This collection of short stories written before James was twenty-five, originally appeared in American magazines, but was never before printed in book form in the United States. Unlike his later works, they have a simplicity of style and detailed characterization. In A Landscape Painter (1866), set in New England, Henry James, of all people, urges economy through a brusque comment by the story's twenty-three-year-old writer-hero: "When people have to economize with the dollars and cents, they have a right to be splendid in their feelings." Poor Richard (1867) is the tale of a stay-at-home lover during the Civil War. He is gallingly jealous of his love object's other suitors wearing the uniform and the glamor of war, and the feebleness of his courtship turns to strength only as the young woman, herself, becomes weakened by illness. In The Story of a Year a noncombatant in the same war later dies a hero's death, while in A Most Extraordinary Case (1868), a man dies of love and leaves a legacy to his successful rival.
