevenson and Fenimore Woolson in 1894. The sudden death of Fenimore Woolson in January 1894, and the speculations of suicide surrounding her death, were particularly painful for him.<ref name="Woolson">{{cite book| title=Henry James Letters Vol. 3: 1883–1895| author=Leon Edel| publisher=The Belknap Press of Harvard University| year=1980| page=xvii–xviii}}</ref> Leon Edel wrote that the reverberations from Fenimore Woolson's death were such that "we can read a strong element of guilt and bewilderment in his letters, and, even more, in those extraordinary tales of the next half-dozen years, "[[The Altar of the Dead]]" and "[[The Beast in the Jungle]]".<ref name="Woolson"/>

The years spent on dramatic works were not entirely a loss. As he moved into the last phase of his career, he found ways to adapt dramatic techniques into the novel form. In the late 1880s and throughout the 1890s, James made several trips through Europe. He spent a long stay in Italy in 1887. In 1888, he published the short novel ''[[The Aspern Papers]]'' and ''[[The Reverberator]]''.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Henry James |date=2002 |publisher=Chelsea House Publishers |isbn=978-0-7910-6352-1 |editor-last=Bloom |editor-first=Harold |series=Bloom's major novelists |location=Broomall, PA |pages=108}}</ref>