The Outcry

James, Henry, 1843-1916Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.3

Word count: 312K words
Chapters: 32

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Outcry by Henry JamesAuthor: James, Henry, 1843-1916,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Jun 29, 2007

Editor's review

The Outcry is a social comedy from Henry James's late period, built around the ownership and appraisal of a celebrated painting that draws in an aristocratic English family's financial troubles, the speculative instincts of the art market, and the amplifying force of the press. With his characteristic fine-grained psychological portraiture and restrained irony, James peels back layer after layer of the delicate interplay between auction, collecting, and family respectability; dialogue is full of hidden barbs, and the plot advances through a weave of information and misunderstanding, giving the book a strongly dramatic feel. It is not long by James's standards, yet its language continues the elaborate, circuitous style of his late phase and asks a certain patience with syntax from English-language readers. As a public-domain e-book, it serves well as an introduction to James's late style and to Edwardian art-collecting culture, and is also suitable for the study of dramatic adaptation and as course reading in English and American literature. It may best be read as a drawing-room comedy, with attention to how the characters negotiate among money, taste, and face.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Students and scholars of English and American literature who need to understand Henry James's late style
Readers interested in Edwardian English society, art collecting, and auction culture
Literary readers who enjoy psychological realism and restrained irony
Advanced readers of English originals eager to take on late-Jamesian long sentences
Researchers of stage or screen adaptation looking for drawing-room comedy material

Not a good fit for

Readers of popular fiction who prefer fast plots and plain narration
Readers still at an elementary level in English who find complex long sentences hard to follow
Readers expecting detailed art-historical scholarship or a practical guide to auctions

Reading tips

Read through once to grasp the auction storyline, then return to the dialogue to savor its subtext and irony.
While reading, map out the characters' relationships and financial dealings; this reduces confusion caused by long sentences and roundabout narration.
Read alongside background material on Henry James's late work to understand his style of dialogue and psychological description.
For course use, select the auction and family-conference scenes for dramatic reading or adaptation exercises.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book suitable for non-native English readers to read directly in the original?

It is something of a challenge. James's late sentences are long and full of subordinate clauses, and the dialogue is understated; non-native readers with upper-intermediate to advanced reading skills can attempt it. It is advisable to first learn the plot outline and character relationships, then read chapter by chapter, breaking long sentences into their main clauses rather than trying to master everything at once.

Is The Outcry a tragedy or a comedy?

On the whole it leans toward social comedy. The story revolves around the ownership of a famous painting and the family's finances, with characters maneuvering among respectability, interest, and feeling; James handles the conflicts with restrained irony, and the ending carries a comic sense of reconciliation, though its observations on money and taste remain critical.

What is special about this edition?

This is the public-domain e-book edition provided by Project Gutenberg, in English, classified under American and Canadian literature. It is free and easy to obtain and search, but it generally contains no modern scholarly notes, introduction, or detailed background material; readers who want deeper understanding may consult an annotated scholarly edition for comparison.

Do I need to know about art auctions before reading?

No specialist knowledge is required. The novel touches on connoisseurship and auctions, but its focus is on psychology and social relationships, with the art market merely as background. A general sense of collecting and auction concepts is enough to enter the story; readers interested in the Edwardian art market can look up background material separately for a fuller understanding.

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About the author

James, Henry, 1843-1916 Author

Henry James (1843–1916) was a novelist born in the United States who later became a British citizen, known for his psychological realism. He advances his narratives through his characters' consciousness and moral dilemmas, in a delicate, restrained style with carefully crafted sentences, often using limited points of view to leave meaningful gaps. His works frequently explore themes such as the collision between European and American cultures, marriage and freedom, and innocence versus worldly sophistication. The collection holds 81 of his works, including the two-volume The Portrait of a Lady, The Ambassadors, The Wings of the Dove, The Golden Bowl, The Beast in the Jungle, and the novella The Turn of the Screw. These works range from novels to novellas and show his fine, detailed portrayal of inner life across different lengths. Public information is limited, so biographical details are omitted, but these works alone reveal his important place in the tradition of psychological narrative in English literature.