The Other House

by Henry James, Louis Begley (Introduction)

Overview

This terse and startling novel, written just before The Spoils of Poynton and What Maisie Knew,is the story of a struggle for possession—and of its devastating consequences. Three women seek to secure the affections of one man, while he, in turn, tries to satisfy them all. But in the middle of this contest of wills stands his unwitting and vulnerable young daughter. The savage conclusion of The Other House makes it one of the most disturbing and memorable of Henry James's depictions of the uncontrollable passions that lie beneath the polished veneer of civilized life.

Oh blest Other House, which gives me thus at every step a precedent, a divine little light to walk by... —Henry James

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780940322325
Publisher:	New York Review Books
Publication date:	09/30/1999
Series:	NYRB Classics Series , #12
Pages:	340
Sales rank:	424,431
Product dimensions:	4.96(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Henry James (1843–1916), the younger brother of the psychologist William James and one of the greatest of American writers, was born in New York but lived for most of his life in England. Among the best known of his many stories and novels are The Portrait of a Lady, The Turn of the Screw, and The Wings of the Dove. In addition to The New York Stories of Henry James, New York Review Classics has published several long-unavailable James novels: The Other House, The Outcry, andThe Ivory Tower.

Louis Begley is a novelist and retired lawyer. He has written eight novels, including Wartime Lies, About Schmidt, andMatters of Honor, which was published in 2007. He is a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres of France and served as the president of PEN American Center from 1993 to 1995. He lives in New York with his wife, Anka Muhlstein, an historian of France.

Date of Birth:

April 15, 1843

Date of Death:

February 28, 1916

Place of Birth:

New York, New York

Place of Death:

London, England

Education:

Attended school in France and Switzerland; Harvard Law School, 1862-63

Editorial Reviews

"The Other House is the story of a brutal crime, and its violence is not duplicated in any of Henry James’s other works…[It] takes place in broad British daylight, and the passions which explode in it with such force are acted out on disciplined lawns between stately British houses, deriving their well—founded security from a banking fortune. The Other House is intensely British in its motives and emotions; and its intensity derives precisely from the fact that when the calm is broken, and the conflict…is engaged the contrast is as of a violent rush of air into a place of quiet…" —Leon Edel

"The Other House contains some of the most harrowing, compressed, and ambiguous scenes James ever wrote." —Threepenny Review

"Played out on the tidy lawns between two aristocratic houses, the staid Eastmead and the boisterous Bounds, a desperately tangled love-scrimmage spirals into a crime of unspeakable brutality, with a deeply unsettling climax. Readers left puzzled by the murky pychosexual terror of James’s The Turn of The Screw should give this passionate melodrama a try." —Library Journal

From the Publisher

Davidson carefully and subtly chronicles the inhumanity of murder in an understated reading that hints rather than declares, which seems perfect for this psychological study.”

Booklist

The Other House is intensely British in its motives and emotions; and its intensity derives precisely from the fact that when the calm is broken, and the conflict…is engaged, the contrast is as of a violent rush of air into a place of quiet.”

Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award–winni Leon Edel

The Other House contains some of the most harrowing, compressed, and ambiguous scenes James ever wrote.”

Threepenny Review