Editing Henry James (section)

===Major novels===
The first period of James's fiction, usually considered to have culminated in ''[[The Portrait of a Lady]]'', concentrated on the contrast between Europe and America. The style of these novels is generally straightforward and, though personally characteristic, well within the norms of 19th-century fiction. ''[[Roderick Hudson]]'' (1875) is a [[Künstlerroman]] that traces the development of the title character, an extremely talented sculptor. Although the book shows some signs of immaturity—this was James's first serious attempt at a full-length novel—it has attracted favourable comment due to the vivid realisation of the three major characters: Roderick Hudson, superbly gifted but unstable and unreliable; Rowland Mallet, Roderick's limited but much more mature friend and patron; and Christina Light, one of James's most enchanting and maddening [[femme fatale|femmes fatales]]. The pair of Hudson and Mallet has been seen as representing the two sides of James's own nature: the wildly imaginative artist and the brooding conscientious mentor.<ref>Kraft (1969) p. 68.</ref>

In ''The Portrait of a Lady'' (1881), James concluded the first phase of his career with a novel that remains his most popular piece of long fiction. The story is of a spirited young American woman, Isabel Archer, who "affronts her destiny" and finds it overwhelming. She inherits a large amount of money and subsequently becomes the victim of Machiavellian scheming by two American expatriates. The narrative is set mainly in Europe, especially in England and Italy. Generally regarded as the masterpiece of his early phase, ''The Portrait of a Lady'' is described as a [[psychological fiction|psychological novel]], exploring the minds of his characters, and almost a work of social science, exploring the differences between Europeans and Americans, the old and the new worlds.<ref>Brownstein (2004)</ref>

The second period of James's career, which extends from the publication of ''[[The Portrait of a Lady]]'' through the end of the 19th century, features less popular novels, including ''[[The Princess Casamassima]]'', published serially in ''The Atlantic Monthly'' in 1885–1886, and ''[[The Bostonians]]'', published serially in ''[[The Century Magazine|The Century]]'' during the same period. This period also featured James's celebrated Gothic novella, ''[[The Turn of the Screw]]'' (1898).

The third period of James's career reached its most significant achievement in three novels published just around the start of the 20th century: ''[[The Wings of the Dove]]'' (1902), ''[[The Ambassadors]]'' (1903), and ''[[The Golden Bowl]]'' (1904). Critic [[F. O. Matthiessen]] called this "trilogy" James's major phase, and these novels have certainly received intense critical study. The second-written of the books, ''The Wings of the Dove'', was the first published because it was not serialised.<ref>Hazel Hutchison, ''Brief Lives: Henry James''. London: Hesperus Press, 2012: "The elegiac tone of the novel did not appeal to periodical editors, and the novel went straight into book form in 1902, ahead of ''The Ambassadors'', which ran in the ''North American Review'' from January to December 1903 and was published as a book later that same year." Retrieved 1 December 2017.</ref> This novel tells the story of Milly Theale, an American [[inheritance|heiress]] stricken with a serious disease, and her impact on the people around her. Some of these people befriend Milly with honourable motives, while others are more self-interested. James stated in his autobiographical books that Milly was based on Minny Temple, his beloved cousin, who died at an early age of tuberculosis. He said that he attempted in the novel to wrap her memory in the "beauty and dignity of art".<ref>Posnock (1987) p. 114</ref>